Colts' offseason: 7 key steps for Indianapolis as team tries to go from good to great

For the first time in a long, long time, the Indianapolis Colts are getting ready to emerge from the offseason without doing much of anything to titillate the NFL’s ravenous rumor mill.

No major changes to the people in charge of the franchise. No rumblings of discontent between the coaching staff and the front office. No long-term questions about the health of Andrew Luck, save for a pesky calf injury that kept him out of organized team activities and mandatory minicamp but caused little lack of sleep at Colts headquarters.

But a different kind of noise has been building around Indianapolis ever since the end of last season, the lack of breathless gossip-column fodder replaced by the weight of expectation.

A magical finish to Frank Reich’s first season, the steady hand of Chris Ballard and the reminder of Luck’s greatness have made Indianapolis a trendy pick as an AFC contender, a status that hasn’t been granted to the Colts in half a decade.

With few exceptions, the headlines Indianapolis made this offseason were all about living up to those expectations, about taking the step from good to great.

“The step from good to great,” Ballard said, “That’s the hard step.”

With that in mind, here’s a look at the developments that could help the Colts take the next step.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (12) watches as T.Y. Hilton (13) catches a touchdown pass in the second half of their game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Oct 21, 2018. The Colts defeated the Bills 37-5.

1. Andrew Luck is in a far better place

The comeback campaign Luck turned in last season — 39 touchdown passes, 4,593 yards, a career-best 98.7 rating, and perhaps most important, 16 games played — might have been even more brilliant because of the way it began, with Luck’s shoulder, arm strength and ability in question at the start of training camp.

Even Luck had questions he needed to answer about himself.

But beyond the play, beyond an arm that seemed to get stronger as the season progressed and the return of the comeback ability that always made him so special, the most important development might have been the return of Luck’s love for the game.

“I’m so excited for life,” Luck said after accepting the Comeback Player of the Year award. “The football season really re-energized me, it reinvigorated me.”

2. The Colts know they’re facing a different test this time around

Under first-year defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, the Indianapolis defense turned in one of the league’s most surprising improvements last season, rising from 30th in the NFL to 11th behind Defensive Rookie of the Year Darius Leonard and a zone-heavy scheme that created big plays by the defensive front and limited explosive plays.

But the schedule is going to test Eberflus, Leonard and the rest of the Colts in a different way this season. In a pass-first league, Indianapolis faced a schedule in 2018 full of teams that wanted to establish the run, first and foremost, and then make plays in the passing game off of that. The schedule was remarkably light on elite quarterbacks.

The 2019 schedule is the opposite. Philip Rivers awaits in the opener, Matt Ryan lurks two weeks later, Patrick Mahomes, Ben Roethlisberger and Drew Brees lie in wait later in the season.

Indianapolis needed to upgrade its ability to take on the NFL’s best quarterbacks.

“We are playing a lot of teams with some pretty good quarterbacks this year, and you’ve got to be able to run them down,” Ballard said at the draft.

Indianapolis Colts defensive end Justin Houston (99) during the Colts mandatory minicamp at the Colts Complex on June 12.  Houston is coming off of back-to-back nine-sack seasons,

3. A proven pass rusher lands in Indy

By now, Ballard’s philosophy in free agency should be clear to Colts fans. A big believer in building through the draft and making smart investments with his cap space, Ballard sets a value on a player and will not go above that value.

In the early days of free agency, that philosophy meant that Indianapolis watched just about all of the available top pass rushers sign for big money with other teams, including Washington’s Preston Smith, a Colts target who ended up landing in Green Bay along with former Baltimore linebacker Za’Darius Smith, another young up-and-comer who commanded top dollar.

A week later, Ballard finally struck.

And he might have landed the best available pass rusher of them all. Former Kansas City pass rusher Justin Houston had been released in a cost-cutting move by the Chiefs, but even at age 30, Houston was coming off of back-to-back nine-sack seasons, numbers the younger players on the market haven’t been able to touch.

Ballard signed Houston to a two-year, $24 million deal, instantly giving Indianapolis its best pass rusher since Robert Mathis was terrorizing quarterbacks at Lucas Oil. After playing in a 3-4 his entire time in Kansas City, the shift to the Colts’ 4-3 will allow Houston to forget about coverage or reading the play and do what he does best.

“I think the scheme where he can really get off the ball, and really disrupt and rush the passer, is gonna be really good,” Ballard said.

Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri (4) last season became the all-time points leader in NFL history.

4. Continuity counts

While the rest of the NFL focused on Ballard’s decision to add only a few players from the outside, the Colts general manager put his league-leading cap space to good use by keeping his own players in-house, a process that started early in the offseason, and kept adding pieces all the way through the summer.

