Source: Justin Casterline / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS – The 2023 Colts certainly overachieved from preseason expectations, finishing 9-8 on the season.
It was a sour end though in dropping a home game to the upstart Texans, which means the Colts will enter next season a decade removed from its last AFC South title.
Here are some final grades for the Colts after the 2023 season:
1. Pass Offense: C-
Source:Getty
Pass Offense: C-
Evaluation: The Colts lacked potency with their passing offense in 2023. Some of that was to be expected given the history of Gardner Minshew. The Colts ranked 18th in passing yards per play. Michael Pittman Jr. provided a stabling, reliable force in the receiving game, but the Colts struggled to find really any other individual to step up on a somewhat consistent basis. Josh Downs was the only other pass catcher to provide some semblance of dependability. Alec Pierce struggled to find that with the limited Minshew not playing to his strengths. And no tight end truly emerged to the top of that depth chart. Pass protection did improve to being a more middle of the pack unit.
2. Rush Offense: B-
Source:Getty
Rush Offense: B-
-Evaluation: From Zack Moss to Jonathan Taylor, the Colts found solid run-game success in 2023. It was not a dominant run game though, and the explosive attack many had pondered with Anthony Richardson under center was held back due to injury. But the Colts finished 10th in rushing yards per play. The run game, led by Taylor, ended the season on a thunderous note, offering plenty of intrigue about the possibilities of Richardson and JT together in 2024. Remember, those two played just one snap together this past season.
3. Pass Defense: C+
Source:Getty
Pass Defense: C+
–Evaluation: Setting a franchise record in sacks greatly helps this grade. Despite facing a very ‘blah’ list of quarterbacks though, the Colts still allowed the 22nd highest yards per pass play in the league. And they finished the season 28th in points allowed per game. If you strictly graded the back end of the group, you would get a below average mark, which was to be expected given the commitment to a youth movement from the Colts in 2024.
4. Rush Defense: B
Source:Getty
Rush Defense: B
–Evaluation: This is a tough one to truly grade. So much of the Colts run defense was predicated on life with Grover Stewart, versus life without Grover Stewart. The 6-game absence for Stewart saw the Colts endure one of their worst run defense stretches in years. With him though, the Colts were much better. Ultimately, they finished the 2023 campaign 10th in rushing yards allowed per play. Given Stewart’s individual impact on the run game, that has to strengthen his free agency candidacy.
5. Special Teams: D
Source:Getty
Special Teams: D
–Evaluation: It was a rocky season in the special teams department for first-year coordinator Brian Mason. The Colts struggled to control field position, had some really impactful penalties on special teams and the weapon of Matt Gay faded big-time down the stretch. Rigoberto Sanchez did have a nice return season from missing 2022 due to a torn Achilles.
6. Overall Grade: B+
Source:Getty
Overall Grade: B+
–Evaluation: It’s a bit odd to see the overall grade of this year’s team rank higher than so many of the individual units. But I think that’s fair. The Colts were more a sum of its parts, even without being upper, upper echelon in any particular area. They were successful in one-possession games, going 6-3. Winning 9 games, versus the over/under of 6.5 wins in the preseason, leads to more than a passing grade. Shane Steichen had a successful first season. Recent Colts teams would not be able to win that many close games, but they did. Sure, they were outclassed in head-scratching December performances against Cincinnati and Atlanta and their respective backup quarterbacks, but still gave themselves a golden opportunity to make the postseason. That thought, realistically, was not there externally or even internally at the start of the year.
