Certain pundits have argued that the Colts FAILURE to win the Super Bowl the last four years has been attributed to Bill Polian's poor drafting record. Getting to the playoffs for 8 straight seasons, but winning only 1 Super Bowl has been an unmitigated disaster. Forget that only one of 32 teams wins the championship every year.

Bay Area Comcast Sports recently published a five-year study evaluating the best drafting teams of the last five years (2006-2010). The Indianapolis Colts were ranked the third best drafting team during this time period. 

3. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
Number of picks: 41
Still on team: 28
Starters: 9
Best pick: S Antoine Bethea, 2006
Worst pick: OT Tony Ugoh, 2007
Overall: In the past five years, the Colts' first selections came at Nos. 31, 27, 59, 32 and 30. Yet, the Colts have done an admirable good job of adding talent and depth to a team that already had championship-caliber nucleus. The Colts have managed to achieve success in the sixth round, with the additions of two-time Pro Bowl safety Antoine Bethea, receiver Pierre Garcon and starting left tackle Charlie Johnson. Their lone early swing-and-miss was Ugoh, chosen No. 42 overall in 2007. He was cut before last season.

This is a solid evaluation of the totality of drafts. Instead of pointing at some of the misses (Ugoh/DonBrown), it looks at every round. The Colts get more starters and contributors through the draft than the majority of NFL teams. This is especially impressive considering the Colts consistently draft in the bottom five picks of the draft. 

The Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints ranked 1 and 2 respectively. 

Well the Leafs are still hanging on. I will now rationally irrationally look at the remaining schedule for Toronto, Carolina, Buffalo, New York and Montreal.

The Leafs obviously need to win out.

Carolina needs to beat Buffalo in regulation. Then lose a bunch. Welp

Buffalo has Washington and Carolina on the road back to back. Tampa Bay has been really underwhelming in the 2nd half. A loss to Philly sets up a potential must win @ Columbus to close the season.

The Rangers have two tough games, then two cupcakes but they only need to lose one of those. Yikes

The intriguing team on the list is Montreal. They've been reeling of late. If they lose 3 in a row in regulation and the Leafs win three in a row, it sets up a TITANIC matchup to end the season. So much for that.

The teams the Leafs have been chasing just refuse to miss a beat. There's always next year...

Hey I was wondering if anyone had some insight into getting tickets to a Wolverines home game. I've been underwhelmed by some of the NFL experiences I've had and want to experience the atmosphere of Big time College Football.

I just checked out stubhub and tickets are siginificantly marked up from face value for endzone nosebleeds. I'd prefer to see Iowa or Michigan State over a Bowling Green or UMass.

Any tips on making the most of the gameday experience are also appreciated.

Not being born into an NFL city I was an Football bigamist for my childhood. When I finally started to take interest in the NFL at 14, I found myself watching the Wild Card playoffs in January 2004. Here was this machine like offense just DESTROYING the Denver Broncos on the fast track at the RCA dome. I was just enamoured by the way 18 dictated the tempo of the game using the hurry up and the no huddle mixing runs with passes. They were simply unstoppable. Then the play,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gd1tEtl3UM

A gun over the middle from 18 to 88 for another first down... and then some.  Marvin Harrison outsmarts the entire Broncos secondary and takes it to the house.

Next came the shootout at Arrowhead than the first painful loss at New England and I was emotionally attached to the Colts for good.

Training Camp is just around the corner and my Blue Jays have tanked in the brutal AL East, so what better way to forget about baseball and get reacquainted with the Colts than to relieve and rank my top five moments from the 2008 season.

#5 Manning to Rhodes Week 10: After scraping out a win at home against the Brady-less Pats, The Colts had a tougher test in Pittsburgh in Week 10. The play that sealed this win is my number five moment of 2008. A crisp fake to Rhodes to the right, Rhodes dummy's his route just enough before leaking up field past a helpless Troy Polumalu as 18 lofts the perfect touch pass for the winning score.

#4 Two Minute Drill @ San Diego Week 12: This game was all about revenge for the two losses to San Diego in 2007. The Chargers had just tied the game at 20 but had left 1:35 on the clock. Was there any doubt what would happen in the last 95 seconds?

#3 Rosenchopper Week 5: The Colts were going to start the 2008 season 1-3 if Sage Rosenfels hadn't started at quarterback for Houston in Week 5. The horseshoe was working it's magic in the final minutes of this classic.

