Perhaps the greatest disadvantage from the Colts getting flexed to Sunda

y Night Football is the potential it creates for a short week to prepare for Wild Card weekend. The NFL often displays its infinite wisdom and awareness during the season so it was no surprise that it flexed the Colts and Titans to Sunday night and rewarded the winner by scheduling them to participate first playoff game of the weekend at 4:35 PM ET on Saturday.The late Sunday game meant that not only did the Colts not practice on Monday https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Erik-Swoope-Jersey , understandably, but they only completed a walk through on Tuesday. Look on the bright side, Houston and Indianapolis should be plenty familiar with one another so game-planning should be relatively straight forward. Resting players and having them physically ready for Saturday will be the challenge.Here is the initial Colts injury report from the walk through, which is more of a projected expectation if the team had actually held a full practice.The good news is that Ryan Kelly and Anthony Walker would both be listed as participating. If Kelly is able to return healthy on Saturday, it will go a long way to helping the offensive line continue to dominate in the trenches. The unit has done a relatively solid job of keeping J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney at bay this season but adding Kelly inside could allow the running game to grind things out and slow down the edge rush even more.Walker had the smallest statistical output of his season against the Titans after returning from a shoulder injury. One has to wonder just how much that nagging injury impacted his ability to make a difference in the game. It is encouraging to see that he would have practiced on Tuesday and it hopefully is an indication that he is continuing to improve.The biggest concerns for those who would have sat out from the practice are T.Y. Hilton, Tyquan Lewis and Clayton Geathers. All three players play important roles for Indianapolis and can make key plays to allow the Colts to advance against the Texans. As a precaution, Chris Ballard chose to waive cornerback Jalen Collins this week to make room for veteran defensive end Geneo Grissom. If Lewis is unable to play, don’t be surprised if Grissom gets pushed into early action. The biggest question-mark for the week will be how Hilton progresses from his ankle injury. There is little doubt that he will play but he was clearly affected by the ankle all Sunday evening against the Titans. The more mobility he has and the less pain he experiences on Saturday, the more likely it is that the Colts passing offense can get rolling.While Clayton Geathers is likely one of the more underappreciated defensive players on the team this season, he fills a hybrid safety/linebacker role that no other player on the roster is particularly suited to play. This is important for Matt Eberflus and the nickel defense as he can rotate Geathers and rookie George Odum based upon down, distance and game situation. Without him, Odum is asked to do a lot more and Houston will gain a bit of an advantage.Keep an eye out for the first official injury report after practice this afternoon. Despite a really critical loss last week to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the hit to the confidence of Colts fans in our weekly FanPulse survey was minimal. What I believe this shows is that our most informed fans understand that this season was never only about the results in the win-loss column. A lot of our confidence has been determined by the progress we have observed.This season the Colts have shown promise in all the ways we hoped they would. They have a key piece in Darius Leonard who can anchor the defense for years to come. Tyquan Lewis and Kemoko Turay might not be the answers to all the defensive line’s problems, but they have shown promise. Free agent additions like Denico Autry and Eric Ebron have had strong showings and have looked great over stretches.On offense, they seem to have truly “fixed” the offensive line with the incredible performances of their two rookies Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith. Mark Glowinski has been another pleasant surprise, and when healthy this line is one of the better lines in the league. Their tight end group has a lot of talent, though they’ve struggled when Jack Doyle is out, which he has been for much of this season. As a team Malik Hooker Jersey , they are greatly improved in terms of talent and upside.There are plenty of questions that remain though. The wide receiver group is one of the worst in football. Behind T.Y. Hilton is a vast echoing abyss of nothingness with only the sound of a football being dropped reverberating across its space. The cornerbacks are equally rough, unable to play with consistency from one week to the next. They have made some truly middling quarterbacks look very talented.The defensive line will likely need to be upgraded as well, as guys like Al Woods get older and they continue to look for disruptive pass rushers who can make an impact. The talent they have drafted and signed have no doubt improved