The regular season is so close we can practically taste it

Ranking the Colts’ offensive position groups http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/adam-vinatieri-jersey , and with each week we have gotten a little bit clearer picture of what to expect from this Colts team. Yesterday we went through and ranked the defensive position groups from what I felt was the best to the worst. Today we are looking at the offensive positions. This is a group that has looked rough so far in the preseason and fostered a lot of questions. With a young and inexperienced defense, the team will need their offense to put up points, and lots of them. So how do they stack up? Let’s take a look.BestQuarterbackBrian Spurlock-USA TODAY SportsThe unquestioned strongest position on the offense, and indeed the roster, is quarterback. Andrew Luck is a top five player when he is playing at his peak, and I believe we will get that version of him by the midpoint of the season once he has shaken off whatever remaining rust there is and developed a greater comfort with the offense and his many new weapons. While Luck’s prodigious talent raises this group immensely, Jacoby Brissett is what makes it such a strong one. In a league fraught with awful backups, Brissett is one of the few that would have a very legitimate shot at winning the starting job with several teams. He is not necessarily a game-changing passer, but he does a lot of things well, and has shown growth and development from last season. It would not be at all surprising to see him traded away for a nice haul after this season ends. Tight endJoe Nicholson-USA TODAY SportsThe Colts’ tight end group is actually sneakily good. Jack Doyle has been the picture of consistency, proving himself a reliable target for Andrew Luck with a career 77% catch rate. His production paid off last year, sending Doyle to his first Pro Bowl. The hometown favorite may not be a game breaker, but he is a chain mover, and the Colts need that.That brings us to Eric Ebron. Where Jack Doyle functions as the guy who can move the sticks, Ebron is the guy who can slash defenses for the splash plays. Ebron was the Lions’ 10th overall pick in 2014, and he never seemed to able to live up to the hype that came with that high of a pick. To say that he struggled would be unfair, because his numbers were still very good. However, drops and concentration issues were key in alienating him with the Lions fanbase. Cautious optimism with regard to Ebron is warranted, but he is paired with a head coach who knows how to use tight ends, and he no longer has to be the guy with all the pressure. Doyle is Batman in this tight end room, and Robin just gets to destroy bad guys and deliver one liners without all that pressure he felt in Detroit. Behind these two are likely to be Erik Swoope and Ross Travis or Darrell Daniels. Whatever combination of these guys ends up on the final roster, they all have more than enough talent to contribute to the team and bolster this unit.Offensive LinePhoto by Al Bello/Getty ImagesDespite some of the struggles early, this unit is better than it has appeared. There aren’t many teams whose offensive line can look good in the absence of their starting left tackle. We would love for the line to be totally settled, but in reality, the fact that there has been competition at several spots is a good thing. Penciling in guys as locks to start at every spot has gone poorly for the Colts in years past, and letting the best guys earn their spots means a better group as a whole. We still don’t know who the right tackle will be, but assuming that Anthony Castonzo comes back healthy, the left side of the line is set and looks solid. Braden Smith and Matt Slauson have both looked passable at the right guard spot, and the Colts may opt to keep Slauson there and move Smith to right tackle where he has done reasonably well. This is not a long term solution http://www.indianapoliscoltsteamonline.com/rigoberto-sanchez-jersey , and they’ll need to scheme help for that right side, but it is a far cry from the sieve of a line that has been typical of the Andrew Luck-era Colts. This is a group on the rise.Running BacksPhoto by Otto Greule Jr/Getty ImagesI am decidedly not in the “sky is falling” camp when it comes to this group of running backs. I have maintained since the beginning of camp that Marlon Mack is going to break out this season in Frank Reich’s offense. His injury sidelined that showing for the preseason, but it hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for him. Mack is a perfect fit for what the Colts want to do, and I think it will be clear quickly how much his injured shoulder hampered his success last year. Because of Reich’s tendency toward using a slew of backs, I think we can expect that Jordan Wilkins and Nyheim Hines will play significant roles in the offense as well. Hines has shown ball security issues through the preseason and has some history of it in his past, which is a definite question. However, used as a slot receiver and change of pace back he could make things interesting. Wilkins has seemed like a very well balanced back who has the patience and balance to go up the middle and get positive yards with consistency, though he lacks the game-breaking acceleration and flash of Mack. I expect he will get the bulk of the carries early on while Mack is recovering and Turbin is suspended.When Robert Turbin returns from suspension, he will undoubtedly contribute as well, having been a consistent short yardage threat in his time with the Colts. As a whole, I think this running back group behind a bolstered offensive line can be effective and one of the better ones we’ve seen in Indianapolis in a long time, but they still have to prove a lot.WorstWide ReceiversPhoto by Joe Robbins/Getty ImagesThis is a tough group. T.Y. Hilton is one of the best receivers in football and is consistently good for a 1,000+ yard season when he has Luck under center. When he gets double teamed and schemed out of the offense, Hilton can struggle, so he needs weapons to be able to generate production and keep defenses