Category: Colts

Vontae Davis, two-time Pro Bowl DB, dead at 35

Former NFL DB Vontae Davis died at 35

Vontae Davis, a first-round pick of the Miami Dolphins, has died at 35.

Davis’ body was found at his grandmother’s home in South Florida, police confirmed to NFL.com.

Preliminary information suggests that foul play was not involved in Davis’ death, according to police.

Davis played for the Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and Buffalo Bills.

He was a two-time Pro Bowler.

Colts owner Jim Irsay extended his condolences on social media.

The Dolphins did, too.

Davis played 121 NFL games (113 starts), totaling 395 tackles, 97 passes defended, and 22 picks over his 10-year career.

Can Gardner Minshew be more than a placeholder for the Raiders?

Gardner Minshew gets another shot to be a starting quarterback — this time with the Raiders. Can he put it all together this time around?

As they attempt to claw their way back to relevance, the Las Vegas Raiders are in need of a franchise quarterback, or something approaching that. Aidan O’Connell was the only serious candidate until Monday, when the team agreed to terms with veteran Gardner Minshew on a two-year, $25 million deal with $15 million fully guaranteed. That per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network.

Selected in the sixth round of the 2019 draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars out of Washington State, Minshew was denigrated in some circles because he played in Mike Leach’s air-raid offense, but he’s proven able to do more in different systems over time. Last season, he was the main man for the Indianapolis Colts after starter Anthony Richardson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, and Minshew completed 305 of 490 passes for 3,305 yards, 15 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a passer rating of 84.6.

That would lead you to believe that Minshew might not be more than a guy competing in training camp for a job, but Minshew did have his moments for the Colts. He completed 20 of 51 passes of 20 or more air yards last season for 715 yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 81.9. and he’s always been a better-than-average deep thrower.

Minshew has the capacity to lead an NFL offense if he keeps the randomness to a minimum and plays within structure — when that went south, things got a little weird.

Perhaps Minshew can keep everything in line, giving the Raiders more of a quarterback structure than they envisioned. This of course does not preclude the selection of a quarterback in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft.

One voter’s 2023 AP First-Team All-Pro ballot

If you’ve ever wanted to see an official First-Team All-Pro ballot, we have you covered.

There are moments in your career where you think to yourself… “Yeah, this is a moment to remember.” Two years ago, when the Associated Press asked me to be one of the analysts responsible for voting for the First- and Second-Team All-Pro teams, as well as NFL Most Valuable Player and all other individual awards, that was certainly such a moment for me.

So, this is my second year of voting, and I wanted to share my first-team ballot with our readers. It’s an honor I take incredibly seriously, and this process involves a ton of advanced metrics, tape study, and reflections from a season of diving into both.

Some of these votes were easy; some were incredibly difficult. But it will give you a bit of insight into what happens with an All-Pro vote.

2024 NFL Mock Draft: End-of-season quarterback decisions lead to surprising picks

How many NFL teams will stick with their current quarterbacks? A high number could make for an interesting first round of the 2024 draft.

Now that the 2023 NFL regular season is over, every team turns its attention to the draft — even those teams that are part of the postseason. Area scouts will start to move to the home facility to interact with scouting directors and general managers, and with the scouting combine less than two months away, it’s time to start putting your big boards together.

This applies especially to those teams with crucial quarterback decisions to make. For the purposes of this mock draft, we’ll assume that the Chicago Bears are sticking with Justin Fields, the Arizona Cardinals are committed to Kyler Murray, the Tennessee Titans think they have a future franchise quarterback in Will Levis, and the New York Jets think that eventually, Aaron Rodgers will stop shooting his mouth off long enough to play quarterback in 2024.

Conversely, the Washington Commanders, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Atlanta Falcons will avail themselves of the best draftable quarterbacks possible in the interest of turning things around.

So, four quarterbacks go in the first round here, with more teams looking to build around the guys they’ve already got. That makes for one notable omission (Oregon’s Bo Nix), and a whole bunch of talented prospects at other positions pushing themselves up the boards.

C.J. Stroud, Nico Collins combine to give Houston Texans the ideal passing attack

C.J. Stroud and Nico Collins of the Texans proved Saturday night that they’re ready to face any defense. Just in time for the playoffs.

