Last season recap
The Indianapolis Colts ran out of Luck in the last NFL betting season. To be more specific, they only had Luck for less than half of their 2015 campaign – Andrew Luck, that is, of course. With Luck on their side, the Colts had three straight 11-5 seasons, starting with his rookie season in 2012. As (bad) luck would have it, though, the QB missed the first two games of his career in October 2015 with a shoulder injury. He returned for a few games, but in week 9 he suffered a lacerated kidney and a partially torn abdominal muscle that put him out of commission for the rest of the season. Just his luck, huh? All told, the starting quarterback only played seven games and the Colts were, accordingly, outta luck. Indianapolis finished the year with a 8-8 record and did not reach the postseason for the 4th since 1998, and the first since 2011 – the year before they Lucked out in the draft.
What’s new
The 2016 season will be the Colts’ 64th in the NFL and 33rd in Indianapolis, as well as the fifth with the triad of head coach Chuck Pagano, GM Ryan Grigson, and QB Luck. The team resigned tight ends Dwayne ‘The Rock Johnson’ Allen and Jack Doyle, and placekicker Adam Vinateri. Conversely, Coby Fleener signed with the Saints, Akeem Davis agreed to terms with the Chiefs, Dwight ‘Schrute’ Lowery left for the Chargers, Greg Toler went to the Redskins, Jerrell ‘Morgan’ Freeman is now with the Bears, and Colt Anderson signed with the Bills – which has NFL betting fans wondering whether the safety will change his first name to Bill. Additionally, veteran QB Matt Hasselbeck retired – subbing for Luck presumably being the career high note he wanted to go out on – leaving Stephen Morris and Scott Tolzien (a former Packer who signed with the Colts in March) as Luck’s backups.
What to expect
People who bet on NFL know that luck is for losers, and perhaps that is the reason that the Colts – having lost 50% of their games in 2015 – were so eager to shell out $140 million ($87 million guaranteed) to sign Luck to a 6-year extension and make him the best-paid player in the league. Lucky him. The Colts know full well that sometimes, throwing money at a problem is the only way to solve it. Case in point: in 2004 they resigned Peyton Manning to a massive 7-year $99.2 million contract. Fast forward two years, and the Sheriff led Indianapolis to their first Super Bowl win since 1970 – and last so far. Not to say that Luck was holding out for more money but, can Colts NFL betting fans expect history to repeat itself now that the 26 year old made the biggest deal in the history of the league? At the very least, legendary Colt Jeff Saturday sees more similarities between two than just their obscenely bloated paychecks. “I think both of those guys felt they were or going to do their very best to win a championship respective of their pay,” Saturday told ESPN’s Mike Wells. “I think they look at it as they’re going to continue on the same journey that they were on and try to help their teams win championships.” So may be fans’ expectations aren’t that farfetched.
Odds to win Super Bowl 51: +2500