the group, and their rookies could continue to develop, but until they can land a true difference making pass rusher, they won’t be able to really take the next step as a defense.They are still a roster with a great deal of need, but with a quarterback playing at a top 5 level and a head coach who has transformed their offense into a much more dynamic and modern attacking group, they have been able to place themselves in a position to compete this season. Because of this, it would be easy to be frustrated if this team doesn’t achieve a playoff berth.We don’t watch teams to see them improve, we want them to win. However, Chris Ballard was pretty straightforward in saying that this process would take time, and a look at the scarce talent hanging around from Ryan Grigson’s drafts (Luck, Hilton, Geathers, Kelly, Clark, Haeg) is all you need to see to know how tall the task was to rehab this roster. It was never going to happen overnight, but it is happening perhaps faster than was fair to expect.Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty ImagesThe 2018 draft went perhaps better than any in recent memory Quincy Wilson Color Rush Jersey , and while it is too early to know for sure how good this class is, they have certainly jump started the “rebuild” of this roster. While some like Darius Leonard and Quenton Nelson are bona fide stars, there are many that have contributed a great deal and could improve with time.In addition to the impact of the picks made this year, the trade last year with the Jets is the gift that keeps on giving. While the Colts were able to use their picks from the Jets to take Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith, that last 2nd round pick is now starting to look like a pretty nice cherry on top as well. If the season were to end today, it would be the 36th pick in the draft. This year’s 36th pick? Darius Leonard. In other words, there are very good players available at that spot.As it currently stands, the Colts have the opportunity to add 3 picks in the top 50 of the coming draft. If Chris Ballard has a comparable draft to the one he had in 2018 I don’t think it is a reach to say this team has the potential to be a real contender in 2019. On top of their draft, there is the Colts’ cap space for 2019. They’ll have $123.65M available according to Spotrac when the new league year begins. While I don’t expect Ballard to dramatically alter his strategy, I do expect him to spend. He’ll probably re-sign some players, work extensions with a few, and bring in a fair number of free agents if there are solid options are available.Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty ImagesThose expecting him to break the bank for players have a) not been paying attention and b) will likely be very disappointed. Overpaying for a player isn’t a good strategy, even if you have the money to do it. In the long run, it hurts the team, and that is not how Ballard operates.He will need to spend, and given how well the Colts did, I expect them to be looking for pieces that might have been considered less likely for them to pursue last season. However, the big name flashy guys are rarely going to be fits for what Chris Ballard is looking for. He has been crystal clear about his philosophy Skai Moore Color Rush Jersey , and that is that you build the primary part of your team’s talent from the draft. However, I do expect him to spend, as well as to reward the play of those in the building who have earned it. On top of the additions to the roster, there is the inherent improvement of a team that is both very young and playing for the first time in a scheme on both offense and defense. The Colts have had more snaps given to 1st and 2nd year players of any team in the NFL this season. Player growth and improvement alone will account for team wide improvement as these players hone their craft.Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty ImagesAndrew Luck will enter his second season with the same offense. He has only had two other times in his career where his offensive coordinator has remained the same two years in a row. Those years? 2014 and 2016. If you’ll recall, he had pretty good seasons during both those years. If his second year working with Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni yields the same kinds of improvements in terms of his own play, we could easily be looking at an MVP type year for Luck. In other words, the Colts look like a team that has outperformed expectations this season despite having a lot of known holes on their roster. They have all the pieces in place to take the next step forward, and Chris Ballard has shown himself to be level headed, intentional, and adept at selecting pieces that fit well in the Colts’ system and improve the roster. It has been perplexing to many when we have posted the fan base’s FanPulse results, why Colts fans have remained so optimistic despite some truly disappointing losses and a very rough start to the season. This is the reason. While there have been some bumps this season, over all, it has been a success. We can see the makings of a very good team. What’s more, that reality is not far off.