Are the Colts as bad as the national media thinks?

Bias is an inclination, prejudice, preference or tendency towards or against a person, group, thing, idea or belief. Biases are usually unfair or prejudicial and are often based on stereotypes, rather than knowledge or experience.

• David Helman, Fox Sports: 27th
• Dan Hanzus, NFL: 28th
• ESPN reporters: 29th
• Nate Davis, USA Today: 31st
• Pete Prisco, CBS: 29th
• Steve Serby, NY Post: 26th
• Dalton Miller, PFN: 23rd
• BR NFL Staff, Bleacher Report: 27th
• Connor Orr, Sports Illustrated: 11th

Other than Connor Orr, whose opinion I now respect a lot, the average ranking for the Colts is around 26th, which is my opinion simply egregious. I think there might be a case of recency bias going against the Colts in the national media so far this offseason, because everything that could go wrong went wrong last season people are expecting the Colts to be a bottom of the ladder team again next season.

“I would be wary of a bunch of great testers getting thrown into a team with a first-time head coach, but this Colts staff is deep and experienced. If the AFC South turns into a slog, I could see them making a run at the division.” This is what Connor Orr said in his latest power rankings, and while #11 is a bit too rich even for me, I believe that what he is saying is completely reasonable. Keep in mind that the Colts played much better than their 4-12-1 record last year, and they were without their best defensive player, their star running back was injured throughout the year, and they played more than half of the season with perhaps one of the worst NFL head coaches in recent memory.

The Colts now have an athlete at quarterback, a much better staff than what they finished with last year, will have their All-Pro captain of the defense back, and are overall a much better team than last season. Not only is the team better, but the Colts have one of the easiest schedules in the league, and the AFC South is somehow even weaker than last year, with the Titans seemingly entering a rebuild, the Texans a bit better but still a roster desperately needing some veteran talent, and the pesky Jaguars who will most likely contend for the division title again.

Of course, one could make the argument that in the doldrums of summer, just putting out “power rankings” based entirely on last season’s standings and a few comments here and there is a relatively easy way to get clicks, and that I should not take them seriously, but I believe that the Colts are a much better team than what that average says.

Other than hopefully having JT and Shaq back to full health, which is no minor thing, the Colts now have a competent head coach, got better along the defensive line, will count on the development of young players like Jelani Woods, Bernard Raimann, Alec Pierce, Kwity Paye, and Dayo Odeyingbo to name a few, and the improvement of an offensive line that drastically underperformed last season.

Now I am not saying the Colts will be contending for the Super Bowl right away, and I am not even saying that we will make the playoffs, what I am saying is that this is definitely not a 4 win team and will surprise plenty of so called “experts” next season.