Frank Reich believes Justin Houston can have more production

Justin Houston is coming off of one of his best seasons.

The Indianapolis Colts had to be thrilled when veteran defensive end Justin Houston hit the market and they were able to snag who would wind up being their best pass rusher for the 2019 season.

Though the pass rush as a whole was up and down, as has been the case in recent seasons, Houston was a consistent force for the Colts from the edge. He led the team with 11.0 sacks, his most since the 2014 season. It was also the third-most in the AFC.

Even with that type of production, Colts head coach Frank Reich believes there is room for more.

“Yeah, we got everything and then some. And 11 sacks is a really good year — one of his better years in his recent years. And I just think there’s still a lot left in the tank. I think he’s in the best shape of his life,” Reich told Matt Taylor of Colts.com. “I think as he learns the system, as we continue to develop as a team — one of the things you know as far as sacks, the better we get as a team and start playing with a lead, it gives the defensive line more of an opportunity to get sacks, when the other team’s trying to come from behind. So if he’s getting 11 sacks on a team with a 7-9 (record), that shows you there’s still a lot left there; a lot of production still there.”

Even at the age of 30, Houston had one of the best seasons of his career. The 11.0 sacks were the second-highest since he entered the NFL in 2011 as a first-round pick.

Given that the Colts run more of a gap-shooting scheme and not one predicated on dropping in coverage (like he did in Kansas City), Houston was able to focus solely on getting after the quarterback. He also dropped down to playing around 65% of the snaps, rather than the full workload he had with the Chiefs.

The Colts have to improve their pass rush this offseason, but they should feel comfortable with the 30-year-old Houston leading the way.

What we learned from the Colts’ 2019 season

Takeaways from the 2019 season.

The Indianapolis Colts truly had a season that was a tale of two halves. From starting the season 5-2 and looking like a playoff team to finishing the season 7-9 and being eliminated from the playoffs in Week 15.

It was a wake-up call for the Colts. The depth wasn’t as strong as they had previously thought. Injuries piled up quickly and at multiple spots across the roster. The quarterback play wasn’t anywhere near consistent enough to keep the Colts in contention. There were a lot of issues that arose quickly.

Here are five things we learned about the Colts from the 2019 season:

Quarterback questions?

Jacoby Brissett entered the season with a near-impossible task: Keep the Colts a playoff team while stepping in after the shocking blow of Andrew Luck’s retirement. It is a difficult situation to step into regardless. However, the Colts now have some questions coming at the quarterback position this offseason.

Brissett’s struggles were troubling for the Colts. It left many wondering if he had been slightly better, could they have been a playoff team for the second time in a row? But still, his second-half decline kept the Colts from reaching the postseason for the fourth time in the last five years.

Now, the Colts enter the offseason with plenty of options at the quarterback position. If they do address it, it would likely come in the form of a draft pick in April.

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Frank Reich details where passing game must improve

Where does Frank Reich see a need for improvement?

Following a strange season that saw a change at quarterback, the Indianapolis Colts watched their passing attack falter just about every week during the second half of the regular season.

While a new commitment to the run aided the decline of the passing game, the massive step back had more to do with the quarterback under center and the injuries that befell most of the skill positions.

Even so, the Colts had one of the worst passing games in the NFL. Head coach Frank Reich told Colts.com what areas they need to improve upon in 2020.

“I think we need to have more chunk plays, be able to take advantage of a good running game and get good play-action game to get these chunk plays down the field, and then we also need to be more efficient. I think just higher-percentage completions,” Reich told Matt Taylor. “I think in third down and in red zone I think our passing game needs to get better, but was in winning range. But certainly a lot of improvement needed.”

It was a tough year for the Colts’ passing attack. Jacoby Brissett looked competent under center during the first six games of the season (albeit with some question marks) but then regression hit him hard during his final eight games—not including the Pittsburgh matchup.

An MCL sprain likely played a part in his decline as did the many injuries that overcame the tight end and wide receiver position. However, Brissett didn’t help himself when it came to pushing the ball downfield and throwing with a lack of anticipation.

Improving the entire passing game won’t be an easy task. Even if they bring in a rookie from the 2020 NFL Draft to supplant Brissett, there will be some bumps in the road.

Regardless, the Colts will have some serious improvements to make if they want the offense to being approaching where it was during the 2018 season when they made it to the AFC divisional round of the playoffs.

Colts coaches differ on impact of Jacoby Brissett’s injury

How much of an impact did it have?

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett suffered a knee injury during the Week 9 road matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers and with his subsequent regression, some coaches feel the injury is to blame. Others feel it didn’t have as big of an impact on his play.

How much Brissett is truly hampered by the MCL sprain he suffered won’t be 100% clear. Unless we are in the room with the players and coaches, we can’t truly know how healthy Brissett is. It seems, though, there is a difference of opinion on the impact of the knee injury.

From Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni on whether the knee has impacted Brissett’s accuracy:

“I know he is going to tell you no. I’ve seen a little bit in the last two steps of his drop has been a little bit different since the knee injury, yes which messes up timing a little bit. It has to do with his knee. I know exactly what he will say, but I have definitely noticed the last two steps that have been a little bit effected.”

Sirianni is certainly in the camp that Brissett’s knee injury is still impacting him on his drops. In the six games since the injury, Brissett is averaging just 188.5 passing yards per game while completing 57.5% of his passes with four touchdowns and three interceptions to go along with a 75.8 passer rating and a measly 6.08 yards per attempt.

Now, here is head coach Frank Reich’s opinion on the injury impacting Brissett:

“I do think there were a couple weeks right after the injury where he was still in recovery mode, but was playing and that is not unusual for anybody at any position. I have had other quarterbacks do the same thing and does it affect you a little bit? Yes, it affects you a little bit,” said Reich. “As far as what Nick (Sirianni) was alluding to yesterday, I mean literally there are always little mechanical things that we are working on with players at every position, I mean literally at every position. I would give Jacoby’s (Brissett) mechanics a good grade overall when you look at the overall year, the whole body of work. Are we always working on things? Do I think that what Nick is referring to is affected by the knee injury? I probably don’t, but you would have to ask Jacoby that.”

So Reich doesn’t believe that Brissett’s knee injury has had that much of a lasting impact on the mechanics and accuracy of the 27-year-old.

What many would likely allude to is the fact that Brissett’s regression started before his injury against the Steelers. Teams have gotten more tape on him and have been able to find ways to stifle his accuracy. Whether it is through pressure from blitzing or disguising coverages pre-snap, teams have quickly found a way to exploit Brissett’s weaknesses.

Having an MCL sprain will certainly hinder the ability of a quarterback. But how much it has impacted Brissett doesn’t seem clear. The coaching staff certainly differs in opinion and it will be interesting to see if this goes into their evaluation this offseason.

Frank Reich on the passing game: ‘We have to be better’

Frank Reich knows the passing game must be better.

The Indianapolis Colts offense was a disappointing unit for the majority of the season, especially when it came to the passing game.

While several factors led to the down year for the Colts through the air, the group simply didn’t have enough of an impact to get the Colts into the playoffs. From inconsistent play at the quarterback position to injuries decimating the skill positions, the passing game failed.

Head coach Frank Reich knows that the unit must be better going forward.

“We have to be better, we didn’t play well enough to make our goals this year but we’re really close and we know it doesn’t take that much,” Reich told reporters on Tuesday. “So we just have to keep working at it.”

The Colts rank near the bottom of the league in most passing categories. They are fifth-worst in yards per game (197.7), 16th in touchdowns (22), and third-worst in yards per attempts (6.5).

It has been a tough season to watch the Colts passing game. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett started off hot, but his flaws only were magnified as the season progressed.

In the last seven games (excluding the Steelers game), Brissett has thrown just four passing touchdowns. In five of his games this season, he has failed to throw for a touchdown.

It will be an interesting offseason for the Colts. It is clear they love Brissett and truly believe in his talent, but the need for a new quarterback is impossible to ignore.

The passing game for the Colts was nothing short of disappointing this season, and they must do something to address the unit when the offseason arrives.

Behind Enemy Lines: Who is the future for the Colts at QB?

To learn more about them, we spoke with Colts Wire managing editor Kevin Hickey.

The Panthers play the Colts this week for the first time in four years.

To learn more about them, we spoke with Colts Wire managing editor Kevin Hickey. Here’s five questions he answered about his team.

Panthers Wire: What do the Colts have with Jacoby Brissett? Is he a franchise QB they can build around, or do you think they’ll draft somebody?

Colts Wire: Brissett is somewhat of an enigma. He has the tools to be a very successful starter in the NFL. He has a strong arm, great pocket mobility and is a perfect leader in the locker room. However, he has issues with anticipation and pushing the ball downfield. He’s conservative so there aren’t a lot of turnovers, but it has hurt the offense in the long run. The draft will be interesting because most are calling for Chris Ballard to pull the trigger on a new quarterback, but they absolutely love him. So it remains to be seen what they will do at the position.

PW: Frank Reich had a tough draw losing Andrew Luck when he did. What grade would you give him for how he’s responded this year?

CW: Having to deal with that is extremely difficult. To even get the Colts to a 5-2 record to begin the season was astounding. However, there have been some tough injuries to key players and the limitations of Brissett forced the Colts out of playoff contention last week. But to even get this team into the playoff race is amazing. I’d probably give him a B+.

PW: Talk about Darius Leonard. What makes him special as a defender and what kind of ceiling does he have?