from keying on him.Behind him, however, there are mostly questions. Chester Rogers has shown some ability but is largely unproven and seemed unable to do much without Luck last season. Ryan Grant hasn’t shown anything spectacular, dropping passes and having no real chemistry or timing develop with Luck over the course of the offseason. After these three are a group of guys who are best suited for special teams work and development. While it is possible that someone like Zach Pascal or Reece Fountain can develop into a contributor, they are largely just guys right now. This is where the loss of a player like Deon Cain hurt. Cain was showing that he might have the ability to make a valuable second target on the offense before he tore his ACL. The Colts will likely be looking at waiver options to strengthen this group once cuts are made.Colts vs Seahawks: Breaking down Nyheim Hines’ rough first game Nyheim Hines had a bad debut. There isn’t any other way to say it. He struggled mightily in the return game and didn’t redeem himself on the ground. It is fair to say that some of his use was pared down as he will be involved in a handful of gadget type plays every game. However, as a runner and return man, he needs to dramatically improve. We are going to dig in to his film and see what his game looks like under a microscope.On Hines’ first returnable punt he gets stopped and lets the ball get stripped out. The Colts lucked out because they said that the whistle had been blown for forward progress. It certainly looked like a fumble to me, and I think more often than not this is called a turnover and a huge blow. Hines is a smaller guy, and sometimes that can be a struggle. Hines will have to make sure he fixes that problem or he won’t be getting return responsibilities for long.Here we see Hines get the handoff on second and long. At first glance it could appear that bad blocking is what resulted in this run going for just 3 yards. However, a closer look shows that Hines just plain goes to the wrong hole. There is a great hole opened up on the right side and given Hines electric speed, this should be something like a 5-6 yard gain at minimum. Instead, he runs directly into the scrum where there is little chance of any actual progress. What is Hines doing here? If you saw me do this on the field it would be understandable, but this is a really bad look for an NFL running back. He could do one of two things that would be acceptable here. He could block the defender and help out Austin Howard, or he could step inside Howard and released into the flat for a quick pass. Either of those things would have been more helpful than what he chose to do, which was to get in Howard’s way Authentic Quenton Nelson Jersey , turn around backwards, and fall down uselessly. This was not a fun play to watch in the film room with Tom Rathman, I am certain.Here we get a toss to Hines for an outside run. It isn’t a bad play, and results in a five-yard gain. However, given his speed, you would like to see him be able to make the cutback and take advantage of the big running lane to the inside that is opened up and if he does this might be a first down and more. This isn’t exactly an error on his part, but it certainly means he left some yards on the field here.On this play it is tough to fault Hines for coming up short of the line of scrimmage. There is really no hole to run through at all. The call clearly has him going up the middle, and you don’t want your running backs to be too quick to bounce outside. The opportunity would have been there for him to at least gain a few yards by racing the linebacker to the sideline, but it isn’t really his fault that the line didn’t win their matchups. This one falls more on poor blocking than on his running. It is pretty clear to anyone watching that Hines isn’t the guy they’re using to gash teams up the middle anyway.Well, up until now I’ve been pretty tough on Hines, but here is an example of him getting it right. It is 3rd and 7 in the red zone. There aren’t many more critical situations. Phillip Walker drops back and Hines steps up to put a hit on a linebacker who comes screaming up the middle. Now the chances are that Walker gets this pass off anyway, but this block is the difference between taking a big hit after the throw or not. This is exactly what you want from your running back on this kind of play.This is Hines second big mistake. At the last second, he decides he cannot make the catch, but doesn’t get out of the way and it bounces off him. Thankfully Hines is saved again by a heads-up play by Ronald Martin. If the defense recovers this it is a huge swing and they have the ball in great position to score. This kind of momentum changing play is the last thing the Colts can afford in the regular season. Another punt, another mistake. Hines misjudges the distance of the kick here and finds himself too far forward. He can’t bring the ball in, and only just gets it in hand before the gunner slams into him. If you want to give Hines points for the sheer luck of avoiding 3 turnovers up to this point, I guess you could, but this kind of mistake and narrow miss is one that will lose him the return job if it keeps happening throughout the preseason.All in all, this was not a good outing for Nyheim Hines at all. He made several critical mistakes that were lucky not to be turnovers. He struggled in pass protection, and he missed some running lanes when asked to carry the ball. In a wide open running back competition, he did not win himself any points with his performance. Fortunately, this was just the first preseason game and he has 3 more to make an impression. The rest of Hines’ time in camp has not looked as rough as this game did, so it is entirely possible that nerves played a major role in his struggles. If that is true, we will hopefully see a totally different player in week two of the preseason. With some injuries to the running backs, he will certainly get the chance to make a better second impression. If he continues to struggle, it could seriously limit how much he is used once the regular season gets under way.