Stampede Blue
No one, and I mean absolutely no one, realistically thought the Indianapolis Colts would be this good outside of anyone directly employed at their W. 56th Street complex or with some really Horseshoe blue tinted glasses.
This isn’t just a good team that may sneak into an AFC wild card game anymore, with the right breaks down the season’s stretch, but sitting at 6-1 and atop the AFC, they’re now a bonafide Super Bowl contender.
As CBS analyst and future NFL Hall of Famer J.J. Watt eloquently put it on the telecast, “Everyone’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. Let me tell you, that shoe ain’t dropping.”
Watt reiterated that the Colts “have no weaknesses” right now.
While there is assuredly work to be done, potentially in a depleted Colts cornerback room and for a stalling edge rush outside 2nd-year pass rusher Laiatu Latu—as next month’s NFL trade deadline rapidly approaches, one doesn’t have to make much of a leap of faith at all to believe that this looks and feels like a legitimate AFC contender—*health permitting for the remainder of the season.
This elite NFL offense continues to put on a clinic week-after-week and looks incredibly difficult to stop—as every bit of a well-oiled, prolific scoring and efficient machine:
We always knew that Colts head coach Shane Steichen was a gifted offensive play-caller and one of the better young offensive minds in the league—even after last season’s collective disappointment.
Everything that he seems to call is going great right now, and he may lead the league in consistently scheming receivers wide open through his astute play-calling so far this season. He’s been on a heater.
It’s not just that he’s calling great plays though, the Colts players are also executing them close to perfection.
He’s been in complete lock step with new Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, and when this head coach-quarterback pairing isn’t attending Butler basketball games together on a Friday night, they’re breaking opposing defenses and their coordinators collective spirits out on football fields fresh come Sunday afternoons.
Jones has so far mastered the offense, showing exceptional pre-snap recognition, poise, progression, accuracy, and an ability to extend plays under pressure. He’s looked like the former franchise quarterback that New York Giants fans thought they had when they selected him with the 6th overall pick back in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Fortunately, the Colts don’t have to decide anytime soon and can let the regular season play out for a larger sample size to reference, but he looks like he’ll be the eventual recipient of a lucrative, multi-year contract extension, presumably similar to the one that now successful former first round reclamation quarterback Sam Darnold just received with the Seattle Seahawks this past offseason.
It’s not just Steichen and Jones though.
That would be selling everyone else collectively short, and there’s a lot of collective praise to go around.
It’s superstar workhorse Johnathan Taylor, who leads the league in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns, and looks like the...