Before we get into what the Houston Texans did to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night, we should remind you what quarterback C.J. Stroud did without. The Texans had lost receivers Nathaniel “Tank” Dell, Robert Woods, and Noah Brown to injury — three of their top five receivers on the season. And it didn’t matter one bit. Partially because Stroud was in as much of a zone as we’ve seen from him in his nearly-sure Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign, and partially because receiver Nico Collins decided to become some unholy combination of Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans.

In the 23-19 win that put the Texans in the playoffs and eliminated the Colts from the postseason, Stroud completed 20 of 26 passes for 264 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 134.1. Stroud’s poise in and out of the pocket, ball placement, understanding of reads and coverages, and ability to sustain big plays through a game have been evident all season long, and never more so than in this game. And in his first prime-time NFL contest, Stroud proved it all the way through.

“C.J. – he doesn’t surprise me,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said after the game. “We’ve talked about it earlier in the week with C.J. just being special in these big-time moments. When we need him most to step up and make plays, he has done it time after time throughout the entire year. It’s not surprising to anyone. That’s who he is. He is one of the best passers in this league, and he shows it consistently game in and game out.”

No argument there, and let’s review the details of what both Stroud and Collins were able to do.

What was Shane Steichen thinking on the Colts’ last offensive play?

The Colts are out of the playoff picture after their loss to the Texans, and everybody wants to know about Shane Steichen’s final play call.

Shane Steichen has been great for the most part in his first season as the Indianapolis Colts’ head coach, but it’s tough not to wonder what Steichen, who’s the Colts’ offensive shot-caller as well, was thinking on what turned out to be his team’s final offensive play of the 2023 NFL season.

With 1:06 left in the game, and the Colts down 23-17, Indianapolis had the ball on the Houston 15-yard line on fourth-and-1. Quarterback Gardner Minshew tried to drive the defense offside before calling a time out, and then, THIS happened. A bad throw from Minshew, and a bad catch attempt from undrafted rookie running back Tyler Goodson, and the Colts’ postseason hopes went right down the drain.

Having Taylor off the field in that instance was certainly… interesting. The star back had left the field earlier in the game with a heel injury, but on the drive that led to that last failed play, he carried the ball nine times for 23 yards. Maybe Steichen thought Taylor needed a breather, or perhaps Taylor re-aggravated his injury, but that put the Colts at a personnel disadvantage. Taylor had run 30 times for 188 yards and a touchdown in the game.

“Yeah, he was all right,” Steichen said of Taylor. “The play we had up, we had to look for it. It was man-to-man coverage and just it didn’t work out.

“Obviously we called time out there. It was fourth-and-one, we saw the front they were in and we liked the look for that play in that situation.

“Felt good about Goodson in that situation. He’s a pass-catcher for us in the backfield. and it is what it is.”

Welp.

Secondly, while the Colts throw the ball frequently on fourth down — Minshew had 20 fourth-down attempts coming into this game — and while 17 of those passes came out of shotgun, by rolling with shotgun and taking Taylor out of the game, the Colts were telegraphing their intent to Houston’s defense. Maybe the play call would have worked had Goodson caught the ball, and we’d prefer to deal with process over outcome, but when the outcome takes you out of the playoffs, that’s a tough one.

Third, Minshew had completed 13 of 24 passes for 141 yards in this game, and he was inaccurate more than he was accurate. So again, the play call was fine. But the circumstances surrounding it will draw questions through a long offseason for the Colts.

“Man, I thought it was a great call — a perfect look.” Minshew said after the game. “It was just one of those plays.”

Colts knot Texans on Jonathan Taylor TD run, two-point conversion

The Colts have rallied from 11 down to tie the Texans

The Indianapolis Colts erased an 11-point deficit against the Houston Texans in Saturday’s win-and-you’re-in game for an AFC playoff berth.

The big play in the third quarter was a 49-yard touchdownrun by Jonathan Taylor.

Shane Steichen followed that by going for a two-point conversion and Gardner Minshew connected with Mo Allie-Cox to tie things at 14.

Social media goes wild over C.J. Stroud’s first-play 75-yard TD against Colts

C.J. Stroud got his Texans off to a big bang against the Colts in a crucial win-and-in game, and social media went wild.

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud has been one of the most impressive first-year players at his position in pro football history, and in Saturday night’s game against the Indianapolis Colts — the winner takes the AFC North — it didn’t take long for Stroud to show why he is who he is. With 9:06 left in the first quarter, Stroud hit play-action and zinged the ball wayyyyyy downfield in the direction of receiver Nico Collins, who singed rookie cornerback JuJu Brents for a 75-yard score.