CW: There are many reasons Leonard is so special. He has the perfect size and speed for today’s NFL. His closing speed and sure-tackling are already elite and his ability in pass coverage is improving. He’s been on a for the majority of the season. When talking about his ceiling, its being the best linebacker in football. There’s a chance he reaches it for a year or two if he continues to progress.

PW: The Colts have lost four in a row and six of their last seven. What’s going wrong?

CW: It’s been a rough two months for the Colts. The biggest problem has been the injuries. Several starters, especially on the offensive side of the ball have been missing time. But without using that as an excuse, the offense hasn’t been what is what expected to be. They lack explosive plays and when the run game isn’t working, the offense can be shut down. It got to the point where it was simply too late to come back from and its one of the biggest reasons they didn’t make the playoffs.

PW: The Panthers are also on an extended losing streak (currently six games). Who wins on Sunday and why?

CW: Even with the Colts struggling, I see them coming out on top at home. Facing a rookie quarterback in Will Grier should give the defense plenty of chances to get off the field. The Colts also have a good matchup against the Panthers run defense so Indy should be able to control the clock and the line of scrimmage. I have it Colts 24-17.

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Colts offense to experiment with subtle changes in final games

Colts will be experimenting a bit.

The Indianapolis Colts have just two games remaining in the regular season before the madness of the new league year arrives, and they are hoping to learn something before changes to the roster are made.

While they have certainly learned more about their team and the roster during the first 15 weeks of the regular season, head coach Frank Reich will be experimenting with some subtle changes to the offense now that the team has been eliminated from playoff contention.

“I mean I have one subtle thing in mind that I obviously don’t want to share for game-planning reasons but it would be a both/and Kevin (Bowen).” Reich told reporters. “It would be maybe something philosophically and it could be a couple subtleties of things off playbooks or maybe things that are in but we haven’t emphasized that maybe we need to emphasize a little bit more and see how we respond as an offense.”

The Colts offense saw major regression in 2019. Injuries decimated the wide receiver corps and Jacoby Brissett’s play under center didn’t push the needle to make the Colts a consistently productive offensive unit.

However, the games now mean nothing in terms of playoff implications. This gives Reich and offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni a chance to try some new installs into the offense that they may have thought were too risky while fighting for a playoff spot.

Even so, the Colts will be doing what they can to come out with a win in these final two games of the season.

“Like I said, we are really committed to winning these last two. We talked about that. We had a very spirited team-meeting this morning. We acknowledged that we had to reset our goals because our goal was to win our division, get in the playoffs and win a world championship,” Reich said. “That is not happening this year so you have got to be a man and face that. So now what are our goals? So we reset those goals and talked about what we are going to try to do the next two weeks.”

It will be interesting to see what the Colts change either from a schematic standpoint or a philosophical point, but some changes should be expected in the final two weeks.

Colts’ Frank Reich: Jacoby Brissett is our QB

Frank Reich has full confidence in Jacoby Brissett.

The Indianapolis Colts may be on the outside looking in for the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean any drastic changes will come in the final two weeks. Most notably, Jacoby Brissett will remain the quarterback under center.

Though there was a call to have Chad Kelly play the final two games, head coach Frank Reich shot down that notion quickly when speaking to reporters on a Tuesday conference call.

As expected, Reich put his full vote of confidence behind Brissett as the starting quarterback.

“Yeah, no Jacoby (Brissett) is our quarterback,” Reich said Tuesday. “Jacoby is a second-year starter and he’s done a lot of really good things this year. We have two games, that’s really an opportunity for him to work to get better.”

Brissett is coming off of his worst game this season. He completed 18 of 34 passes for 165 yards without a touchdown. He was wildly erratic with his throws to all areas of the field and continued the narrative that his play has regressed over the last two months.

There was never any chance the Colts were going to start anyone but Brissett as long as he’s healthy. Reich also mentioned that the Colts will dive a little deeper to see if there is anything they can change to benefit Brissett in the final two games of the season.

“But really for Nick (Sirianni) and I and the rest of the offensive staff to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got two games. Should we try a couple things? Might we try a couple things, experiment with one or two things?’ Let us learn, let us learn Jacoby,” Reich said. “Maybe there’s something that we haven’t been doing that is good for him. So we’ll look at some alternative schemes, introduce one or two new thoughts in the next two weeks.”

The Colts are officially out of the playoff race with two games remaining, but Reich is putting his full confidence in Brissett as the starting quarterback moving forward, which makes for an interesting offseason coming up.

How much of Colts’ epic collapse is on Frank Reich?

Does Frank Reich deserve blame for the collapse?

The Indianapolis Colts (6-8) have now lost four games in a row, six of their last seven and are officially out of playoff contention following Monday night’s humiliating loss against the New Orleans Saints (11-3).