#2 Gonzo lateral to Wayne Week 2: Coming off a disappointing home loss to the Bears in Week 1, the shaky Indy was up against the most talented running back in the world in week 2. The Vikings were absolutely dominating the Colts except in their inability to score touchdowns. Give the Colts offense that many chances and they'll eventually make you pay. Here Gonzalez hauls in the bomb from Peyton, makes a gorgeous cutback, sees Reggie trailing as he's being tackled and laterals it to him. Reggie gets tackled just outside the goal line and Indy is right back in the game.

#1 Peyton seals a playoff berth and MVP #3 Week 16: Peyton Manning put this team on his back in Week 16 and led them to an unprecedented 7th consecutive playoff berth. With a national television audience watching, Peyton put up a 29-34, 364 yard, 3 TD masterpiece to remove any doubt on who the NFL's Most Valuable Player was in 2008.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3960653

It didn't take long for T.O. to find a new home. The Buffalo Bills and Terrell Owens have agreed to a one-year, $6.5 million deal, sources told ESPN.com's John Clayton on Saturday. The Bills are planning a news conference 6:15 p.m. Saturday. The controversial wide receiver was cut by the Dallas Cowboys late Wednesday.

just shocking. Trent Edwards is average at best. And Buffalo does not get national attention.

The opening Vegas line line has Tennessee minus 4 .

I can see alot of public money jumping on the titans being at home and seeing the lopsided results for both teams in week 7.

I'll gladly take the colts +4 or more. If I recall correctly the last time the colts were vegas underdogs was the pats game last year when new england was favoured by 4.5 I believe.

This is the game to watch next week.

The Week 1 Sunday night primetime contest will feature a rematch of of Super Bowl XLI, with the Chicago Bears at the Indianapolis Colts at 8:15 p.m. ET. It will mark the Colts' first game in their new home, Lucas Oil Stadium.

Let the countdown begin.

http://www.nfl.com/kickoff/story?id=09000d5d8077fc99&template=with-video&confirm=true

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3253867

After failing to reach a long-term agreement with Dallas Clark, the Indianapolis Colts placed the franchise tag on their tight end on Tuesday.

Negotiations with Clark, whose contract voided after the 2007 season, heated up toward the end of the season, but without resolution. The Colts instead reached agreement on a five-year, $37.5 million contract with safety Bob Sanders, the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. Talks with Clark resumed in the past week, but with no deal in sight, the Colts felt it necessary to designate him as their franchise player.

The one-year franchise tender for a tight end is $4.522 million. If any team tries to sign him, they would have to surrender two first-round draft choices, which is unlikely. Clark is the second tight end to be franchised this offseason. The Eagles did the same with L.J. Smith.

The Colts and Clark have until mid-July to try to reach a long-term deal. With the franchising of Clark, six players have been given the franchise designation before Thursday's deadline. Any team wishing to franchise or transition a player has to record that transaction by 4 p.m. ET Thursday.

Obvious move. i think a 4 Million cap hit is well worth clarks presence.

well here we are a day before Super Bowl XLII, and we have a new report alledging the patriots taping the Rams back in 2001 before their first super bowl victory. It was a stunning upset over the heavily favored rams. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3226465
I'm not sure what to make of this story, the timing of it certainly seems planned.
"An unnamed source has claimed a New England Patriots employee secretly videotaped the St. Louis Rams' pre-game walkthrough the day before Super Bowl XXXVI, the Boston Herald reported Saturday. According to the report, an unnamed source close to the team during the 2001 season said that following the Patriots' walkthrough at the Louisiana Superdome, a member of the team's video staff stayed behind and taped the Rams' walkthrough -- a non-contact, no-pads practice at reduced speed in which a team goes through its plays."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/news/story?id=3227245

You can now join us in the marathon that is the nfl off-season.
it seems your cowgirls weren't as amazing as you praised them to be.

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Bad news.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8040346a&template=without-video&confirm=true
Receiving core will need to be at full strength come january.

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"Tackle Grady Jackson cleared waivers and is available on the free-agent market. The Colts and Titans are interested, John Clayton reports."

you need ESPN "insider" to read the article.

I'd like to see this addition, for the right price just to add depth on the DT rotation.

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

So it's the colts bye week and I thought there wasn't that much colts content on youtube. So I decided to try and make my own vid. I've never done editing etc before so I think the result is pretty good.

Basically I made a Peyton Manning tribute, ripping clips from the super bowl DVD and adding a song that I thought fit perfectly.

Lemme know what you think.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=sV4txD9Rh7Y

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/covers/issues/2007/0903.html

An SI cover jinx? Peter King giving the best player in football his due?
Tedi Bruschi must be his number two.

All in all a pretty ballin cover for Peyton. This kind of cover shot just makes all the anticipation boil over. September 6th couldn't come any sooner.