Icculus

What a homer for the Colts....

From ESPN:

"The pressure will be on third-year linebacker Gilbert Gardner to replace David Thornton as the strongside linebacker. How that will work won't be known until the start of the regular season."

"Thornton was the team captain on defense. He was a tackling machine, talented enough to be the weakside linebacker early in his career before moving over the help on the strong side. But in the spring, Thornton signed with the Tennessee Titans as an unrestricted free agent."

"Gardner is the prototype athlete to fill the spot. He's 6-foot-1, 228 pounds and has speed. The Colts won't be asking him for leadership. That will have to come from middle linebacker Gary Brackett and outside linebacker Cato June."



So, the breakdown is that the Colts have lost their defensive captain and "tackling machine". They are replacing him with an unknown 3rd year player, who may look the part, but has minimal leadership experience. Gardner had all of 14 solo tackles last year.





And Clayton's thoughtful analysis is:

"There aren't many changes on the Colts' defense, although they are carrying a long list of injuries into camp from postseason surgeries. The forecast is for the defense to move among the top 10 and possibly top five. For that to happen, Gardner has to secure the strongside linebacker position."


They lost Larry Triplett as well as David Thorton, but that's not too many changes....So they have injury questions, lost a defensive captain and leading tackler, and a quality d-lineman. They have added no quality def. players in the draft or free agency, but they should move into the top 10 or top 5 defenses. Great Logic!

We lose only McGinest from our starting defense and the sky is falling. Go figure...There's no bias there huh....

Ichiro

Clayton is by far the worst NFL reporter out there. His bias against teams that limit media access is amazing. Last year he compared Belichick to Scrooge.
On the other hand, teams like the Colts, with media friendly people like Dungy, Polian, Freeney and Manning, can't get any more love from Clayton. So he evaluates teams based on the way they treat HIM.

Please, please fire John Clayton

scout

I'm not so sure that Indy will even win their division. Jacksonville will always have a good defense and they have added a pretty good tight end to their offense. So, everyone is focusing on the addition of a kicker to "put Indy over the top", Jacksonville I'm sure is feeling slighted and may be ready to take that division.