One Week To Go And.....
 

Wow, what a difference 8 weeks makes in the outlook of a season. Here is what I want to see from 2017:

1. I think that the first half of the season is already pretty much loss. No Ryan Kelly, no Vontae Davis, Luck returning from injury and regaining playing form, no Clayton Geathers, picking up defensive backs off the street corner, unknown offensive RT, lingering injury to Moncrief, Hankins, Bostic, etc, etc.

2. Lots of new defensive starters who have not had time (due to injury) to gel. Understand that it takes time playing together to get good and understand that our defense is going to be....uhhhh, defenseless.....in the first half of the season.

3. With #1 and #2 in mind, DO NOT RETURN ANY PLAYER TO THE LINEUP UNLESS 110%!!!! Don't rush back anyone. Wait until completely healed AND in shape to return so that we can see what we got in the second half of the season.

4. Even down studs (Luck, Kelly, Davis, Moncrief), we can probably win 2 or 3 of our first 8 games against LAR, CLE and JAX. Let the O-Line gel and the defense gel.

5. Lets then see if we can return all of our starters and start peaking in the second half of the season and win 6 or 7 of them and possibly be viable to win the AFC South if either HOU or TEN have not run away with it by then.

6. 2017 has become a rebuilding year. We all sort of knew it would be but have gotten excited by some of the signings (mostly Hankins) and draftees (mostly Hooker). But it is still rebuilding.

Anyway, I am grealty lowering expectations for the 1st half of the season in how many games we win.

As a bonus, if we lose too many, Clappy McWoodchopper might be fired before mid-season.

Walk Worthy,

We aren't going anywhere with pagano anyway

Give Marlon Mack 15 touches a game.

I want to see competent coaching, guess I'll have to wait until next season when we have a new coach. Hopefully Andrew Luck doesn't get broken this season.

The problem with aiming for a healthy 2nd half of the season when all those guys come back is, by that time, there will undoubtedly be other just as important guys injured. That's just how the NFL goes.

With all the guys hurt already, I'm afraid it's just going to be an injury plagued season.

Although Vontae, Luck and Kelly are probably the 3 most important guys.

It's not as bad as it seems

watch us go 2-0 with Tolzien

The big concern is how many pieces Luck will be broken into by the time the other starters return. It's going to be brutal, playing from behind, rushers with their ears pinned back.

I have a sinking feeling Luck stays on PUP through Saturday and by rule he will be out six weeks.

Part of me suspects this because otherwise we would have had some more optimism or at least a bit more information from the front office about it.

I think you may be right!

This team is pretty bad. At this point I'm revising my pre-season estimate down from 7 wins to 5. It looks like Luck will be out longer and they're just too banged up at the top of the roster to win games in September.

I'm doing that, too. Six wins, Chuck sacked.

I'm holding tight at 7 until Saturday 4pm. If Luck isn't taken off PUP I will revise it down. I'm really hoping this bizarre approach to communicating his status is a misguided attempt at gamesmanship. Oh and Chuckie gets sacked.

Pagano coached a mediocre team to the AFC Championship game.

i wouldn't exactly call it that.

they got there. i dont think it had to do with pagano's coaching

When you get to the playoffs, wins, especially against superior opponents, are almost entirely about coaching.

...including the thorough embarrassment two years in a row to the pats in the playoffs

it was coaching that got us getting blown out in kc

it was Luck that got us back in it.

I think Luck will play by week 2, but even with that, 6 wins is optimistic. The team is terrible and that is largely on pagano who can't seem to teach them how to play at the NFL, and can't gameplan for an opponent.

They will still win 10-11 games y'all are trippin

8 max. I will revise it if Luck plays well in week 3.

What exactly is better about this years team than the last 2'years 8 win teams?

Serious question. Because from where I sit, there is NOTHING better about this years team and quite a bit that is worse.

The only things I see better for the Colts this year than last is the running game overall with Mack should be better and the D is creating more turnovers, seems to be more creative to get more pressure on the QB.

