Ask-A-Colts Fan

he’s exactly where he needs to be – getting acclimated to playing at the professional level. He’s shown some of his athleticism and for me, hasn’t had whiffs nor has he had ZOMG!! plays. I expect he’ll get some playing time against the Texans, but likely very little unless the game is well out of hand either way.

I don’t expect him to play much at the start of the season only if Freeney or Mathis are injured, but I wouldn’t be surprise to see him get more snaps during the middle and towards the end of the season especially if the Colts are resting Freeney.

But personally, I thought he was kind of disappointing to start off with, but the last couple games he’s really started to turn it on. A number of us have been going off the “Freeney Curve,” where it should take Hughes about half the season to get into the swing of things, then start showing what he’s really about. In that case he is doing splendidly.

With Freeney getting to be more suceptible to injuries (despite how quickly he heals), I’d look for about a third of the defensive snaps to feature him. Honestly, a couple of tackles and a pressure would be good for his first game. If he gets a sack either he is doing amazingly well, or something is wrong with your O-line.

and are probably a little better than last season. I’m kind of worried about Fili Moala’s DUI this past week and the ramification it may have on him playing this year.

The rotation of Muir and Johnson starting with Moala and M.King should be stable. Don’t look for them to provide much help in the pass rush, but they can hold the line acceptably. My biggest worry is the gap formed by Freeney and Mathis charging the corner and the middle.

In terms of taking advantage… No. Freeney/Mathis/Foster/Hughes are going to pin the pass rush down quite nicely, and we’ve got Session and Sanders to sniff out the run. Any “weakness,” with the DTs will be negated.

I would appreciate some. Thanks in advance.

Our starting line will likely be Johnson/Pollak/Saturday/DeVan/Diem…

Now, you’ll recognize that because it is effectively the same line we had last year. We tried to bring in guys who are bigger and stouter against the run (McClendon/Terry/Marinelli/etc) but McClendon (2010-4th round pick) was injured for quite a bit, Terry at tackle is still injured from last season and other like J.Thomas, Marinelli, Martinez simply were bad (with Thomas getting injured as well).

The change will only be permanent if we can actually find some healthy linemen who are good against the run and pass rush. As it is, if we can field the starting O-line stated above we’ll be happy simply because that line has not played together for a month or more. We’d like to see an improvement in our O-line for rushing, but for right now I’d personally just take a healthy O-line so Manning can have more than 2 seconds to use our 7 or 8 receiving targets to their full potential.

there’s no evidence right now that the Colts are implementing a FB in the offense. There was some speculation that Brody Eldridge would fill that role when he was drafted, but he’s only being used as an in-line TE with the occasional pass catching.

1. the o-line
2. the lack of depth in the secondary
3. the linebackers corps

1. the o-line
2. the o-line
3. the o-line

1) Health of the offensive line: CJ, Saturday, McClendon, Thomas, Terry, DeVan were all injured from our pre-season offensive line. Of those 6, 3 are starters and 1 is a (hopefully) future starter. The injuries weren’t massively serious, but still troubling for me personally. Last year when we had so many injuries to the secondary, we had really surprising backups… At Offensive Line, our backups for the most part are dog meat and only there because we need backups, not because we actually want THEM.

2) Prospect of improving the offensive line in the near future: We seriously tried to bring in new guys to improve the offensive line and we still have the same line we did last year. Unless Polian can dig up some gold, its unlikely that we’ll have any radical improvements in the offensive line in the next couple seasons.

3) The policy of clinging to vets who got beat in the preseason over the young guys who beat them: Case in Point, Gijon Robinson was kept over Colin Cloherty even though Cloherty was the better receiver, and better STer. Another was Keyunta Dawson over John Chick. We also axed Blair White and Sam Giguere who both did exceedingly well in TC and in preseason. We also kept J.Thomas on the O-line even though he played poorly. We dropped a ton of guys who had very strong showings for guys who didn’t do nearly as well. This isn’t a major season ending problem, but it could be harmful if some of these guys get picked up by other teams.

much less 1,000.

2. Defensive backfield depth.
3. Passive coaching.

Last year’s pre-game thread (for the first game) was one of the best threads in the history of the internets. As was the AJ vs Wayne thread.

and if he wasn’t playing, I would a total nervous wreck.

and I have no confidence in a backup center.

since I believe he’ll see more time at the slot. Gonzo and Garcon is most likely be switching out at the 2nd receiver spot, plus Gonzo will be used all over the field.

2, Dallas Clark
3. Anthony Gonzalez
4. Pierre Garcon
5. Austin Collie
6. Joseph Addai
7. Brody Eldridge

Wayne and Clark are fixtures, Addai will be the lead back, then the remaining two spots will be a rotating cast of Garçon, Collie, Gonzo and Eldridge depending on how they want to attack the opposing D.

personally, for me anyway, Its hard to gage where he is at right now. He is currently the fourth WR on the depth chart, but I think that has to do with Gonzo still trying to get his feet under him. He didn’t necessarily set the world on fire in the preseason with a few drops, deflected passes, and even a little fumbleitis. However, if Garcon continues his inconsistancies with drops and Gonzo gets back up to speed (which i think witll be the case), Down the line, Gonzalez should be the number 2 again.

Eh… sorry bout the little rant. To answer your question

1. Reggie Wayne
2. Pierre Garcon
3. Anthony Gonzalez
4. Austin Collie

Sanders, Bethea are the best tandem safeties in the league and then you have Bullitt, Hayden, Powers, and Lacey.

The rest of them are Townsend, King, and Tryon.

