Major props to Paul Kuharksy for finding some great articles today. These are all keepers.
Indy has great, unhearlded LBs. We herald them all the time! No one loves on Session and Brackett more than 18to88.
Gary Brackett(notes), Session’s battery mate in that linebacker corps, was even further off the radar at one time — an undrafted free agent out of Rutgers, he was picked up by Colts GM Bill Polian in 2003. His NFL career would mirror his collegiate rise — he was a walk-on for the Scarlet Knights, and became the team’s captain and Defensive MVP by his senior year. For the Colts, Brackett fought his way up from a face in the crowd to defensive captain in a few short years. He’s a humanitarian and a true leader.
Session and Brackett are great stories, but what makes them most effective on the field is their ability to use disciplined speed in conjunction with the rest of that defensive front. The Colts have beefed up a bit at the tackle position over the last couple of years, but this defense is still about demon speed above all. Session and Brackett close in on offensive playmakers with a velocity that must be seen to be believed, and there’s a sense of order and gap control to it all that separates them from other, lesser defenses that try to combine team speed and the Cover-2 philosophy and wind up looking like cats sliding across a kitchen tile floor.
Caldwell hasn’t sought attention. I think he’s been amazing this season. He’s got our full respect.
He didn’t make radical changes to the Colts’ winning formula. (He did, however, make subtle but important alterations to the team’s defensive philosophy, allowing newly hired coordinator Larry Coyer to move away from Dungy’s trademark Tampa 2 scheme and employ a more aggressive approach.)
He didn’t prove to be an amateur when it came to media relations, controlling his temper or encouraging his players to keep any discontent in-house.
He didn’t discernibly mess up when it came to clock-management, substitution patterns or awareness of down and distance.
In other words, he made his contributions to the cause seem as boring and unremarkable as possible.
Oh, and he walked off a winner after every single meaningful game his team played this season (yes, I’m glossing over his Week 16 decision against the New York Jets and the ensuing outrage), and now he’ll coach a team in the Super Bowl, something Dungy did only once despite an NFL-record 10 consecutive playoff appearances in Tampa Bay and Indy.
SI talks about the Power of Peyton
Late second quarter, down 11 points, leaks in the offensive line, blitzers in the backfield, the No. 1 receiver smothered, the running game unreliable, the Super Bowl at stake and the mood in the Manning suite at Lucas Oil Stadium “tense,” said Peyton’s older brother, Cooper, “very tense.” Down on the field Peyton flashed back to another AFC Championship Game, three years ago, when Indy trailed the Patriots by 18 at the same point. Since that decisive pivot from the brink, the Colts have developed a taste for suspense. This season they won seven games in which they were trailing in the fourth quarter. Maybe that’s why they didn’t panic on Sunday in the AFC title game against the Jets—or maybe it’s because, as linebacker Clint Session pointed out, “we’ve got Peyton Manning.”
It’s been only three years since Manning had to endure the most tired refrain in sports: Can he win the big one? The idea is laughable now. The better question after Indy’s 30–17 victory is, Can he lose it?
High School rankings of players don’t mean much
So if we take some educated guesses the Colts’ starting 22 would be made up of: one five-star (Manning); maybe four four-stars (center Saturday; RB Addai — he was ranked by recruiting guru Tom Lemming as the nation’s No. 68 overall recruit; WR Wayne — labeled as a USA Today honorable mention All-American; and Hayden); eight three-stars (Lilja; DeVan; Antonio Johnson; Lacey; Bullitt; Wheeler; and Session); and nine recruits with two stars or fewer (Charlie Johnson; Clark; Garcon; Robinson; Diem; Mathis; Muir; Brackett; and Bethea).
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