Following Tom Brady's drubbing of the Buccaneers on Sunday (EDIT: Apparently it wasn't on Sunday, read comments below), he gave a press conference in which he was asked about Peyton Manning's, the $90 Million man, chances of playing when the Colts season opens against the Texans. With a smile on his face he expressed disbelief that there was a chance that Manning wouldn't play. "He'll be playing, you gotta be kidding me. I know Peyton he's as tough a competitor as there is" Brady said. He recounted what he once heard long time Colts head coach Tony Dungy say that Peyton would have "to be dead or something not to play."

    This all sounds good news, especially after the surprising signing of previous divisional rival Kerry Collins to back up Manning with only 2 weeks of preseason left. What appears most likely, is that Manning will indeed play. It seems if he can stand up and hold a ball, he will play. The surprising signing is probably in case of further injury, or if the current injury severely damages the quality of 18's throwing.

Expect to seem some form of Peyton at the line of scrimmage in 2 weeks, lets just all cross our fingers that its the Peyton we all expect.

Ok so there's been a lot of talk about different formations, mainly talking about how to get Garcon and Gonzo both on the field. Now my dream job is probably a coordinator for the colts ( But if any other team GM's are reading, I'm open to other offers I suppose). This got me thinking, and after looking through the colts roster I noticed we've got two kickers. I also remember Caldwell looking through the colts playbook and having to attempt a 50 yard field goal because we had no other suitable plays. After a lot of thought this is what Ive come up with

 

 

 

It might look quite complicated, and well it is. Its hard for formation gurus like me to simplify my ideas but Ill try.  Here's some plays Ive worked out we could run from this:

• Field goal: The ball is snapped to either AV (Adam Vin.) or the other kicker who I'm presuming has slightly longer range. Sure they have a slightly bad angle, but AV wont care. This play is an instant field goal.
  
• Punt: Pretty obviously the ball is snapped to Pat, the punter. This is done by Peyton ducking just as Jeff snaps the ball. Other then that its a standard punt, with Jeff Saturday and Peyton acting as the main 'Gunners'. I think they'd make a great team.
  
• Pass: The ball is snapped to Peyton at QB, the 3 Kickers all block for him along with the line. This leaves Dallas the TE to run whatever route he chooses. We all know that if Peyton wants to pass to Clark, then hes going to do it and it will be completed, even if its quadruple coverage on him( or Sextuplet Coverage if the defence rushes 4). This play is an instant TD.
• Fake Field goal Pass: The ball is snapped to AV, while Peyton and the 2 remaining kickers move over to the right side of the field. The two kickers act as blockers for Peyton as AV laterals the ball towards him. He then completes a pass to Clark. This play is also an instant TD.
• Fake Punt Field goal: The ball is snapped to the punter, who laterals it to the kicker who then kicks a field goal. What advantage does this have over just a normal field goal? I have no idea, but its awesome.
• Fake Pass Field goal: Ok this play doesnt have much logic, but it will keep the defence on their toes. And as Sun Tzu said 'Keep the defence on their toes and you will WIN'. The ball is snapped to Peyton, who laterals it to either kicker who puts it between the posts for an easy 3.
• Fake Pass fake Field goal Fake Punt TE Sweep Option: This is probably my most complicated (and best) play. The ball is snapped to Peyton, who laterals it to a kicker, who laters it to the punter, who hands it off to Dallas on an end around, who then has the option of throwing the ball to the other kicker who has ran down the field or attempting to run it in.

I hope you've understood the genius of my formation, called the 'AWESOME' formation. I'm planning on attending training camp and pitching it to Polian, or trying to pass it on to Peyton from the stands. Either way expect to see it next season.

A genius like me doesn't really need input from simpletons like yourselves who probably wont realise the genius of my formation, but feel free to post. Also rec if you want to see it next season.

So the seasons over, its wrapped up and in the history books. We didn't win it all but were very close, so I'm sure we can all agree it was a hell of a season I thought now (in the slow offseason) is as good a time as any to look back at my predictions I made during and before the season.

Please feel free to look through my fanposts if you don't believe I could of made some of these insane predicitons.

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Alot of people consider Bill Polian a great drafter and personell man. Personally I agree, sure he doesnt hit 100% of the time but this is a team built through the draft, and its a damn successful one. So I thought it would be interesting to compare the amount of undrafted free agents each team has picked up that have made considerable contributions to the team. Mainly to see if us having such faith in Polian is justified. Im going to do every draft since the 2000 draft. And yes I probably will miss some players, but Ill do my best. Ive also added the collective pro bowls these players have been to.

The table is in descending order and below it I've put some observations I've made from it.

