New Orleans Saints CB Tracy Porter (22) returns interception by Colts QB
Peyton Manning (right) || Chuck Burton/AP Photo)
THE DAILY DIGEST | Indy Football Report Editor John Oehser takes a look at what they're saying about and what's going on around the AFC Champion Indianapolis Colts . . .
The goal of putting Super Bowl XLIV behind us gets put on hold for another day.
But this time, it's for legitimate reason: a solid column with some solid information, analysis and reporting from Don Banks of SI.com.
After a week of bluster and bashing of Colts QB Peyton Manning in the blogosphere -- some legitimate, some less so, but very little substantiated with much reporting, Banks reached former NFL QB Trent Dilfer, now one of the NFL's top analysts with ESPN.
Here's an excerpt of what Banks wrote:
It has been more than a week since the Super Bowl, and I keep wondering what it mu(st be like to be Peyton Manning and the Colts these days? Tough gig, this NFL icon business. No matter how you cut it, the reality is the Colts lost one game all year that they tried to win, but as misfortune would have it, it was the only game deemed unforgivable to lose. . . . . Then there’s Manning. Here’s his lot of late: He makes just one truly damaging mistake all season — just one — but it happens to come in the final four minutes of the Super Bowl, and helps decide the biggest game of the year. One week, everyone’s lining up to christen him the greatest quarterback of your generation — and maybe ever — and the next week, some are questioning his legacy in light of his first meaningful loss in more than a year. That’s covering every base.
Banks is hardly a Manning or Colts apologist, so this has some weight, then he quotes Dilfer on the game-changing interception return:
The thing is, I would argue it (the game-clinching interception return for a touchdown) was a much better play by (Saints CB Tracy) Porter than it was a bad play by (Colts WR Reggie) Wayne and Manning. I’d say it was about 80-20 in that regard. The thing that [ticks] me off is that we have so many different platforms to explain the game to people, and yet they still don’t seem to know that you can do things right as a quarterback at times and still have things go badly. Other guys make good plays too. I’ve seen that interception now on film, and I’ve seen the replay a million times. I’ve talked to coaches on the [Colts] staff. Porter jumps the pattern. He’s recognizes the pattern, and he jumped the throw based on his film study. It was a great play by Porter based on being prepared. That happens in football. The other guy can make a better play than you make.
Dilfer went on to praise Manning in several ways, and it's a column that's worth the read, so I won't spoil the whole thing. The column sounds strange against the backdrop of what has been written and said since the Super Bowl, and the reason is this: It's not knee-jerk. It doesn't desperately seek to install Manning as the greatest of all-time or as the worst choker in the history of sports. It simply says what is true -- that at the end of an otherwordly season, Manning and the Colts came up short, and perhaps it wasn't the fault of someone as much as an opponent making a big-time play.
That's not sexy, or eye-catching. But it may be something equally important.
True.
And for that reason, it was a darned refreshing read. . . .
The list of players signed to futures contracts this week didn't get much play and with reason. They're six relative unknowns, but remember this about QB Drew Willy, OT Jaimie Thomas, WRs John Matthews and Taj Smith, CB Terrail Lambert and LB Brandon Renkart: the Colts have a history of unknown players making the team and maybe making an impact.
All of the players spent time on the practice squad and one player to watch on the list is Thomas, an offensive lineman selected in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Linemen sometimes take a year or so to develop and with the Colts possibly looking to get bigger up front, Thomas (6-feet-4, 330 pounds) could fit somewhere after an offseason to develop. . . .
Decent breakdown of the Colts' free-agency situation by ESPN AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky -- not that there's too much to breadown: Indianapolis has a long history of letting linebackers walk, but middle linebacker Gary Brackett is a special player and a special case. A great tackler and a great leader, the drop-off without him would be significant. And while the Colts surely will be looking to stick to a budget even in what’s looking like a cap-less environment, they can, and should, find a way to ensure he’s part of the 2010 team.
Brackett obviously will be the main story around the Colts in coming weeks. I expect we'll get a firmer idea about the prospects of a signing around the NFL Scouting Combine, which will be held February 25-28 at Lucas Oil Stadium in downtown Indianapolis. The start of free agency is March 5, and I wouldn't look for much to happen long before then.
It would be a surprise to see Brackett sign elsewhere. The Colts want to get something done within reason, and Brackett's typically a reasonable player. There certainly will be posturing, as there should be, but Brackett fits better in Indianapolis than he would anywhere else, and both sides likely eventually will know it.
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