According to the general manager Chris Ballard, a Indianapolis Colts and the young core of the franchise – whose majority of players are still under the age of 26, have yet to open their ‘window’ to Super Bowl strife – despite what everyone has said so far this off-season.
In fact, that window may just be starting to open – while Ballard also acknowledged that there is still work to be done (via 107.5 The Fan’s ‘The Dan Dakich Show’):
“Well, we still have work to do,” said Ballard on Friday afternoon. “We have a lot of good players. We have a lot of good young people in this team under the age of 26, which is exciting. I mean, when you just go down the list, we have a good central base. “
“We still have work to do. I mean, Castonzo’s retirement. You know Philip Rivers is retiring. “
“Do I think we have a lot of talent? Yes. Do I think we are a Super Bowl team now? No. There are many questions at stake here, but we have time. I mean, we have a free agency. We have the draft. We don’t play until 9 or 10 September. A long time between now and then. ”
“. . . When you look at our list. When you look at young people (players), Buckners. The Quenton Nelsons. The Darius Leonards. The Braden Smiths. The Nyheim Hines. Jonathan Taylors. The Michael Pittmans. Grover (Stewart). (Julian) Blackmon. ”
“We have a lot of good, young players under the age of 26, as everyone says we are in our window. We are not at our window. It may be cracking, but we have a good young team. Now, do we have work to do? Of course we have work to do, but we will always have work to do. There is no perfect team in this league, but I have a lot of confidence in our group. ”
What has made this Colts team so attractive in the future is that there are many young players on both sides of football who helped propel them to become one of the most complete and well-formed teams in the league – with plenty of room for growth and development. future.
At the moment, the Colts may just be a dynamic quarterback update (and a few key pieces, namely left tackle and pass rusher) to seriously compete for the Super Bowl.
Fortunately for the Colts, as Ballard pointed out, there is still plenty of time to sustain these critical positions through free agency, recruitment and even negotiations in this off-season.
However, the Colts have a very promising foundation that is well set up for perennial and deep success in the AFC playoffs – and with the right calculated moves, perhaps even to hoist a Lombardi trophy or two in the foreseeable future.
While keeping these young core players together is a constant challenge, the Colts managed the team’s salary cap very well – with plenty of flexibility left to retain their best local talent.
The Colts’ containment clock is not running out.
In fact, the window may just be opening.