Freethinker
Hall of Famer
Better-late-than-never preview of the 22 Colts.
The Colts have not been a good team from a demographics perspective for quite sometime now. Back in the Peyton Manning days there were plenty of guys to root for like Austin Collie, Blair White, Anthony Gonzalez, Brandon Stokley and Dallas Clark to name a few. Those days are long gone but maybe with the drafting of Alec Pierce the Colts are interesting again. Let's take a closer look.
Total White Athletes on Roster (Starters in bold)
16 Whites total, with 6 starters. Grade: D-
QB - Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles
WR - Alec Pierce
T - Dennis Kelly, Braden Smith, Bernhard Raimann
G - Quenton Nelson, Danny Pinter, Will Fries
C - Ryan Kelly, Wesley French
LB - JoJo Domann
K - Chase McLaughlin
P - Matt Haack
LS - Luke Rhodes
IR - Carter O'Donnell (OL), Trevor Denbow (S)
PS - Ethan Fernea (WR), Nikola Kalinic (TE)
This is a Caste Team through and through. 16 Whites but half are offensive lineman. Only one pale face allowed on defense and he's purely a WSTD at this point. Yuk.
But there are a few things to like. There is the 4/5 White oline which is anchored by the best guard in the NFL, Quenton Nelson. Nelson is a generational talent and as close as you could have to the perfect lineman. Next is another year enjoying the talents of Matt Ryan. The future Hall of Famer (?) became the 8th QB ever to reach 60,000 yards when he hit the mark in week 1. The long time Falcon has been up and down this year with 3 bad games and 3 really good games. Hopefully the offense is starting to gel and Ryan can have another good season. With few good cheering options in the AFC South, I wouldn't mind seeing Ryan get another crack at the playoffs.
The last and possibly best, reason to follow the Colts is outside rookie receiver Alec Pierce. Drafted in the 2nd round, Pierce is the rare White skill player who's been allowed to start right away. To no one's surprise here at CF, Pierce has been very good already. After a concussion kept him out weeks 1 and 2, Pierce has really gotten going with games of 61, 80, 81 and 49 yards. So after 6 games, Pierce is sitting on 18 catches for 271 yards and a TD. If we extrapolate this out, that would lead to a 768 yard season. If we take averages, while leaving out the 2 goose eggs due to injury and project that average over the next 11 games, then Pierce is on pace to hit 1,016 yards by season's end.
The Colts have not been a good team from a demographics perspective for quite sometime now. Back in the Peyton Manning days there were plenty of guys to root for like Austin Collie, Blair White, Anthony Gonzalez, Brandon Stokley and Dallas Clark to name a few. Those days are long gone but maybe with the drafting of Alec Pierce the Colts are interesting again. Let's take a closer look.
Total White Athletes on Roster (Starters in bold)
16 Whites total, with 6 starters. Grade: D-
QB - Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger, Nick Foles
WR - Alec Pierce
T - Dennis Kelly, Braden Smith, Bernhard Raimann
G - Quenton Nelson, Danny Pinter, Will Fries
C - Ryan Kelly, Wesley French
LB - JoJo Domann
K - Chase McLaughlin
P - Matt Haack
LS - Luke Rhodes
IR - Carter O'Donnell (OL), Trevor Denbow (S)
PS - Ethan Fernea (WR), Nikola Kalinic (TE)
This is a Caste Team through and through. 16 Whites but half are offensive lineman. Only one pale face allowed on defense and he's purely a WSTD at this point. Yuk.
But there are a few things to like. There is the 4/5 White oline which is anchored by the best guard in the NFL, Quenton Nelson. Nelson is a generational talent and as close as you could have to the perfect lineman. Next is another year enjoying the talents of Matt Ryan. The future Hall of Famer (?) became the 8th QB ever to reach 60,000 yards when he hit the mark in week 1. The long time Falcon has been up and down this year with 3 bad games and 3 really good games. Hopefully the offense is starting to gel and Ryan can have another good season. With few good cheering options in the AFC South, I wouldn't mind seeing Ryan get another crack at the playoffs.
The last and possibly best, reason to follow the Colts is outside rookie receiver Alec Pierce. Drafted in the 2nd round, Pierce is the rare White skill player who's been allowed to start right away. To no one's surprise here at CF, Pierce has been very good already. After a concussion kept him out weeks 1 and 2, Pierce has really gotten going with games of 61, 80, 81 and 49 yards. So after 6 games, Pierce is sitting on 18 catches for 271 yards and a TD. If we extrapolate this out, that would lead to a 768 yard season. If we take averages, while leaving out the 2 goose eggs due to injury and project that average over the next 11 games, then Pierce is on pace to hit 1,016 yards by season's end.