NFL Media's Bucky Brooks cited the Colts as owning the fifth-best collection of pass-catchers in the league. Offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton plans on using them.
"We're going to be a score-first team," Hamilton said recently, per ESPN.com's Mike Wells. "We're going to do whatever we need to do to score one more point than our opponent."
That's progress, folks, considering Hamilton's maddening desire last season to be a run-first offense at all costs.
Armed with one of the finest young no-huddle passers in NFL history in Andrew Luck, the Colts came out of the gate employing a rash of old-school, two-back sets designed to bloody the opponent.
While that conservative approach paid off in a physical September win over the San Francisco 49ers, Indy ultimately (and wisely) leaned on Luck's arm down the stretch.
With backfield question mark Trent Richardson penciled in as this year's starter ahead of Vick Ballard and Ahmad Bradshaw, Hamilton still vowed to be "physical at the point of attack," but not at the cost of chaining his ascendant signal-caller.
Preaching a "sense of balance," Hamilton fairly pointed out that he was forced to repeatedly shuffle the lineup in 2013 due to the injury bug. Ballard and Bradshaw were eventually lost for the season along with pass-catching tight end Dwayne Allen and All-Pro wide receiver Reggie Wayne.
Doing his best Ron Rivera impression, Hamilton is embracing change in Indy.
"When you have Andrew Luck," Hamilton said, "that really gives you an ability to adapt to whatever the circumstances are and have a chance to be successful."
Amen to that.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" predicts 2014 starting lineups and talks insider goodness with Bucky Brooks.
