Could the Colts snap their playoff drought this upcoming season?
According to ESPN’s Mike Clay, the Indianapolis Colts are expected to hover around 8 wins next season, which would appear to be just short of a potential AFC playoff berth yet again:
Indianapolis Colts (6.5 wins)
Clay’s projection: 8.4 (NFL rank: T-19)
2024 record: 8-9
Super Bowl winner: 100-1
The Colts finished 8-9 last season, falling just short of their win total projection of 8.5.
The Colts have not gone over their win total in consecutive seasons since 2012-14 (three straight).
The Colts have reached at least seven wins in four of the last five seasons.
It’s hard to argue with the latest win projection.
While the Colts have shored up their secondary, with the key signings of both safety Cam Bynum and cornerback Charvarius Ward, there’s still some work to do this offseason.
In particular, the Colts have some glaring holes at both starting right guard and linebacker.
That being said, what’s really limiting the 2025 Colts is going to be the uncertainty at starting quarterback. Right now, it’s being touted by the franchise’s top leadership as a wide open race between the incumbent 3rd-year starter Anthony Richardson and recent free agent acquisition Daniel Jones. If both quarterbacks are mediocre, does anyone win here?
Neither is inspiring a ton of confidence right now—at least at this stage of Richardson’s early career, who to be fair, did improve down the season’s final stretch before succumbing to another injury that cost him the Colts’ final two games. However, he has to show significant improvement regarding his consistency and passing accuracy.
What does work in the Colts favor though is that they still play in the lowly AFC South.
Despite being hyped, the Houston Texans didn’t exactly run away with the division for a consecutive season in a row. Meanwhile, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans finished at 4-13 and 3-14 last season respectively. The latter two should theoretically be 4 banked wins for the Colts, but we know they’ve historically struggled at Jacksonville.
Also helping the Colts’ winning cause is that they’re projected to have the 25th easiest strength of schedule during 2025, so we’ll see.
The Colts haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, and haven’t won the AFC South since 2014, where each other division rival has won it at least twice during that same span.