Over the last few weeks, some information has been trickling out about the changes our favorite team may undergo for the 2010 campaign. We've heard Craig Domann (Ryan Lilja's agent) reveal that Lilja was released because the Colts want to get bigger on the O-Line. We've heard Jim Irsay indicate they will get more physical in the running game. And we've heard Coach Caldwell say they will experiment with some four wides this year.
Or have we?!
One of the beauties of our free country is that while the press has the freedom to deliver what they want us to hear, we have the freedom (and in my mind an obligation) to interpret it accordingly. While this is perhaps more critical in politics, it is just as applicable in sports. Here are three different ways the reported comment about going four wide was portrayed, and what we might glean from it.
He talked about using some four-wide formations and discussed the team’s status at receiver:
“We're in a situation we haven't been in since (2004) when we had three receivers over 1,000 yards, Brandon Stokley, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. That was a good group. This group is as talented. As much as we throw the ball, we'll find a place. If they're all healthy and ready to go, we'll find a place. I don't think Gonzalez is quite where he'd like to be, but by the time we get rolling he'll be there.''
On the team's wide receiver situation with Anthony Gonzalez, Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon: “We may go four wides. That's a strength. You think I'm kidding. But I'm also half serious about it, too, because if that proves to be the case, maybe that could happen in some cases"
"We may use four wideouts," said the Indianapolis Colts' second-year coach, laughing, and noting the continuing but on-time rehabilitation of Gonzalez, the former first-round choice who was limited to one game in 2009 because of a knee injury. "I mean, it's one of our strengths, right? … But, no, seriously."
So, if you believe Kuharsky, the Colts will definitely do it. If you believe Oehser, they may do it. And if you believe Pasquerelli, Caldwell threw it out there as a joke! It's not clear to me which - if any - of these men were sitting at the table with Caldwell when he delivered the interview, and none of them talked about the tone or inflection or nuances that might hint toward the truth. But the truth is probably somewhere in between the extremes, and we probably won't know for sure until the plays unfold on the field.