 

Team	UD FA	Pro Bowls
New England Patriots	9	0
San Diego Chargers	9	12
Indianapolis Colts	7	0
Dallas Cowboys	7	4
Kansas City Chiefs	5	4
Pittsburgh Steelers	5	5
Denver Broncos	4	0
Jacksonville Jaguars	4	0
New York Giants	4	0
Philadelphia Eagles	4	1
Seattle Seahawks	4	1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	4	1
Baltimore Ravens	3	1
Buffalo Bills	3	5
Cleveland Browns	3	2
Miami Dolphins	3	3
New York Jets	3	0
Atlanta Falcons	3	4
Minnesota Vikings	3	1
Tennessee Titans	2	1
Arizona Cardinals	2	0
Carolina Panthers	2	0
Chicago Bears	2	0
Green Bay Packers	2	0
New Orleans Saints	2	0
Washington Redskins	2	1
Cincinnati Bengals	1	0
Oakland Raiders	1	0
San Francisco 49ers	1	0
St. Louis Rams	1	0
Houston Texans	0	0
Detroit Lions	0	0

 

 

• The general order of things make sense if you look at success over the past decade. Patriots at one end and Lions at the other, however some teams really stick out. The Cheifs 4th and Texans joint last are the main ones. Thats probably just because of the inaccuracy of undrafted rookies equalling wins, but some good conclusions can still be made from it.
• I love it how far the chargers are to the top. It confirms to me everything I and the rest of the world think about Norv Turner, he cant coach for crap. Fire him already. Its hard to ignore how stacked the Chargers roster is and has been for the past decade and yet theyve had very little success. The amount of pro bowls confirms this.
  
• Lions, Rams, Raiders and Redskins all near the bottom of this table. All of which are really sucky teams at the minute. Seems to me they suck because they failed to bring in talented youth as this chart shows.
• Seems to me Polian is good at this kindof thing. With such small scale numbers its fair enough from a statistical point of view to claim differences of 2 players not very important, so its fair to say Polian ranks in the very top.
• Why have none of our undrafted free agents been to the probowl your asking? Because its already full of drafted colts. No, its actually becase the probowl is a sham and we all know it. So dont read too much into the pro bowls column. We all know Brackett deserves to go, yet it hasnt happened.

So in conclusion, yeah Polian is good, and yeah Al Davis sucks. Seems to me that undrafted free agents arent a huge indicator of the success of a team, but they can be a good indicator. Hope some of you found this numbers reasonably interesting and let me know what you think. Rec if you like it!

Also if someone can help me out with formatting tables on this thing itd be nice

Edit: Ive put in all the stuff and stats about pro bowls.

What was going on with Marshall?

Hate to be telling a 13-0 team how to play, but come on Coyer. At the very least give Jennings some help with Marshall, if not give him to someone else (Eg  Any of the 3 DBs you have ABOVE Jennings on the depth chart). Yeah I know he got an interception, but it was a bad play by Orton not a good play by Jennings, and the guy gave up 21 catches to Marshall, thats not good no matter how you put it. We have had some trouble covering no. 1 recievers all year (what team doesnt?) but that part of the Colts' game today was a joke. Could easily give a loss in the playoffs with a weakness like that.

Manning's game wasnt as bad as the stats show

Two of his 3 interceptions were tipped balls, and its hard to really blame him for that. If we take those 2 passes out we get 20/40 for 220 yards 4 TDS and 1 INT which is a pretty decent game. He really is 'the Man'-ing

Special Teams

Im surprised McAfee isnt getting more attention, the guys doing a great job punting and doing kickoffs, good hangtime and distance. Also has anyone been noticing Keiaho on STs alot of is it just me?

 

Those were my thoughts just after watching, what did you all think?

I dont think Sorgi is injured, or if he is injured then he isnt injured badly enough to land on the IR, heres what I think is really going on.

 

• Painter is playing well, outplaying Sorgi.
  
• Colts realise Painter can be their new long term back up
• They want to get rid of Sorgi, hes wasting a roster spot that could come in handy. They have a few options
  

1. Relase him.
   
2. Keep him
3. Exaggerate his injury and put him on IR

Seems to me they would go for number 3. They cant do number 1, because Sorgi must no a hell of a lot about how the offense works, and to release him now would mean another team snap him up and grill him for information on the colts. This close to the playoffs itd be insane.  Keeping him is wasting a roster spot, so if they cant put him on IR then hell they should go for it.

 

Disclaimer: Some of you might call this heavy ridiculous speculation, and youd be damn right. Ive made a lot of assumptions, all of which could be wrong, but I think it could be a possibility and was worth pointing out.

It seems like weve gotten alot of heat this year as every other year, especially from this idiot who predicted

After enjoying a long run as one of the AFC's premier teams, Colts will struggle in Jim Caldwell's first season and miss playoffs.

Prediction:  8-8, fourth in AFC South

I wont waste my time telling you how we arent going to go 8-8 since you all clearly know more then this idiot, but heres what I think.

• Austin Collie will be shown to of been a steal at a 4th round pick. Hes going to have a very strong rookie year. Not a rookie of the year performance, but a very strong 3rd WR like Gonzalez was in his rookie year. I think he will show he should of been taken by someone in the late 1st or maybe 2nd round.
• Addai will get worse. He seems to have lost most of his abilities that gave him such a good rookie year, and now we will just stick Brown in who will have a very strong season. I think this will lead to Addai becoming a 2nd string back, even if he still does get some playing time in the '10 season it will be clear he is the 2nd string back. I think this season he will be used mainly as a passing target and less of a runner.
  
• We will make it deep into the playoffs. Quite an easy prediction, we got unlucky vs San Diego, and for our standards I dont think that was such a great team anyway, this time we can do much better.
• Our defensive line will be all round worse. We are moving from a philosophy of having small fast defensive linemen for big slower defensive linemen. This year we are kind of in between, and I think our front 4 pass rush will suffer quite a bit, but our run defence will get a bit better, but only a bit. I think this year will be ok against the pass but still bad against the run, where as previously we've been good against the pass and bad against the run.

Hopefully Ill come back to these predictions at the end of the season, and see how right or wrong I was. Since its my first post id appreciate some comments, do you agree with them or disagree?