INDIANAPOLIS COLTS News and Notes for 2008/2009

[The General]

Go Horse



As far as free agency, Bill Polian said the Colts may be pretty much done.
Safety Bob Sanders.

Tight end Dallas Clark.

Guard Ryan Lilja.

All were scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of this month, and the Colts have made moves to assure all three will remain with the franchise – Sanders re-signing late in the season; Clark and Lilja agreeing to new contracts in the last few days.

Those were three important moves, Polian said Thursday.

And he said they likely will mark the end of the Colts' high-profile activity in free agency this off-season.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of stuff for us to do at this point in time,” Polian said Thursday during the NFL Scouting Combine, which is ongoing this week and weekend at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis.

“We’ve re-signed Bob. We’ve re-signed Dallas. We’ve re-signed Ryan. So, I think now we’ll step back, take a deep breath and see how things go going forward, but I don’t think we’ll be very active in the free agent market.”

Of retaining the three players, Polian said, “Those were three difficult negotiations, which fortunately worked out for us.”

He also added, “We had a pretty good free-agent haul.”

Jake Scott, a starting guard the last three and a half seasons, likely will not be re-signed before free agency begins next month, Polian said.

Polian said it was clear at the beginning of the off-season that it was unlikely the Colts would be able to re-sign Scott and Lilja.

“Ryan, we felt, was an important objective,” Polian said. “We didn’t feel we could sign both guards. It was a question of which one we could sign, if at all. We’re very grateful we got him signed.”

The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts

[The General]

Tony Dungy saw the statistics late in the season, and he saw what happened on the field.
Because of that, he said one thing is clear:

The Colts’ pass rush could use depth.

Dungy, entering his seventh season as the Colts’ head coach, said on Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine that the team could use another pass rusher or two on the defensive line. The need became apparent, he said, late this past season.

With defensive end Dwight Freeney out the last seven games of the season, and with end Robert Mathis hampered with a late-season injury, the Colts had one sack in their last three games.

That included a 28-24 loss in an AFC Divisional Playoff game against San Diego.

The Colts had no sacks in that game.

“We saw what happened when Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis got hurt,” Dungy said Friday at the Combine, which is ongoing this week and weekend at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis.

“Obviously anybody that loses their top two rushers is going to take a little bit of a hit. Our defense is so much predicated on our front four rushing the passer. We don’t blitz a lot. That need to have extra guys there and have that second wave of rushers is important for us.

“Hopefully, we can unearth a couple of more guys who can rush the passer down the line.”

FAREWELL WEEKEND: The Scouting Combine holds a bit of extra feeling for Dungy and Colts personnel this weekend.

It could be the last time many of them will be in the RCA Dome.

The Colts, who have played home games in the RCA Dome since 1984, are scheduled to begin playing in Lucas Oil Stadium – a state-of-the-art, retractable-roof facility – beginning next season.

“This will be kind of bittersweet,” Dungy said. “We’ll shed a tear as we blow the dome up. It’s been a great home for us and it’s been great to see how it transformed as the home of the Colts. When I came here seven years ago, it was a great place to play. I think

it’s become even more of that. I think our fans have really identified. There are a lot more blue and white jerseys at the games. It was a great time.

The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts

[The General]

As Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy sees it, the team’s off-season story is a bit different this year.
This year, the story isn’t as much about roster changes. It’s not about player losses. Rather, it’s about who the Colts haven’t lost.

They didn’t lose Dallas Clark. Or Bob Sanders. Or Ryan Lilja.

So, unlike past off-seasons, when the Colts often sustained at least a few high-profile free-agent departures, Dungy said this off-season’s story is about continuity.

And that’s a much more pleasurable story, as Dungy sees it.

“We have the chance to get probably our most number of players back from the previous team that we’ve had any time since I’ve been here,” Dungy said Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine, which is ongoing this week and weekend at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis.

“Hopefully, that’s good, that continuity.”

Since Dungy’s 2002 arrival, the news around the Colts during the late-February combine as often as not has centered around free agents not likely to return.

The Colts under Dungy and Colts President Bill Polian have focused most off-seasons on re-signing their own free agents. In the past five years, they have invested big money retaining players such as quarterback Peyton Manning, wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, offensive linemen Ryan Diem and Jeff Saturday and defensive ends Dwight Freeney, Raheem Brock and Robert Mathis.

