Stampede Blue
According to ESPN’s Mike Clay, Aaron Schatz, and Seth Walder, the Indianapolis Colts have the league’s 20th best roster overall, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for either winning the division or returning to the playoffs (although yes, it’s only an arbitrary ranking, and all thirty-two teams will still have to prove it on the field throughout the upcoming 2026 campaign):
Biggest strength: Running back. Jonathan Taylor is one of the league’s best backs and is fresh off a terrific 2025 campaign in which he led the NFL in carries and touchdowns while also finishing in the top three in touches and rushing yardage. Once a minimal part of the Colts’ passing game, Taylor also ranked in the top 10 among backs in routes, targets, catches and receiving yards, setting career highs in each. This all happened despite a big dip in production when quarterback Daniel Jones suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Week 14. — Clay
Biggest weakness: Off-ball linebacker. The Colts weren’t as aggressive as expected in upgrading their linebacker room on a defense that ranked 30th in pass rush win rate (29.1%) and 25th in run stop win rate (29.2%) last season. Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt departed, and the team replaced them with journeyman Akeem Davis-Gaither and rookies CJ Allen (second round) and Bryce Boettcher (fourth). Davis-Gaither has worked as a situational player during most of his six NFL seasons, but he and the rookies will battle for every-down work in 2026. — Clay
X factor for 2026: Jones. In the first eight weeks of last season, Jones was playing well. He was second in QBR, second in yards per dropback, fourth in turnover rate, sixth in completion percentage over expected (per Next Gen Stats) and third in sack rate. He was buoyed by a strong running game, but those are great numbers. His efficiency dropped over the rest of his season, as he played with a fibula injury before tearing his Achilles in early December. There’s also Jones’ history, which is nowhere near as strong as what he showed in the first half of 2025. Which version of Jones will the Colts get coming off the injury? That will mean everything to their 2026 prospects. — Walder
Nonstarter to know: CB Justin Walley. Chosen with the 80th pick in the 2025 draft, Walley turned a lot of heads at Colts training camp, then promptly tore his ACL during a joint practice with the Ravens. He was an outside corner in college, but he’ll compete with Mekhi Blackmon for the starting slot corner role, in part due to a lack of length. Walley is good at reading receivers and deflecting passes and was eighth in the FBS with 12 passes defensed in 2024. — Schatz
To me, the Colts are a good football team, especially if they can get some of their banged up starters healthy for next year, which includes both re-signed starting quarterback...
