Colts – FootballPerspective.com http://www.footballperspective.com NFL History and Stats Thu, 28 Feb 2019 13:04:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 The Colts Have A Good Team And The Most Cap Space http://www.footballperspective.com/the-colts-have-a-good-team-and-the-most-cap-space/ http://www.footballperspective.com/the-colts-have-a-good-team-and-the-most-cap-space/#respond Thu, 28 Feb 2019 13:04:02 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=41428 The graph below shows each team in the NFL. The X-Axis shows how much effective cap space in 2019 each team has, as determined by Over The Cap. The Y-Axis shows each team’s winning percentage in 2018. The Colts, with over $100M of effective cap space in 2019, and a 10-6 record in 2018, stand out from the pack; I’ve colored their dot in white and blue. The Houston Texans, third with $83M (the Jets are second with $98M) and an 11-5 record last year, do too; I’ve colored their dot in blue and red.

So how did the Colts field such a good team? It helps to have two All-Pros playing during their rookie seasons, as Indianapolis did with Quentin Nelson and Darius Leonard in 2018. DT Denico Autry is also very cheap, as is, well, almost all of the roster other than Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton.

The graph below shows all of the players currently on the Colts roster; the X-Axis shows their 2019 salary cap hit, and the Y-Axis their 2018 Approximate Value.

The 2018 Colts had only five players with 4 or more points of AV that aren’t under contract for 2019: Margus Hunt (8 points of AV), Pierre Desir (5), and Clayton Geathers (4), Chester Rogers (4) and Al Woods (4).

So how did the Colts get so good?  Having Luck, even at a bloated contract, obviously helps, as the value that Leonard, Nelson, and Autry provide is the envy of every team in the league.  In addition, the Colts have 7 other players with at least 4 points of 2018 AV and less than $4M of 2019 salary cap value:

I don’t know how sustainable or imitable this strategy is, but the Colts have one of the league’s most enviable rosters: a team talented enough to win now but with the cheapest roster in the league.

]]> http://www.footballperspective.com/the-colts-have-a-good-team-and-the-most-cap-space/feed/ 0 New York Times, Post Week-5 (2014): From 0-2 to 3-2 http://www.footballperspective.com/new-york-times-post-week-5-2014-from-0-2-to-3-2/ http://www.footballperspective.com/new-york-times-post-week-5-2014-from-0-2-to-3-2/#respond Wed, 08 Oct 2014 03:18:30 +0000 http://www.footballperspective.com/?p=22050 This week at the New York Times, I look at a pair of teams that have gone from 0-2 to 3-2, a statistical rarity, and a league-wide passing trend:

About three weeks ago, you probably heard some variation on the following statistic: Since 1990, only 12 percent of teams that started 0-2 ended up making the playoffs. Seven teams started 0-2 this season, but two of those have rebounded with three-game winning streaks.

Andrew Luck leads the N.F.L. in passing yards and touchdowns while posting a 100 passer rating. His Colts lead the league in points scored, and Indianapolis has the second-best point differential in the N.F.L., behind the San Diego Chargers. The Colts, division champions in 2013, are back on top of the A.F.C. South, tied with the Houston Texans for the division’s best record. As a result, it is probably hard to even remember that only three weeks ago, the Colts were one of those struggling 0-2 teams.

The A.F.C. South was the worst division in football last year, and not much has changed in 2014. In interdivision games, A.F.C. South teams are 5-11, the worst record of any division. That is one of the biggest reasons the Colts were able to jump from last to first place so quickly. Indianapolis has feasted on its poor division.

You can read the full article here.

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