Strategic or ‘Incompetent’? Indianapolis Columnist Calls Out Colts

With a record of 4-10-1, the Indianapolis Colts have been widely criticized across the NFL media landscape for their off-field decisions and on-the-field performance this season. And on December 29, their hometown columnist, the Indianapolis Star’s Gregg Doyel, called out the team as “incompetent.”

In his column looking at the team’s 2022 campaign, he posited a question, framing it in a tongue-in-cheek courtroom setting, as though the team were on trial: Are the Colts guilty of losing on purpose to secure a higher draft position or are they simply negligent in their duty to perform?

“Me, I think they’re guilty of gross incompetence, but not tanking,” Doyel wrote. “They’re not trying to lose. They’ve just become quite good at it.”

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Off the Field

Off the field, the Colts have had made a series of decisions that have invariably proved to be bad, according to Doyel.

“Picture a flushing toilet,” Doyel wrote. “Since the season began spinning out of control, the Colts have made a number of moves, big ones, and not one has worked out.”

Since the start of the season, the Colts have fired their offensive coordinator Marcus Brady, fired head coach Frank Reich, benched quarterback Matt Ryan (not once, but twice!) and hired as interim head coach Jeff Saturday, who had zero prior experience coaching at any level. The team has gone 1-5 since hiring Saturday, including a disastrous 39-36 overtime loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which the Vikings set a record with a 33-point comeback.

“One move after another, a complete failure,” Doyel wrote.

In light of the Colts’ dismal season, another writer called the Vikings debacle a blessing disguise because it could spur team owner Jim Irsay to institute change.

“However, as embarrassing as the loss was for every member of the organization, could it actually be a good thing for the Colts moving forward?” Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Moore wrote in a story published December 20. “If Irsay is honest with himself – and that is yet to be seen – then Saturday’s collapse by the Colts will be seen as a culmination of many bad decisions by the organization. The implosion should be a catalyst for change, something this franchise desperately needs.”

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On the Field

The Colts have had two head coaches and three different starting quarterbacks — Matt Ryan, Sam Ehlinger and now Nick Foles — and no matter the configuration, the results have been all too similar.

In a December 27 story, published after the Colts lost 20-3 to the Los Angeles Chargers with Foles at quarterback, Moore suggested that no one currently on Indianapolis’ roster is the answer at QB.

“The hard truth is the offense cannot be fixed this year,” Moore wrote. “It will take a new coaching staff and new players at key positions for the Colts to have a competent offense once again. Until that happens, expect much of the same from this unit over the final two games.”

One glaring stat highlighting the Colts’ offensive ineptitude is that over the last five games, they have been outscored 90-9 in the fourth quarters alone.

“In broad strokes, the evidence is ugly,” Doyel wrote. “The details, though, are almost comical.”

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