Kelvin Hayden
Jerraud Powers
Jacob Lacey
Antoine Bethea
Bob Sanders
Melvin Bullitt
Tryon
Deshea Townsend

2. He should split with Brown and (occasionally) Hart.

3. He looks great. The only problem with him is injuries.

4. Not really. You can’t judge preseason like that. Sanders and Session should clean up any mistakes the D-line make.

5. OG.

1. It’s definitely up there for being pretty bad, but I don’t want to judge it before the season starts.

2.I expect Addai to split carries with Brown.

3. In the one pre-season game Powers played, he looked awesome. He’s definitely improved from last season, that kid’s a stud.

4. I’m not too concerned; if think Coyer just wanted to play a vanilla defense during the pre-season.

5. OL, OL, and OL

1. It’s in tight competition with last years line for that (dis)honor

2. Addai will be the lead back, but Brown will get significant carries. I’d guess 60-40 in favor of Addai if both stay healthy.

3. Powers looks good, especially since Kelvin Hayden, the supposed big money vet has continued to struggle

4. It’s not even close to 2006 level bad, it’s just standard, Colts run D bad. If the offense can put up points and the D can stop the pass then it’s not really an issue.

5. OL, by far.

1) I was MIA for a few years and not as serious a fan as I am not, but my guess is that yes, this is probably the worst offensive line overall in terms of backups as well, that we’ve had.

2) Joseph Addai will be earning his new contract this year. Brown has looked very poor to me, and while they’ll probably be splitting snaps, if Brown can’t pick it up, Addai may start getting more work after the first couple of weeks.

3) Powers has been doing great, but his injuries are becoming a problem. Honestly, look for Jacob Lacey to have the biggest jump in performance, especially if Hayden keeps looking so lost on the field. I hate to say it, but if Hayden doesn’t pick it up, Lacey may have his spot mid-season.

4) No, not at all actually. We have Sanders back. We always look poor in the pre-season, but Sanders has been a beast again, and look for him to start striking the fear of Bobzilla back into running backs while he’s healthy.

5) Most concern is hands down the offensive line. Just no question about it. The defense is healthier, and every other position looks to either be very deep, or very solid. O-line is weak, and very short on any talent at backup.

1. 2008 was the worst offensive line the Colts ever fielded

2. yes and no. it does seem like Addai should receive the bulk of the carries but with the plethora of backs the Colts have, 20+ a game is a little over the top. I expect brown to see more action, but until he gets his pass protection duties down, his touches will be limited

3. Powers has looked phenomenal. Its just a matter of staying healthy for him

4. No, there is no concern about the run D. Im not sure how much attention you payed to the preseason games the Colts have been playing, but that is a non-issue. Perhaps C.J Spillers big run may have distorted your perception, but the Colts have given up less than 4 yards a carry

5. As has been said a million times already our offensive line is the only major concern we all share.

fully participated in TC for the first time ever and knocked some heads off in the 3rd preseason game.

No injury yet, which has many of us heaving a sigh of relief.

and he’s hitting harder than ever.

He is still a beast.. this team is better than last year IMO

I’m excited to see the return of Gonzalez. After the long and annoying Gonzo-Frenchie debate over at SB, I ready to see what he has after his injury.

Always love watching the master.

This is honestly probably the deepest group of people able to catch that Manning has ever had. Between Wayne and Clark getting their thousand yards each, Garcon, Collie, and Gonzo are all capable of getting 800 yards this season (all of them wont, but any of them could). Then you have Eldridge who will probably get a couple hundred at most in place of Robinson as a blocking then receiving TE. Tamme has looked really good and could easily get a 200-400 if Clark went down for a few games. Then you look at the RBs, and you have Addai who consistently gets 300 receiving yards a year and Brown who is very capable of catching. Hart is a Vet who can catch, and Moore looks to have good hands as well. Honestly, the fact we have so many good targets is the only thing that makes up for our shotty o-line.

to see if we will finally have a good return game with Devin Moore, he looked real good so far and if we could give Peyton and our offense a shorter field this year i expect to see a couple of records fall

is the pre-injury 2007 D. I don’t think this year’s D can top that standard.

Certainly the talent is there to be the best D in the Manning Era, but ill take the wait and see approach. I do, however, think that this will be up there as one of the top D’s the Colts have ever fielded. Best ever though? again, ill wait and see

Yes, we are that concerned about the offensive line. We dont want to watch the franchise run for his life on every play the moment the ball is in his hands. Also, if the Colts can rediscover the running game, play action pass will open up, which means 80 yard TD bombs galore!

Wonder what happened to him…

That came out of nowhere.

but we aren’t sure that the other division rivals would like that.

I think that’s the best solution. It’s not SBN quality, but it seems very usable.

Don’t think we can make a new site. Right now we are roosting over at Coltzilla.com where a number of us are contributors. The commenting software isn’t great, but its still in Beta testing phase and the developers are working right with us to develop better patches. They seem to be keen to add everything that is already here at SBN, while adding an embedded video feature as well.

Is he one of those irreplaceable players? Can the team still do at least respectably well without him? For example: If Chris Johnson went down, I think the tits would still win some games, just not as many. So how many games would you win without him?

so keeping him wouldn’t have helped the backup situation.

But hey, if the Colts season goes down in flames I can realistically hope for them to draft Adrian Clayborn.

but it’s still pretty vanilla.

Its how we role in indy

scares me.

to his fivehead to determine that

I’ve deduced that both Manning and Albert Pujols are made by the same guy.

It’s only funny because it’s true

he was limited in practice today.

We have a problem.

but Linkenbach is a stud he should be able to give Peyton a few seconds to get rid of the ball.. our OL have been plug and play fro many times.. I think the only irreplaceable one is Satiurday..

but just in case we just got Joe “white man can’t jump” Reitz LOL

So I don’t think Ugoh being out matters too much.