First, Ballard brought back kicker Adam Vinatieri for another season and signed breakout guard Mark Glowinski to a three-year deal in February, ensuring that Indianapolis would bring back all five members of the starting offensive line that emerged as one of the NFL’s best last season.

Nose tackle Margus Hunt signed an extension right before the start of free agency. Cornerback Pierre Desir, a breakout player in Eberflus’ defense last season, signed back on in the first few days, allowing the Colts to avoid a gaping hole at the cornerback position. Strong safety Clayton Geathers tested the market and ended up coming back on a one-year, prove-it deal that keeps the secondary together.

And after the dust had settled, Ballard issued extensions to slot cornerback Kenny Moore, punter Rigoberto Sanchez and long snapper Luke Rhodes, establishing a core for the Colts to keep building around.

By the time the dust had settled, the Colts were bringing back 21 of 22 starters on offense and defense, and just about every key member of their special teams units.

“I laugh when people say we didn’t do anything,” Ballard said. “Continuity means something in this league. It does.”

5. Defense, defense, defense in the draft

When Ballard first took over in 2017, he knew his biggest task would be to rebuild the talent on defense, a monumental undertaking made even more tricky when the Colts moved from a 3-4 to a 4-3 in the coaching change last offseason.

And Indianapolis surprised on that side of the ball last fall, but the Colts were fairly fortunate.

Despite a rash of early-season injuries, Indianapolis largely avoided the kind of major injuries that could have exposed depth problems at every level of the defense.

Starting defensive linemen Jabaal Sheard, Margus Hunt and Denico Autry regularly played 80 percent of the snaps or higher; ideally, Indianapolis wants its defensive linemen to play 60 to 65 percent of the snaps. In the secondary, no cornerback outside of the starting trio of Pierre Desir, Kenny Moore and Quincy Wilson played more than nine total snaps on defense in the second half of the season; an injury to any one of those three could have been crippling.

At linebacker, when Anthony Walker or Darius Leonard were forced to miss a series or two, the difference was noticeable.

The Colts attacked the problem during the draft. Indianapolis used seven of its first eight picks on the defensive side of the ball, drafting three linebackers — Ben Banogu doubles as a pass rusher — two cornerbacks, a safety and a defensive end.

How much they play as rookies remains to be seen; the Colts brought back just about everybody from last season’s defense.

But Indianapolis should be better equipped to give players rest and fill the gaps when injuries inevitably hit.

“Add speed, competition on defense, plain and simple,” Ballard said. “We wanted to get athletic, fast players that fit our mold.”

6. Upgrade the talent around T.Y. Hilton

The Colts posted a top-10 passing offense last season, a testament to Andrew Luck, the otherworldly talents of T.Y. Hilton, the Eric Ebron-led talent at tight end and Frank Reich’s ingenuity.

Indianapolis needed more production out of the wide receiver position last season.

Other than Hilton, who was arguably the best receiver in football down the stretch with 56 catches and 986 yards in his final nine games, the Colts did not have a wide receiver pick up more than 500 yards receiving last season/ Drops were a major problem in the first six games of the season.

But the position could look completely different this season.

Indianapolis signed former Carolina wide receiver Devin Funchess to a one-year, $10 million deal early in free agency, drafted Ohio State speedster Parris Campbell in the second round and anxiously awaits the return of promising second-year receiver Deon Cain, who looked great in training camp last year before a torn ACL robbed him of his rookie season.

All three of those players are unproven, but Reich and offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni like the possibilities.

“You look at the talent there, you look at the talent on the perimeter,” Reich said. “You look at the vertical speed down the field. You look at the playmaking ability. You look at all the different ways that you can be multiple.”

Indianapolis Colts senior offensive assistant Howard Mudd watched the offensive line during the Colts mandatory minicamp at the Colts Complex on  June 12.

7. The return of a legend

The biggest surprise of the offseason happened right after the end of the regular season.

After a perpetually beleaguered Colts offensive line suddenly gelled into one of the league’s best — Indianapolis led the league in sack percentage allowed — Frank Reich decided to fire offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, a move that seemed puzzling at first.

“Even though, in some regard, you’re taking a guy who did a phenomenal job with those guys in a lot of ways, it was just a move that I felt like in the long-term was going to be the best to help us get where we want to go” Reich said. “You pick certain things you want to emphasize more than others.”

Reich doubled down on the details, hiring Chris Strausser and his legendary mentor, Howard Mudd, a man Colts fans know well.

“I like them a lot, they really harp on the fundamentals,” All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson said. “They are very detail-oriented, and what they’re teaching, I feel like I have already seen results in myself and my teammates.”