Still, because the Colts have been one of the NFL’s top drafting teams over the last decade, free-agent departures have been common, too.

In 2002, losses included guard Steve McKinney to the Houston Texans, and the following year, it lost linebacker Mike Peterson to the Jacksonville Jaguars. A year later, losses included linebacker Marcus Washington to the Washington Redskins and cornerback David Macklin to the Arizona Cardinals.

In 2005, guard Rick DeMulling signed with the Lions and tight end Marcus Pollard was released in a salary-cap move.

The trend continued the past two off-seasons. Following the 2005 season, running back Edgerrin James (Arizona), kicker Mike Vanderjagt (Dallas) and linebacker David Thornton (Tennessee) left as free agents, and following the Colts’ Super Bowl victory in 2006, four more starters signed elsewhere: linebacker Cato June (Tampa Bay), cornerbacks Nick Harper (Tennessee) and Jason David (New Orleans) and running back Dominic Rhodes (Oakland). Defensive tackle Montae Reagor and wide receiver Brandon Stokley were released in salary-cap moves.

The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts

[The General]

Please Feel free to add or comment on anything related to the COLTS with me..

[Ego74]

The Sports Network - National Football League
Colts release McFarland, Morris

Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - The Indianapolis Colts released veteran defensive tackle Anthony McFarland and linebacker Rob Morris on Wednesday.
"Booger" McFarland was a first-round pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1999 NFL Draft. The Colts picked him up from the Bucs in October of 2006 in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2007 draft. He started 11 regular- season games for the Colts that season, and was a key contributor down the stretch and in Indy's victory over Chicago in Super Bowl XLI.
McFarland suffered a knee injury early in camp in 2007 and missed the entire season.
Morris, picked 28th overall in the first round by the Colts in 2000, started at middle linebacker until late in the 2006 season, when moved to outside linebacker. He started two games in 2007 before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Denver on September 30.

[The General]

Colts have kept their 5 best offensive lineman but need some depth.

[The General]

Colts make offer to DT Ed Johnson, 5 other restricted free agents



Defensive tackle Ed Johnson, who was undrafted out of Penn State but started all 16 games as a rookie last season, received a one-year offer as an exclusive rights free agent with the Indianapolis Colts.

Johnson was bypassed in last year's draft in part because of discipline problems at Penn State, where he was suspended and dismissed from the team. But the Colts gave him a tryout, and he moved into the starting lineup after veteran Anthony McFarland sustained a season-ending knee injury in training camp. Earlier this week, the Colts waived McFarland, who was due to receive US$6.9 million this season.

The six-foot-two, 296-pound Johnson started every game at tackle and led all Colts defensive linemen with 63 tackles. Without the exclusive rights offer, available to players with expiring contracts but fewer than three years of NFL experience, Johnson would have been free to sign with any team.

Receiver Craphonso Thorpe also was in that position, but did not receive an offer by Thursday's deadline and was released.

The Colts on Friday also announced one-year qualifying offers were made to tight ends Ben Utecht and Bryan Fletcher, offensive lineman Dylan Gandy, defensive back Matt Giordano and defensive tackle Darrell Reid, all restricted free agents.

Qualifying offers allow restricted free agents to sign with other teams through April 20. The Colts may then either match the offer or receive compensation from the new team.

The club also signed kicker Shane Andrus off waivers from the New York Giants, and QB Josh Betts, DT Joe Bradley, OL Mike Elgin, OL Tala Esera, RB Justise Hairston, DE Ben Ishola, WR Onrea Jones, TE Gijon Robinson, WR Courtney Roby, C Pat Ross, LB Kyle Shotwell and P Chad Stanley, all free agents. The Colts also released linebacker Brandon Archer.

Indianapolis also has six unrestricted free agents - linebacker Rocky Boiman, defensive tackle Dan Klecko, receiver Aaron Moorehead, guard Jake Scott, tight end Mike Seidman and defensive end Josh Thomas.

This is the third straight year the Colts have signed Andrus, who was waived in training camp in 2006 and 2007. He signed as a free agent with New York in January but was waived on Feb. 13, 10 days after the Giants' Super Bowl win over New England.

