ShakeZula posted:

Team: Indianapolis Colts
Record through 8 games: 3-5
Offensive grade: B-
Defensive grade: D
Special Teams grade: C
Coaching grade: F
Overall grade: D
Most outstanding/surprising players(3): Andrew Luck, Ryan Kelly, Jack Doyle
Most disappointing players(3): Patrick Robinson, Anthony Castonzo, Robert Mathis
Short summary: The Colts shocked everyone this offseason when they didn’t fire either head coach Chuck Pagano or GM Ryan Grigson, instead extending both of them and “tying them at the hip” as a means of resolving the tensions between the two that Jim Irsay perceived as the real reason for the team’s struggles. The draft and FA went in line with their new mission statement (rebuild the OL, get some playmakers on defense), and things looked set up for a season where greatness was not necessarily expected, but the team could very realistically overachieve and retake the division from Houston.

Instead, the 2016 Colts have been an exercise in frustration. Injuries have decimated both sides of the roster. The defense has given up huge drives late in games. The pass rush is literally nonexistent, the coverage is maddeningly inconsistent, and 90% of the defensive players tackle like they’re trying to impress LaRon Landry. Andrew Luck is playing as well has he ever has, but the team leads the NFL in dropped passes and he leads the NFL in being sacked. Rookies on the OL are promising but still raw and prone to mistakes, while the veterans have seemingly regressed. Is your team struggling? Have them play the Colts, and even if they manage to lose they’ll do so while putting up their best numbers of the season. The offseason FA moves have proven to be inconsequential, while the team sits on $13 million in cap space they evidently didn’t feel they needed to spend. The biggest positive news story to come out of the season is Adam Vinatieri breaking the consecutive-FGs-made record, a milestone that epitomizes Pagano’s time here. Any adjustments that work are forgotten about the next week, the team is undisciplined on the field and outcoached in almost every game. The 3 wins they’ve eked out this season have been all Luck, a formula that Pagano seems happy to keep riding as long as he can, which thankfully doesn’t seem to be all that much longer.

Despite all this, I have optimism for the future. Not for this season, because this team is so incredibly flawed and poorly-coached that even if Houston collapses and we limp to a division title we’d just be easy pickings for some other AFC team in the Wildcard round. At this point I’m officially rooting for us to tank the rest of the year and clean house, because this team is actually set up very well for a new regime to take over. Luck and Hilton are both locked up long-term, there aren’t any bloated contracts that need to be expunged, the cap situation is very good, and the team should be drafting in the top 15 of a draft that conforms very nicely to their major needs. We successfully accomplished Suck for Luck, now let’s just Bear It for Garrett.