Other than that, nothing.

I think it has POTENTIAL for the secondary to be better with Hooker and Wilson, Farley and Davis once they are all healthy and adjusted to the NFL game and the D, but that isn't likely to be mid season at the earliest.

The O-line is worse with Ryan injured

QB is much worse until Luck is back

I see no improvement in the LBers, just new faces, same story

The special teams is worse without McAfee

The WRs don't matter much until Luck is back

The DL as well, no better than last year.

1) Andrew Luck should be healthier.
2) If Mewhort can play, the OL should be improved over the 2015 squad.
3) Marlon Mack brings a big play potential to RB.
4) Al Woods is a far better NT than David Parry.
5) Ditto Jonathan Hankins at DT.
6) John Simon looks like a legit pass rusher at OLB.
7) Hooker brings the kind of big play potential to the position that we haven't seen since Bob Sanders was suiting up.
8) Quincy Wilson is certainly better than, either Greg Toler or Jalil Brown.
9) 2015's OL depth chart listed Gosder Cherilus, Hugh Thornton and Khaled Holmes as starters.
10) The DL was Zach Kerr, Josh Chapman, and Arthur Jones.

Someone is optimistic

They won't give Mack enough carries to make a difference. And the turnovers won't be sustainable.

This team is destined for a losing season.

I hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm not.

I had no idea that optimistic was in your vocabulary ... :cool:

The defense has got to be better, the Offense has always been able to score

Has anybody looked at the schedule?

This team can go 3-0 without Luck

The defense is better overall if only because they're not nearly as old and slow.

that is yet to be seen

pass rush could be worse. the secondary could be worse. the lbers could be worse

LB corps went from worst in the league by a large margin to average-slightly below average, that's a huge upgrade. Secondary is younger, faster, and has more playmaking ability. John Simon appears to be a better pass rusher than anything this team had last year. And the DL, which you didn't mention, gets a fully healthy Henry Anderson along with upgrades in talent at the other positions. I can't see a way this defense could be worse than last year's unit.

you are projecting. you have no idea how these players will play. younger and faster doesn't mean better. they may make way more mistakes and not capitalize on opportunities. you have seen simon play for the colts in the preseason. calm down spanky

i didn't mention the dline because i think they should be solid.

Have you ever had the dream where you signed up for a course but for
some reason forgot about it and never attended a session and now you're
in a seat while the papers for the final exam are being Passed? That's how
I feel about the Colts right now. There not ready, not close. They haven't
done the things they need to do.
If I were cynical I would call Ballard a Machivellian who did just enough
to push the team forward but left enough slack to hang the incompetent
coach. Whatever it is it's a clown show right now.

We've seen this show before people, Lucks rookie year Grigson came in here and revamped the roster cutting the entire defense basically, and here we go again except Luck isn't a rookie for this go round

I'm not saying they'll be a top 5 defense, just better than last year's unit. It's not a very high bar to clear, and with the talent upgrades on defense, should be easily achievable.

I think they're marginally better than last year. Still bottom 3rd of the league.

Where is the pass rush? Do they really have four guys that can cover long enough to give the rush enough time? Are the ILBs any good? How good can we expect guys like Hooker and Wilson to be as rookies?

I admire your optimism. Wish I could have a tenth of it with this group and coaching staff.

The offense with Tolzien at the helm is going to be anemic.

The LB corps still looks awful. Have they set an edge the entire preseason? If they have, it must have been on accident.

Vontae out is going to hurt. The rookies in the secondary are going to make a lot of mistakes until they get experience.

The O-line still looks shaky at best... very shaky with Kelly out.

It's going to be ugly until the key guys get healthy.

Jesus Christ, help us.

This season is going to get ugly early and often.

God I hope I'm wrong but it looks like 3rd in the AFC South... being optimistic.

I sincerly hope Luck survives the season, that will be as much a win as I see in this mess, well that and Pagano being fired.