The Canadian Press: Colts make offer to DT Ed Johnson, 5 other restricted free agents

[The General]

Betts is kewl and Ed Johnson has every opp now to become a star.

[ToolTrip]

So, General.

If you had their pick in round 1 this April; who are you looking at taking?

[The General]

Protect the gold. Offensive line.

[The General]

do they even have a 1st round pick?

[The General]

NFL.com - Official Site of the National Football League


2008 NFL Draft order

NFL.com

The Miami Dolphins will make the first choice of the 2008 NFL Draft on April 26-27.
The Dolphins' choice will be followed by the St. Louis Rams picking second and the Atlanta Falcons third, Oakland Raiders fourth, and the Kansas City Chiefs fifth. Atlanta won a coin toss with Oakland and Kansas City for the right to choose third. All three teams had identical 4-12 records in 2007.

Though Buffalo and Denver had the same strength-of-schedule, their tie for the 11th and 12th positions was broken by the conference tie-breaker. Since Denver defeated Buffalo in head-to-head competition, Buffalo is given priority in the draft order and will select in the 11th position.

Chicago and Detroit also had the same strength-of-schedule. Their tie for the 14th and 15th positions was broken by the divisional tiebreaker. Since the Lions defeated the Bears twice in head-to-head competition, Chicago is given priority and will select in the 14th position.

The rest of the draft was determined based off of playoff performance. This is the reason why several teams swapped positions, including the Giants, who fell to 31st because of their Super Bowl run.

The New England Patriots lost the final pick of the first round, No. 32 overall, as a reprimand for illegally using videotape on the sidelines in a Week 1 victory over the Jets.

2008 draft order
No.	Team	W	L	Pct.	Strength of schedule	Opponents' record
1	Miami Dolphins	1	15	.063	.539	138-118
2	St. Louis Rams	3	13	.188	.512	131-125
3	Atlanta Falcons	4	12	.250	.516	132-124
4	Oakland Raiders	4	12	.250	.516	132-124
5	Kansas City Chiefs	4	12	.250	.516	132-124
6	New York Jets	4	12	.250	.523	134-122
7	New England Patriots (from 49ers)	16	0	.313	.465	119-137
8	Baltimore Ravens	5	11	.313	.516	132-124
9	Cincinnati Bengals	7	9	.438	..461	118-138
10	New Orleans Saints	7	9	.438	.480	123-133
11	Buffalo Bills	7	9	.438	.516	132-124
12	Denver Broncos	7	9	.438	.516	132-124
13	Carolina Panthers	7	9	.438	.523	134-122
14	Chicago Bears	7	9	.438	.543	139-117
15	Detroit Lions	7	9	.438	.543	139-117
16	Arizona Cardinals	8	8	.500	.434	111-145
17	Minnesota Vikings	8	8	.500	.504	129-127
18	Houston Texans	8	8	.500	.516	132-124
19	Philadelphia Eagles	8	8	.500	.563	144-112
20	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	9	7	.563	.469	120-136
21	Washington Redskins	9	7	.563	.555	142-114
22	Dallas Cowboys (from Browns)	10	6	.625	.430	110-146
23	Pittsburgh Steelers	10	6	.625	.414	106-150
24	Tennessee Titans	10	6	.625	.453	116-140
25	Seattle Seahawks	10	6	.625	.500	128-128
26	Jacksonville Jaguars	10	6	.625	.516	132-124
27	San Diego Chargers	11	5	.688	.500	128-128
28	Dallas Cowboys	13	3	.688	.516	132-124
29	San Francisco 49ers (from Ind.)	13	3	.813	.469	120-136
30	Green Bay Packers	13	3	.813	.496	127-129
31	New York Giants	10	6	.813	.516	132-124

[The General]

To Tony Dungy, the coming month is a key.

The halls around the coaches’ offices are far quieter than in the fall, the locker room often is empty, and there is little public attention given to the goings on at the Colts’ Training Facility.

But make no mistake: There is plenty going on.

And Dungy said it is a month that will shape the team’s approach to the 2008 season.

“This is one of those months where you’re working on what you’re going to do,” said Dungy, who entered his seventh season as the Colts’ head coach when the NFL’s new league year began last Friday.

That, Dungy said and Colts President Bill Polian said recently, is what March is about for the Colts:

Not a lot of high-profile activity.

But a lot of important preparation and planning.

