Getty Indianapolis Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr. catches a pass.
The 2022 schedule for the Indianapolis Colts will feature eight matchups with postseason teams and four other games against teams who had at least seven victories last season. The 2022 Colts slate will also include three opposing starting quarterbacks who have been on Super Bowl winning teams.
Indianapolis’ showdown with one of those Super Bowl winning signal callers is the most underrated matchup on the team’s 2022 schedule.
That would be the Week 5 matchup against Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos on Oct. 6. This will be the first time the Colts and Broncos meet since 2019, and it will be Indianapolis’ first trip to the Mile High City since 2016.
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Matt Ryan Meets Russell Wilson Again
Colts new signal caller Matt Ryan and Wilson will both be closing out the first month of the regular season with their new teams when they meet on Oct. 6. But Ryan and Wilson are definitely familiar with each other.
The two quarterbacks have faced each other six times, including twice in the playoffs, since Wilson entered the league in 2012. They hold the same record against each other in those games at 3-3.
But Ryan beat Wilson both times they squared off in the postseason. The first matchup was at the end of Wilson’s rookie year. As the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, the Atlanta Falcons held off the upstart Seattle Seahawks to capture a, 30-28, victory.
Then in the 2017 postseason, they met again in the divisional round in Atlanta. Ryan, who won the NFL MVP that season, led the Falcons to a 36-20 victory.
Wilson won the last matchup between the two Pro Bowl quarterbacks, 38-25, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to open the 2020 season.
Primetime Matchup on Amazon Prime
The Ryan-Wilson quarterback matchup hasn’t garnered as much media attention as some of the other rivalries behind center the last 10 years, but it deserves to. It may finally get that attention with this matchup in primetime.
The Colts-Broncos showdown is set for the first Thursday night of October. The month will feature five Colts games, so fittingly, there will be two Indianapolis matchups in the first six days of October.
The matchup is also set to be the fourth NFL game exclusively shown on Amazon Prime. Amazon agreed to pay the NFL $100 billion over the course of an 11-year contract for Thursday night games. Legendary play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and veteran color commentator Kirk Herbstreit will be in the booth.
The Colts have four primetime games heading into the 2022 season, but the matchup with the Broncos is the only Colts contest on Thursday this season.
Peyton Manning’s Two Former Teams
Peyton Manning has obviously been out of the league for several years, but he enters the storylines nevertheless when his two former teams meet. Manning still lives in Denver, and one would expect he will be attending the Thursday night affair between his two former teams.
Manning spent 14 seasons with the Colts organization and then the final four years of his career with the Broncos.
While in Indianapolis, Manning posted an 8-2 record, including the playoffs, against the Broncos. Denver didn’t fare much better versus the Colts once he switched sides, going 1-3, counting the postseason, against Indianapolis with Manning behind center.
The Colts own a 12-5 record versus the Broncos since 2002, but the overall series is tied 14-14. Indianapolis is also 4-3 in its last seven visits to Denver.