Stroud is doing this right now without three of his top five receivers due to injury — Tank Dell, Robert Woods, and Noah Brown — but as long as he has Nico Collins on the field, things will be alright.

Receiver Puks Nacua of the Los Angeles Rams will have something to say about that, but at this point, how do you not have Stroud as No. 1 in the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation?

Those who saw the play, and were on Twitter at the time, seemed to agree.

The Colts might want to switch their defensive plan against C.J. Stroud

C.J. Stroud has killed Cover-3 all season long, and the Colts play a ton of Cover-3. Something’s going to break on Saturday night.

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud has been one of the NFL’s most compelling rookies in recent years, regardless of position. He’s a primary reason why the Texans, who finished the 2022 season with a 3-13-1 record, are playing Saturday night for the AFC South championship at 9-7. Stroud and his comrades will tangle with a Colts defense that is quite underrated of late.

But this Colts defense has already seen more of Stroud than they might like. In Stroud’s second regular-season game of his NFL career, he carved Gus Bradley’s defense up to the tune of 30 completions in 47 attempts for 384 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 103.5.

In the rematch, Bradley might want to switch his priors around a bit. The Colts have played the NFL’s second-highest rate of Cover-3 this season (48.8%, behind only the Carolina Panthers’ 50.0%), and Stroud has killed Cover-3 all season long. The Colts in Week 2 played Cover-3 on a league-high 22 of Stroud’s dropbacks back then, and Stroud completed 14 of 19 passes for 178 yards, 95 air yards, both of his touchdowns, and a passer rating of 137.6 against Bradley’s favorite coverage. For the season, Stroud has completed 91 of 136 passes for 1,211 yards, 798 air yards, six touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 106.6 against Cover-3.

This 23-yard touchdown to rookie receiver Nathaniel “Tank” Dell in Week 2 had Stroud showing off one of his best throws against zone coverage — the quick out. The Texans had a mirrored concept here with two slot verts and two outside out routes, and the structure of the routes had Dell beating cornerback Darrell Baker, who was likely expecting Dell to run something vertical, underneath. Ready, set, go.

“He’s very talented,” Bradley said this week of Stroud. “First of all, he plays with great poise. He handles pressures, he handles looks, he handles different schemes very well. He gets the ball out timely. Does he hold it some? Yeah, because they take some shots, but it is timely when it is the quick game and when it’s in their intermediate passes. His accuracy is very good so – very poised, accurate, playing above the level of being a rookie. I think at this point in time, he’s not a rookie because the looks that he’s seen. He’s playing very well for them right now. I think they’re third or something in explosive passes. I know very high, I think the analytics told us so. He does a great job with the threats he has on the outside.”

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into Stroud’s return from a concussion, how he was able to dice up the Titans’ pass defense in Week 17, and what it all means for this crucial Saturday night matchup. The Colts will be ready with some serious improving players on the defensive side of the ball, and it’s important to remember that Stroud was also sacked six times in that Week 2 game.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing Week 18’s biggest NFL matchups

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys preview the final week of the regular season with tape and metrics.

It’s time for Week 18 of the 2023 NFL campaign — the final week of the regular season — and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most important games, playoff scenarios, and interesting matchups:

Kansas City Chiefs-Los Angeles Chargers — Why the Chiefs wouldn’t even be a playoff team without Steve Spagnuolo, and how Kansas City’s defense got four sacks in five plays against the Bengals on Cincinnati’s final drive.

Philadelphia Eagles-New York Giants — The Eagles had best fix their leaky run defense before the playoffs, and the Giants could be a stern test in that regard.

Houston Texans- Indianapolis Colts — C.J. Stroud is back for the Texans, and he’ll face a Colts defense with a lot of underrated players. The winner takes the AFC South.

Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers — The 49ers have wrapped up the NFC’s one-seed, so they won’t play many of their starters, but it’s time to recognize a Rams defense defined by two rookies, and more underrated players.

Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins — Two up-and-down teams are fighting for control of the AFC East, and it could come down to which unit figures itself out: Buffalo’s offense, or Miami’s defense.

Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers — The Bears won’t make the playoffs, but they have a fascinating decision to make about Justin Fields’ future. Meanwhile, Packers quarterback Jordan Love has been as good as anyone at his position in the second half of the season.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar” right here:

You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.