The only explanation for Hunt that I can think of is that he got to football late and just needed time to develop. I think I remember reading that he was on a track scholarship, but the school cancelled the track program. So he switched to football. If you think of a normal football player's important development time, they get peewee+ junior high (whatever that's worth), 4 years in HS, 3-5 years in college. So maybe 7-11 years. If he only started playing football in 2009, that's 9 years.

So despite his age (31) he has still had less total football development time than some rookies. You can fudge that a little and say that he still competed in athletics. Obviously if he was able to make the football team at SMU with zero experience, he was already an elite athlete.

That said, in terms of football development you could make the case that he's roughly in the same spot as a standard NFL player in his 3rd - 5th NFL season.

Why so pessimistic on this? Hunt I can't explain, but the rest of the defense is young and should only get better.

Hughes was also a 1st level talent that earned it at TCU.

Basham, well, didn’t.

o


The statistics may illustrate and allege that they are average, but my own lying eyes and instincts tell me that the Colts' defense is above average.

But in relation to Omaha's assertion, I am very curious to see if this can last over a longer period of time (at least 9 or 10 games and/or the entire 2018 season and beyond.)


o

Depth. We don't have it. The DL depth has shown to be decent. But the LB depth is nonexistent. We are ok at safety and have 4 decent CB's playing.

If Hunt, Woods or Leonard go down, this defense changes in a hurry.

Yep, it is troubling.

I get what you're saying - but isn't that true of most teams? I'd venture to say that if any team loses one or more star players to injuries, they'd have a hard time replacing them and getting anywhere near the same production.

As always, I keep my fingers crossed against injuries, but otherwise I'm a believer.

I'm half way there as far a believing goes. I'm scarred by to many years of crappy defense to make me a real believer in 3 games. Lets run thru about 8 games and see if we can keep this up. Not worried about depth. Like Chaka says, nobody has the depth to lose their two best defensive players and not have it hurt bad. The future sure looks a hell of a lot better than it did even 6 months ago. One more draft like this last one and we will be knocking on the door. I am concerned about Luck though. Expected rust and hope that Reich is protecting Luck while the line gets healthy and learns to work together. Ill be holding my breath until they let it rip. If Luck can get back to his old self, I believe we are on track to be a force in the next few years

3rd down percentage on D they are a bit lower than the rest, ranked 20th at about 40%

Still not horrible.

Was trying to find red zone stats, can't track them down. Not sure why ESPN or NFL.com doesn't have those

I disagree about the depth....

DL, we picked up two guys after the cuts in Jihad Ward and Muhammad Al-Quadin, who have seen a lot of action and have done ok. It is not as if Sheard is pulling up trees, he was ok the last two weeks, but was bad in the first outing, with people shouting for him to get off the team! Kemeko Turay has shown a few flashes, so could well develop as the season goes along. Hopefully we get Tyquan Lewis at some point.

LB's, i think that Zaire Franklin, Najee Goode, Anthony Walker are all of a similar standing. If we lost Leonard then yeah that is going to be hard to replace that production.

Safeties, we have 3 guys in a solid rotation as it is, with Hooker, Geathers and Fairley.

CB's, have been using 4 regularly, Moore, Wilson, Hairston and Desir.

The real backend depth, so the guys off the practice squad who would be promoted up might be lacking somewhat, but as has been said before, that's the same for everyone.