Summer series: Indianapolis Colts

By: Josh Frey-Sam

The Indianapolis Colts are at a crossroads organizationally.

The team released veteran kicker Matt Gay this offseason, which has set the stage for a major decision to come from a heated training camp battle between a pair of undrafted free agents — Spencer Shraeder and Maddux Trujillo.

Talk about burying the lede.

In all seriousness, this was once a perennial Super Bowl contender that hasn’t won a division title in 10 years. During that time, they also have just one playoff win and have gone four straight years without a postseason appearance.

Entering 2025-26, GM Chris Ballard is, presumably (feels like we’ve been saying that for a few years), on the hot seat, and head coach Shane Steinchen probably is, too, by association.

Honestly, I believe Steichen is a good head coach. I’m not sure he gets enough credit for going .500 over the last two seasons with Gardner Minshew, Joe Flacco and Anthony Richardson as his quarterbacks.

Nevertheless, the Colts have continued to tread in mediocrity, and now they have a decision to make regarding who they want to start at quarterback: Daniel Jones, who the team signed this off-season to create some competition for the job, or Anthony Richardson, whose badge as the face of the franchise is peeling off.

Both would take some convincing inside the locker room and around the fan base.

“Your GM is in his ninth year, your head coach is in his third year. For the first time in 30 years, (former owner) Jim Irsay, sadly, is no longer making the decisions; it’s now his oldest daughter, Carlie, so that’s an unknown,” said beat writer Kevin Bowen.

“You look at your best players: Quenton Nelson, Deforest Buckner, Kenny Moore — those sorts of guys are well into their primes, if not on the back-nines of their careers. So, if that’s the case, where are you in this? Are you committing to the Richardson two and three-year build? Or is it more of the, ‘Hey, we just need to fricken win.’”

Welcome to the Back Bacon Brief summer series, where I talk to a local member of the media from all 32 NFL teams to get an all-encompassing preview about each club heading into the 2025-26 season.

Today, we look at the Indianapolis Colts, and I spoke with beat writer Kevin Bowen (@KBowen1070 on X) to find out everything going on in Indy.

You can listen to the full interview here.

Here’s a stat that might blow your mind (it did for me when Bowen revealed it): Richardson is 8-7 as a starter in the NFL.

Yes, 8-7, as in he’s won more than he’s lost.

Now, using wins to measure quarterback success is a point of contention in itself — Richardson’s record is a perfect example of why — but it’s tough to ignore with a guy like Jones, who is 24-44-1 for his career.

The question that everyone wants to know the answer to is whether the Colts have a better chance of winning games with Richardson or Jones.

“I think if you’re trying to be dropped in the middle of a lake and stay afloat, it would be Jones,” Bowen said. “If you think the 21 guys around him are at a playoff level, then it’s probably Jones. But if you look at the AFC, band-aid quarterbacks are not competing in the AFC. You need dudes that can have a high ceiling.

“Now, Richardson’s floor has been incredibly low… but if you believe there’s more in there potentially, then you gotta try and hit that.”

The latest news is that the battle between Richardson and Jones is neck-and-neck in training camp right now, which has to be concerning if you’re a Colts fan who wants to see Richardson, considering he’s been in this offence for two years. Jones has been there for a few months.

What threw a wrinkle into this earlier in the off-season was that Richardson had an AC joint injury flare-up again in his right shoulder. He only participated in two of nine mini-camp practices as a result.

“If you can just get a little more out of him, then what does that become?” Bowen added about Richardson. “I think it all depends on where you’re at. I think organizationally, they’ve gone away from the big plays and the high potential, and they’ve gone with just, to go back to the lake analogy, can you just swim to shore? That’s all they are hoping for at quarterback, which I get, but I also think there’s a pretty defined ceiling in today’s AFC when you attempt that.”

Bowen, who predicted that Jones would be the Week 1 starter, also believes it’s in the Colts’ best interest to commit to one of them sooner rather than later.

“It’s vital that it happens very early on, in my opinion, beucase I think if this creeps into August, and it’s still Daniel Jones there, Shane Steichen’s going to have a decision to make of commiting those reps to one or the other beucase in some way, shape or form, Jones and Richardson have been inconsistent and bad in their NFL careers” he said.

“Well, if you’re giving inconsistent quarterbacks inconsistent reps, then how are they going to get better? I think at some point, you need to commit to one of them.”

The rest of the roster would probably signal “playoff contender,” with a solid set of offensive weapons and a rejuvenated defence that is led by new defensive co-ordinator Lou Anaroumo.

With the additions of cornerback Charvarius Ward and safety Cam Bynum in free agency, Indy has playmakers at all three levels of the defence, and should be a more aggressive defence — something they were not a year ago.

“There is a hope to play more aggressive, more man coverage, defensively. That’s a little different,” Bowen said. “In Charvarius Ward’s case, even shadow an opposing wideout or two.”

There are decisions to make offensively beyond quarterback. Not about which of their weapons make the team, but how the Colts want to deploy them.

With the addition of first-round draft pick Tyler Warren, who is a solid run-blocker, the Colts are in a position to run a lot of 12 personnel looks (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers) with Mo-Ali Cox.

However, Bowen believes we’ll see the Colts go with the more common 11 personnel look (one running back, one tight end, three receivers), because of the team’s plethora of talent in the WR room, with Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce, Josh Downs and Adonai Mitchell.

“They’re going to use Warren, I think, very similar to what you saw at Penn State,” Bowen said. “The short yardage stuff was super creative at Penn State with him. If you can imagine up a package of him and Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson together, that’s very intriguing in some of that short-yardage, red zone, goal-to-go stuff.”

One unit to keep an eye on the offence is the protectors. Center Ryan Kelly and guard Will Fries were mainstays on the offensive line but were poached by the Minnesota Vikings.

Former third-round pick Matt Goncalves is poised to replace Fries, while Tanor Bortolini and Danny Pinter battle for the starting center job.

The fantasy-related question I posed to Bowen was about two of the hottest late-round names in the community today: Josh Downs and Tyler Warren.

Who would he recommend, based on what he’s seen?

“If you want to go the PPR route, I think Downs is a little safer,” he said.

Downs logged 72 receptions and 803 yards with bad quarterback play last season.

“If you are trying to hit a little more high end from a touchdown standpoint, I do think Warren is very intriguing because of the short-yardage stuff that he could be utilized in.”

Bowen sided with over 7.5 wins for the Colts this season, but he was not confident when making that prediction.

If Jones is the quarterback, I will take the over.

Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Josh