Silver And Black Pride
September wasn’t kind to the Las Vegas Raiders, getting off to a slow 1-3 start to the 2025 NFL season. So, the Raiders can’t afford any more missteps, which heightens the stakes for the Week 5 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts. To preview the game for Raider Nation, Chris Shepherd from our friends at Stampede Blue was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Colts.
Q: Daniel Jones has gone from being run out of New York to leading the Colts to a 3-1 start, which could easily have been 4-0 had it not been for Adonai Mitchell’s miscue last week. What’s been the difference between Danny Dimes with the Giants and at the beginning of this season? Also, how surprised is the fanbase at his play so far?
A: Daniel Jones has benefited greatly from having a complete team around him. The Colts’ offensive line has yet to look great, but they’re better than average and they’re far and away the best line Jones has ever played behind. Then you go to his receivers and the Colts have three legitimately solid starters in Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce and Josh Downs.
While I’m not ready to forgive Ad Mitchell for erasing not one but two touchdowns last week, Mitchell wouldn’t have been in position to botch a celebration by fumbling a football out of the back of the endzone had he not made an absolutely insane catch, spun out of contact and then won a 76-yard foot race to the end zone. So while Mitchell had the very rare honor of actually being the entire reason an NFL team lost a game, he is wildly talented. And we haven’t even talked about what rookie tight end Tyler Warren brings to the offense in a multitude of ways.
Then, when you combine all of that with the offense Shane Steichen has designed around his players, the answers he’s giving Jones and the confidence he’s allowed him to play with, it starts to make a lot of sense why Jones is having this much success.
And that’s not to take away from Jones himself. His effort outside of practice and the games was the reason he won the starting job to begin with. He has total control of the offense, and it’s obvious he has put in a ton of work to know the system as well as he does just four games into his first year with the team.
And how surprised are fans? Unless you’re speaking to the boldest of liars, no one thought this was coming. Not one single soul. Plenty of people thought he would be better than Anthony Richardson, but no one thought this would happen.
**Q: Jonathan Taylor currently leads the NFL in rushing yards with 414 and is averaging 5.4 yards per carry. The latter is only 0.1 ypc less than his season average in 2021, when he was the rushing champ with 1,811 yards. How would you compare his performance during...
