NFL 2024 season - Indianapolis Colts team preview

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss how Indianapolis can surprise this season and why quarterback Anthony Richardson is the key to the Colts' aspirations. Listen and subscribe to the “Zero Blitz” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Video transcript

And my one big thing for the Colts is, are we underrating them coming into the season?

Because as this off season has gone along and I've thought about the Colts and studied the Colts and watched the, the film and all this kind of stuff.

I really like this team and I'll tell you why I hate overreacting to single events, especially things that could go 5050.

How do we feel about the Colts if they win in week 18 last year and make the playoffs?

If we remember they had this showdown against the Houston Texans.

It was in Indianapolis.

If you win, you're in the playoffs.

If you lose, you're out, the Colts lost and we just forgot about them immediately.

Whereas the Texans, they go on, they win a playoff game.

And what, what happened all of a sudden, we're all in love with the Houston Texans because of that extra exposure because they had the big win in week 18, they won the playoff game and now we're over the moon.

We think CJ Stroud's winning MVP.

We think that team's a super bowl contender.

What if the Colts would have won that game?

In week 18, like, I think we would just be giving them a lot more respect and we've completely forgotten about them because they had a bad game in week 18 against the Texans.

I think this team, if Anthony Richardson could stay healthy and that's a huge, if I get that, you look at the rest of that roster and they're set up really, really well.

They almost made the playoffs last year with Gardner MSU, with, with a, a less than ideal quarterback situation, one game away, one win away from that.

And I think they're underrated because they didn't win that game.

We didn't see them in the playoffs beating the Browns like CJ Stroud and the Texans did.

I think his Colts team is really, really strong and while we all in over the moon over the Texans and rightfully so cj Stroud's awesome, Damico Ryans is awesome.

I think we're forgetting about the Colts and how close they were to the playoffs and how good they might be in 2024.

Especially looking at the job Shane Stein did as a head coach, thinking about losing your starting quarterback early in the season and keeping a team that had no expectations.

A float.

The hardest part for me is the knock on Anthony Richardson coming out of college is there was some good tape, some bad tape, but very little tape he needs reps.

He didn't get a lot of those.

So I am curious to see.

I, I still think that there's going to be this acclimation process.

Anthony Richardson's got to see more football.

He's got, he's just gotta play more.

So the injury sort of makes this an incomplete for me.

And that's why I think this is interesting.

I'm not sure there's a harder division to figure out the good and the bad than the AFC South because we talked about it.

Like the T the Titans to me are a bit of an incomplete, the Colts to me not knowing what to expect from Anthony Richardson this year are a bit of an incomplete.

Like I think they're hard teams to figure out.

I want the Colts to be great because it was one of the best stories in the league last year, but I just don't know that I right now can trust Anthony Richardson not just to be healthy, but to play great football for the entirety of the season.

It's just we haven't seen enough football yet from the starting quarterback.

That was a developmental prospect when he was picked.

Uh, that's the hardest part for me, Frank.

Completely fair.

I, I mean, I, I will just say that the ceiling is so tantalizing though.

I mean, the, the games he did play last year, he was excellent.

Our, our colleague Dalton Del Don over on the fantasy side has Anthony Richardson as his number one quarterback coming into the season.

I get fantasy is not reality.

Right.

But that just does speak to the, what this guy can be if he stays healthy and you're right.

There's a downside here too.

We, we haven't seen him play much.

I mean, it just in the NFL or college, which is troubling, but he was so exciting in the, in those games.

He played that if you just prorate this out and say if he could just stay healthy, if he could just stay healthy, what can he do with Jonathan Taylor, Michael Pittman, Josh Downs, uh Mitchell, they're really, really good rookie, uh, pretty good offensive line, a defense that kept them in a lot of games.

This Colts team is pretty good and I'm, I'm very excited to check them out.