That is wishful thinking. First the assistant coaches will be back, their titles have changed because of the NFL retirement and pension rules, but they are back. Caldwell has been with the team for years, and Polian has faith in him. That's good enough for me.
Also, the Colts are returning 21 of 22 starters, with only Marvin Harrison being gone. Their O line is healthy, Manning is healthy, Ed Johnson is back and they drafted Brown and Moala.
The Colts are a young, talented team. You think they're going to fall? If they didn't last year, when they had injuries out the wazoo, what makes you think it's going to happen this year? Manning is still there.
The Titans aren't going to win 13 games again. The Jags are a .500 club at best and every year the Texans, who have never won a game that mattered in their history, are going to be better than the Colts. The Texans are a trendy pick and I get that, but they aren't better than the Colts. Before the Texans it was the Jags. Remember that? From 2005 to last year, every year the Jags were going to overtake the Colts. Didn't happen. The Titans had a great year last year but the Colts aren't going into the season with a hurt QB and two rookie starters on the O line this year.
Power rankings are useless, I've seen the Colts ranked anywhere from 3rd to 10th so far this season. But anyone who thinks the Colts are done hasn't been paying attention to what Peyton Manning does and has done now for years. As long as he's back there and he's surrounded by even medium talent the Colts are a 10-12 win team. And they have much more talent than that this year.