Needs

[Kray007]

I’d love to think that this team is a legit Super Bowl contender, I really would. But, I think they may be a year and a big-time pass rusher away.

That having been said, I can’t see any reason that they can’t live on the fringes of that terrain. As long as….

They quit making stupid, drive killing mistakes, like players lining up offside on offense and coming out in illegal formations.

They don’t keep muffing punts. Tight games are hard enough to win. We don’t need Josh Downs botching punt returns at his own 11 yard line.

Shane Steichen figures out that, sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. Sometimes, with the clock running out on the first half, it’s better to let time expire than to gift the other guys a couple of extra timeouts that they use to narrow your lead and build momentum.

They find a viable back up piece at DT. Going from giving up 2,8 yards per carry when Buckner and Stewart are on the field to allowing 7 whatever one of them leaves is unsustainable.

They reinforce the Receiving corps. Daniel Jones did a remarkable job of squeezing the ball into tight spaces, hitting Pierce and Pittman just before they went out of bounds. But, there’s no substitute for a receiver who consistently separates from coverage. Asking the football gods for the next Ja’Marr Chase or Puka Nacua might be tempting their ire, but would another Wes Welker be too much to ask.

They locate someone to take the load off Jonathan Taylor. With any luck, JT has three or four good years left, but not if they keep running him 20 times per game.

They get better on the right side of the offensive line. Braden Smith is now peddling his diminishing skills in Houston, and I suspect that the Texans will soon discover that he lost the past couple of years is unrecoverable. I know a lot of his rules we can still eat level edge, rushers, but he didn’t use to struggle as much against the likes of JJ and JT Watt. As far as Goncalves is concerned, last year he was a double threat… mediocre at both pass and run blocking. There’s a reason why Taylor’s backups didn’t produce much on the ground, and that was the inability of Goncalves to move his man off the line, to create holes or, even, creases.

Injuries. It’s tough up to win healthy, but it’s infinitely harder if the likes of Daniel Jones, Deforest Buckner, Sauce Gardner, and Charvarius Ward are out of action.

And, finally, they’re bringing in 7 new faces to fill spots vacated by trades, cuts, or free agency. We need at least half of those guys like Haulcy, Allen, and Key to step in and play well. I’m not expecting Ashton Dulin to look like Marvin Harrison or for Hunter Wohler to morph into Bob Sanders. The guys they’re replacing we’re mostly average and we only need a little more than that.

[ukcolt]

Defensively, I am hopeful, but I am also extremely wary of the fact we are going to be using a lot of guys who have either never played a down of NFL action in the regular season, or guys who have seen limited action. I mean JT at DE, Allen, Boettcher, at LBer, Woehler and Haulcy at safety, and then Walley and Edwards at CB. That's a lot of inexperience, that we are relying upon for significant snaps next year, not all of them are going to be starting, but I suspect all named above will see regular snaps throughout the season.

[omahacolt]

defensive end is a need. will be for eternity it seems like.


depth at dt is an issue. or could be an issue. not sure how the new guys will fit.


wr depth is disgusting.


rb depth may be a concern but I don't worry too much about that.

lber room may be an issue but I am just happy Franklin is gone.

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by omahacolt

d

rb depth may be a concern but I don't worry too much about that.

Agree with everything but this. If JT goes down, we are fucked!

[omahacolt]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

Agree with everything but this. If JT goes down, we are fucked!

maybe


sure there will be a dropoff but I believe the online will be good. so whoever we decide is the #2 should be able to produce at an acceptable level.

[Oldcolt]

As good as JT is, he is still a RB. If we lose his production and cannot make up for it in the passing game we were not going anywhere anyway. Like omaha said, with a decent line we should be ok with running production

[Hoopsdoc]

You guys are nuts. JT’s ability to take it to the house on any carry means he has to be gameplanned for. Remove him, and this offense is very very very average.

If he goes down, we don’t win more than 5 games.

[Dam8610]

The biggest need on the current roster is a solid third receiver in my opinion. I think Keenan Allen would be able to fill the Pittman role well for a year or two. They even had pretty similar numbers in 2025.

I think DJ Giddens could be very good, so I don't really see RB depth as a problem.

A better TE2 would also ease my mind a bit, but I'm also very excited to see what Tyler Warren does this year. I definitely wouldn't mind adding a Jonnu Smith or a Zach Errz, though.

Jalen Travis filled in well for Braden Smith last year. If he maintains the same level of play, he'll be a fine replacement.

Would I take an elite pass rusher to pair with Latu? Absolutely, but I don’t see it as a need. I geel like Tuimoloau will provide at least a similar level of play to Kwity Paye, hopefully better, and Arden Key IMO is an upgrade of the DPR from Samson Ebukam.

The Colts will cut at least one quality rotational DT. They're currently 7 deep at the position (Buckner, Stewart, Adebawore, Wooden, Nnadi, Tillery, Smith), and Adebawore and Wooden feel like at least quality depth pieces for the future.

Getting rid of Franklin was addition by subtraction. He was terrible in coverage and it cost the Colts often. CJ Allen is not great in coverage, I would say he's average for a LB, but that's leagues better than Franklin. At the other starting spot, I don't think Davis-Gaither would be much of a downgrade from Pratt, and if Carlies can stay healthy and win the job, he may be an upgrade.

I can't remember a time the Colts have had such a talented CB room. For both quality and quantity of talent, there aren't many teams that come to mind that match this group, and the ones that do are ones like the 2025 Eagles and the 2015 Broncos. The fact that Sauce Gardner will be here for the entire season should alone by itself upgrade the play of this unit. But the team is also legitimately 7 deep at the position with players who they could reasonably expect to play at least decently. I don’t feel like Kenny Moore fit the new defense, and at 30, that meant it was probably best for everyone to part ways.

Nick Cross would have been a loss on par with Pittman’s departure for the defense, but then the Colts drafted AJ Haulcy. Haulcy brings everything that Cross does as a run defender, but he's also better in coverage and has a nose for the football. He doesn't run in a straight line as fast as Cross did, but he does everything you want from your starting SS as well or better. I also like Wohler behind him, provided he can stay healthy. I'd prefer him in more of a Dimebacker role (because I think he would excel there or as a LB), but he looked great in camp at SS last year and the agilities support his ability to stay there.

I think that covers every position but QB, which is Schrodinger's Need at this point until such time as we know how the Daniel Jones experiment turns out. Oh, specialists are all fine. Not elite, not subpar, just fine.