There is plenty of blame to go around. Most of it will go on the shoulders of quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who has regressed incredibly during the second half of the season. But how much of that blame for the Colts’ monumental collapse should fall on the shoulders of head coach Frank Reich?

It’s a fair question to ask after the Colts’ season hit rock bottom on Monday night.

After a 5-2 start to the season, the Colts looked like they could be primed for a playoff run in the second half. That was truly astounding after having to go through Andrew Luck’s shocking retirement just three weeks before the start of the regular season.

But that beaming optimism came to a screeching halt. Over the first seven games, the Colts were leading the division and were a potential candidate to have a top-four seed in the AFC.

Over the last seven games, the Colts have come out victorious just once and are now officially eliminated from playoff contention.

There is a myriad of factors that have gone into the collapse of the Colts over the second half of the season. Reich deserves his share of the blame, but there are some bigger factors out of his control that has led to Indy’s demise.

Injuries

The Colts truly tried to embrace the “Next Man Up” mantra. And in some cases they did. However, the injury bug bit the Colts extremely hard this season. That doesn’t fall on Reich.

The entire starting wide receiver room has either dealt with season-ending injuries (Devin Funchess, Parris Campbell) or have missed multiple games due to injuries (T.Y Hilton). This already set the offense back without the benefit of having an elite quarterback.

Jacoby Brissett’s regression

Some of this is on Reich. While Brissett was enjoying a strong start to the season, he has come crashing down in a spectacular fashion. With accuracy issues and struggles with anticipation, Brissett has shown over the last two months that the Colts must begin working on a plan for his replacement.

We know Reich is a genius when it comes to aiding quarterback play and scheming an offense. And Brissett’s incompetence at times are simply a factor that Reich can’t control.

Reich can scheme players open all he wants but there’s nothing he can do if Brissett is erratic or doesn’t want to take the necessary risks—something we’ve seen far too much of this season.

Brissett’s regression should fall a bit on Reich’s shoulders because that’s his area of expertise, but there were plenty of factors that were out of the head coach’s hands.

Adam Vinatieri

Once a reliable and trustworthy kicker, the 46-year-old regressed impeccably to the tune of 14 missed kicks this season. He has since been placed on the injured reserve list but his failing season cost the Colts a few games in the win column.

We can all agree that Vinatieri’s struggles late in games aren’t on Reich, for the most part.

Not an uncommon situation

The Colts fell hard during the second half of the season. But this situation isn’t unique to just Indy. Several teams had to deal with the loss of their starting quarterback and some even found success.

Look at the Pittsburgh Steelers for example. They are a potential playoff team with two games left, and they lost their two biggest weapons in Ben Roethlisberger and Juju Smith-Schuster.

The New Orleans Saints—albeit a much more talented team—lost Drew Brees for essentially for six-game stretch (he played just nine snaps in Week 2) and are now 11-3 with a chance to lock up the top seed in the NFC.

The blame can be passed around everywhere. Reich deserves his share, certainly, but the bulk of the team’s collapse doesn’t fall mostly on him. There are simply too many factors outside of his control that has led to the exceptional downfall.

He’s still the right man for the job and if the Colts can get healthy and even upgrade at quarterback next season, this season will look like an outlier.

Colts’ Frank Reich believes Lamar Jackson is the MVP

Frank Reich says Lamar Jackson is the MVP.

Fortunately, the Indianapolis Colts didn’t have to make a game plan for stopping Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson this season, but that didn’t keep head coach Frank Reich from sending some praise his way.

The second-year quarterback is enjoying a historic season. He’s already broken Michael Vick’s record for most rushing yards in a season by a quarterback while also posting an impressive 33-6 touchdown to interception ratio with a 112.6 passer rating.

When asked about how much mobility plays into the factor of an elite quarterback, Reich told reporters he has no doubt Jackson is the MVP for the season.

“I think that those traits that I just talked about – you look at a guy like Lamar Jackson. Here is the MVP of the league, I mean there is no question about that in my mind,” Reich said Saturday. “He has elite physical traits that nobody else has at that level and yet he still has all the other stuff.”

The 2018 first-round pick has taken the league by storm in a way we haven’t seen since Vick. And to that extent, there are things that Jackson does on the field that Vick wasn’t able to do.

But what intrigues Reich is how unique offenses can develop around the talent. There can be this extraordinary and athletically gifted quarterback like Jackson, who is changing the perception of the quarterback position. Or success can be found with a traditional quarterback like Drew Brees—the Colts’ Week 15 opponent.

“[Jackson’s] a unique player, but so is Drew Brees. That is what is kind of cool about this game, that you can tailor your offense around those two different kind of guys,” said Reich.

The Colts didn’t have to play against Jackson this season but if Reich had a vote for the MVP award, we know who he would give it to.