Polian, entering his 11th season with the franchise, said recently the Colts will monitor the NFL’s free-agent market, but said it’s unlikely the team will be a major player, particularly during the high-profile, high-priced early weeks. Six Colts players, including guard Jake Scott, became unrestricted free agents last week. As of Monday, none had signed elsewhere.

Polian said he and the personnel department will spend the month focused on the draft, which will be held in New York City on April 26-27. The most-high profile “events” of March are the so-called Pro Days, at which prospects from each school work out for NFL scouts on the respective campuses, and Polian said the Colts’ scouts will attend many, finalizing information. Polian said he will spend the coming month with eight-hour days preparing for the draft with the exception of attending NFL Competition Committee and NFL Owners’ Meetings.

The process of putting together the draft board will begin April 1, Polian said.

“That’s a long process that involves discussion and film work, too,” Polian said. “I know now where people ought to be. We have a preliminary board set now. To move a person more than a couple of spots in a round is a lengthy discussion.”

Dungy said he and the coaching staff also will focus on the draft this month, but he said as important a part of March for coaches involves focusing on examining offensive and defensive approach.

“You’ve got a lot of projects going on simultaneously,” Dungy said. “You’re really trying to do all that and get your experimenting done, so when your players come in here in April – then you can start to get information to them: ‘This is what we’re going to do next year; here’s how we’re going to tweak things.’

“It’s still about the team, what we need to be, what we’re going to do. So much before this was looking at our players, trying to determine what you have. Now, it becomes, ‘What do we want to do scheme-wise? What do we want to emphasize? What do we have to get better at? What is our off-season program? Will it be spent on third-down defense, or short-yardage and goal-line offense, or red-zone? Where do we need to improve?’

“That will be the big thing for the next probably two or three weeks.”

Changes, Dungy said, must be finalized before players arrive for the off-season conditioning program on March 31.

“Once we kind of hit April, you’re really zeroing in on the draft,” Dungy said. “You’re doing so much – some work with our players in the off-season program – but you want to have your plan in place when you hit April 1.”

Dungy, who said the coaches are currently finishing the evaluation of last year’s roster, said the off-season schedule has changed drastically since he first became an NFL assistant in the early 1980s. Before, he said, teams began preparation in May and June, with a heavy emphasis on training camp.

Now, he said, preparation begins earlier, making March an important month, even if it isn’t a high-profile one.

“It used to be you had a lot of time to evaluate what you want to do and kind of tweak your operations end of it,” Dungy said. “You’d look at the draft, then we always had a three-day mini-camp after the draft. That’s when you got your information to the players, but it wasn’t until that part of May where you really did anything with your veteran players.”

The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts

[The General]

First of a Position-by-Position Series on the Colts’ Roster

INDIANAPOLIS – Sometime soon, Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy said he figures he’ll have the conversation he has every off-season.
It will be with quarterback Peyton Manning.

And somewhere in the conversation, Manning – an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player and a former Super Bowl MVP – will not-so-casually mention a specific area he wants to improve next season.

Manning, Dungy said, will focus on the area. And somehow, Dungy said, a player who is widely considered one of the best in the league at his position likely will do something that has helped Indianapolis become a consistent contender over the last decade.

He’ll improve.

“He’ll still do that,” Dungy said recently in an interview with Colts.com for this story on the team’s quarterbacks, the first of a position-by-position series that will run throughout this month.

“He really does. He’ll have a focal point for this year, and what he wants to do. He’ll go over it with (Associate Head Coach) Jim Caldwell – how he wants to get to that point. That’s what makes him good, because he’s never going to stop that process of trying to get better.”

Manning, who never has missed a game in 10 NFL seasons, continued that process this past season, Dungy said – and he did so despite circumstances he never previously faced.

The Colts, after winning the Super Bowl following the 2006 season, sustained injuries and personnel losses offensively this past season. First, long-time third receiver Brandon Stokley was released the previous off-season for salary cap reasons, and was replaced by rookie first-round selection Anthony Gonzalez.

Then, three-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Tarik Glenn announced his retirement shortly before training camp.

In the fourth game of the season, eight-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Marvin Harrison sustained a knee injury that kept him out 11 of the final 12 regular-season games. Midway through the season, rookie left tackle Tony Ugoh – who replaced Glenn in the lineup – missed five games with an injury and late in the season, right tackle Ryan Diem missed six games.

