This past offseason there wasn’t a salary cap, but outside of the Bears that didn’t mean that teams broke out their checkbooks to sign free agents to lucrative deals. For the most part, things were business as usual in the NFL when it came to free agency.

That’s why it’s not a surprise that teams like the Colts are still affected by decisions they made in previous years. Is Indy in decline? No, they still have the same issues this season as they did last year when they represented the AFC in the Super Bowl. But since they’re 2-2 now, those issues have become magnified.

Those that were paying attention this summer knew that once again Indianapolis would have trouble stopping the run. GM Bill Polian has been ignoring the defensive tackle position for years and even when he tried to upgrade the position, he whiffed (’09 second round pick Fili Moala has yet to make an impact).

The Colts are 2-2 not because they’re in decline, not because Jim Caldwell picked the wrong time to be aggressive with his timeouts last Sunday (seriously Jim, just play for overtime – you had all the momentum), but because they failed to address their biggest weakness in the offseason.

The two teams that the Colts lost to were able to run the ball. In Week 1, somebody forgot to tell Arian Foster that he wasn’t Earl Campbell and he went off for 231 yards and three touchdowns. Last Sunday in Jacksonville, you knew if the Jags could keep the ball on the ground with Maurice Jones-Drew that they were going to have a shot in the end. Jones-Drew didn’t go Earl Campbell Foster on the Colts, but Jacksonville did rush for 174 yards and David Garrard actually resembled a starting NFL quarterback for the first time this season.

Read the rest of this entry »