Shrewd Colts staying the course

By Clayton Wendler  |   Tuesday, March 20, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

Indianapolis Colts
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There is a saying among linebackers in the infamous Cover 2 defensive scheme: Don't bite the cheese. Receivers playing against such a defense will often run underneath routes in order to get defenders to move upfield, away from their assigned zones.

Give the Indianapolis Colts credit. Just as they teach their linebackers, this offseason, they aren't biting that cheese.

With an enormous salary cap increase, the NFL was practically begging teams to throw money at free agents. Almost everyone did -- except the Colts.

As of this writing, Indianapolis has signed only one free agent who played for another team in 2006 -- quarterback John Navarre, formerly of the Arizona Cardinals. I'm not positive on what his signing bonus was, but I'm guessing it didn't break the bank.

The Colts, as they have usually done, chose to re-sign their homegrown talent instead -- linebackers Gilbert Gardner and Rob Morris. But they also had no problem in letting linebacker Cato June, cornerback Nick Harper, running back Dominic Rhodes and, most recently, wide receiver Brandon Stokley get away.

What's going on here? Surely the Colts should have been scrambling at every opportunity to upgrade their woeful defense from a year ago. They ranked dead last against the run, and despite a good showing in the playoffs, still require upgrades at key positions of need.

Why didn't they sign cornerback Nate Clements? Why aren't Colts fans screaming for their team to give up the picks for Chicago's Lance Briggs, a perfect replacement for June. "Why is every defensive lineman on our team still 240 pounds?" they surely yell in frustration.

Not so. Like their front office, Indy's fans know their team was built through the draft.

In last year's Super Bowl, an incredible 21 of Indy's 22 starters were drafted or signed as undrafted free agents by the team. That's almost unheard of in an era where marginal offensive tackles like Leonard Davis get almost $20 million in guaranteed money and general managers, like Denver's Mike Shanahan, go wild in the trade market.

The Colts will survive the loss of June, just as they survived the loss of Mike Peterson, Marcus Washington and David Thornton. They dumped Edgerrin James a year ago and barely saw any noticeable effects thanks to rookie Joseph Addai. Losing a backup running back like Rhodes is a trifling concern in comparison.

Harper is 33, and cornerbacks never come at a premium in Indy's Cover 2, anyway (giving Clements an $80 million contract, as the 49ers did, would have been a huge blunder for the Colts). And while Stokley was good, does anyone really believe he'd ever have amassed a 1,000-yard season had Peyton Manning not been throwing him the ball?

The Colts will look to their own roster for replacements. A young linebacker named Freddie Keiaho will get his chance to replace June. Third-year man Marlin Jackson -- another player drafted by the Colts -- might end up filling Harper's hole. Indy will undoubtedly look to the draft to replace Rhodes and Stokley in particular, especially with Marvin Harrison getting up there in age.

Nope, the Colts will relax and do what they've always done. They may have had some questions to answer this offseason, but barely a token entry into free agency doesn't have any of their fans concerned. In fact, as one of them pointed out to me, they've got questions of their own:

"Who is the winningest team in the league since '99? What team is the only one to go to the playoffs six out of the last seven years? Which team just won the Super Bowl?"

-IUColtPacerFan, IndyStar.com.
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