The Colts’ offense, which has been ranked in the Top 10 in the NFL each season since 1999 – and in the Top Three in six of eight seasons from 1999-2006 – finished fifth in the league offensively in 2007. They also scored 450 points, third in the NFL.

“I thought we were very efficient offensively,” Dungy said. “We didn’t have our regular group all the time, but he (Manning) still got that productivity from the offense without the old reliable guys he always had. It was him picking up his game, but also doing the things that were going to make these guys comfortable and make his guys play better.

“He played very, very well.”

With two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Reggie Wayne and tight

end Dallas Clark focal points of the passing offense, Manning completed 337 of 515 passes for 4,040 yards and 31 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.

He completed 104 passes to Wayne for 1,510 yards and 10 touchdowns, and he completed 58 to Clark for 616 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Manning, the No. 1 overall selection in the 1998 NFL Draft, is the only quarterback in NFL history to open his career with 10 consecutive 3,000-plus-yard seasons, and his 10 consecutive seasons with 25 or more touchdown passes is the longest such streak in NFL history. He has more 4,000-yard seasons – eight – than any quarterback in NFL history.

He has 105 regular-season victories, the eighth-highest total in NFL history, and in his 10 seasons, Indianapolis has made eight playoff appearances, winning six division titles, making two AFC Championship Games and winning Super Bowl XLI following the 2006 season.

“He’s very special,” Dungy said. “There are probably three or four guys like that in every era that do so much and do it for a long time. You kind of take it for granted. (Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett) Favre’s been that way. (New England Patriots quarterback Tom) Brady’s been that way. Peyton has been that way.

“Sometimes, we do get numb to it. It’s 4,000 yards, 34 touchdowns, nine interceptions . . . you think that’s just kind of normal numbers, and they really aren’t.”

Dungy said Manning’s performance this past season went well beyond numbers, as did his impact on the team’s offense. His ability to read defenses, and to get the Colts out of bad situations offensively and into good ones, is critical to the team’s success.

“I think it’s his feel for the game, his memory of things, his ability to take in information, to store it, to process it, then to act on it at the right time,” Dungy said. “We give him a lot and he gets a lot on his own. He analyzes things and makes the right decision as often as anybody I’ve been around.

“Just his ability to process everything – not only his ability to read defenses, but to assess the situation in the game and the down and distance, and what you need and what they’ve done in the past . . . he makes the right decision so often. You do take it for granted.”

Also this past season, the Colts re-signed backup quarterback Jim Sorgi, a move Dungy said was critical “to keep the continuity and to know where we are.”

Sorgi, a sixth-round selection in the 2004 NFL Draft, has completed 77 of 126 passes for 751 yards and six touchdowns with one interception while playing 14 games. He completed 18 of 36 passes for 132 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions this past season.

“Jim hasn’t played as much as he would like, but the times he has played he has done a good job for us,” Dungy said. “It gives us confidence we can continue to run our offense and you’re not looking for that second quarterback.”


The Official Website of the Indianapolis Colts

[The General]

Second of a Position-by-Position Series on the Colts’ Roster.

INDIANAPOLIS – His personal goal was clear. Entering the 2007 NFL season, Colts running back Joseph Addai wanted to prove – to others and to himself – he was a No. 1 feature back.

He already had rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season.

He already had won a Super Bowl.

But Addai, the Colts’ first-round selection in the 2006 NFL Draft, hadn’t been the main feature back – not often at Louisiana State University and never in the NFL, having shared carries with veteran back Dominic Rhodes as a rookie.

In 2007, he got his chance.

As far as Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy saw it, he took full advantage.

“He did, and he got more opportunity to show he could carry the load,” Dungy recently in an interview with Colts.com for this story on the team’s running backs, the second of a position-by-position series that will run throughout this month.

“He just made that natural, normal improvement.”

Addai, the No. 30 overall selection in the 2006 draft, started 15 games in 2007, rushing for 1,072 yards and 12 touchdowns on 261 carries, an average of 4.3 yards per attempt. He also caught 41 passes – third on the Colts – for 364 yards and three touchdowns, with his 15 touchdowns the fourth-highest total in the NFL this past season.

Addai, the AFC’s ninth