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Technical director: Frank Reich. Let’s take a quick look at the Colts’ two seasons with Reich. He got the gig because the guy the Colts originally wanted, Josh McDaniels, was rescued at the last minute, like the way Chip Matthews confronted Rachel on prom night. friends. It was then that Reich entered as Ross rocking his tuxedo to save the day. And I realize this analogy is not perfect because Chip finally shows up and takes Rachel to the prom on the show. But Ross finally marries her, so that’s it.
Still, Reich had an amazing first year with the Colts. It led them to a 10-6 record, good for second place in AFC South. They won a playoff game, and everything looked amazing. Then you came in last August thinking Andrew Luck was going to take your team to the next level (we’ve covered what happened to Luck earlier in this article – you don’t need to repeat it again). Finally, 2019 was not a great year for the Colts. It seemed like one of those situations where everything that could go wrong went wrong. Almost as if there were forces of nature working against you or something like that. Take that young lady from Adam Vinatieri that I mentioned earlier, for example. What was that on behalf of Mike Vanderjagt? I’m a fan of the Bears. I know how to kick. That was something else. When a guy like Vinatieri, one of the most decorated kickers in NFL history, misses a kick like that in the clutch, he wouldn’t have blamed the Colts if they had walked away from the table and said they were done. season.
However, let’s talk about the positives. Despite everything that was going wrong (and seriously, I can’t help but see that missed field goal), the team still went 7-9. That was pretty incredible. Now the future looks bright once again. General manager Chris Ballard did another impressive job in the draft. I would conclude that the 2018 version of the Colts is more indicative of what the Colts are going to see this season. And you have the boy we will talk about next …
The quarterback: Philip Rivers. Listen, Brissett acted admirably in a pretty difficult situation last year. But you can’t blame the Colts for wanting to bring in one of the best in the business to give him one last run before you somehow end up with Trevor Lawrence next year.
Yes, he was a big fan of the Colts’ decision to sign Rivers this offseason. I love what the reverse of Johnny Unitas looks like leaving the Colts to end his career with the Chargers, though Rivers has more juice than Unitas had for that final season in San Diego. Still, Rivers had 4,615 passing yards last year, which was great. But he had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of almost 1: 1 (23:20). That is a level of competition almost like Jameis Winston. And believe me, I had to live with the emotional highs and lows of the Chargers because my wife is a fan (maybe not so much now that Rivers is leaving). And if you’ve seen a Chargers game, you’ve basically seen them all. It’s like looking NCIS when you have the bad guy out, like, five minutes. But then they spend 30 minutes trying to convince you that it’s something other boy. Then in the end you find out, no, he was the type you suspected all along. In the case of the Chargers, they will make you believe that they are going to win a game, and somehow they will find a way to lose it. And normally the blame fell on Rivers, who would be sent there with one minute left to win, playing behind a shaky offensive line, so he has to resort to throwing YOLO balls to rescue his team.
But part of that code is already fixed in Indianapolis. The Chargers’ offensive line has been lacking for years (and re-read my entry in the Chargers for this series to see how I feel about them getting a good offensive line after Rivers left). They were never the same after Nick Hardwick left. That won’t be a problem for the Colts, who have one of the best offensive lines in the league. In fact, they could have the best offensive lineman in the league …
