The Indianapolis Colts season didn’t go as planned. After a strong 5-2 start, they lost five of their last seven to finish 7-9 and miss the playoffs for the fourth time in five years.
While a lot went into the disappointing season, there were a few players that didn’t meet expectations in a big way.
Here are three Colts who underachieved the most in 2019:
QB Jacoby Brissett
Thrust into the starting job after the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck in late-August, Brissett had a strong start to his 2019 campaign, but his play fell off at the end of 2019.
A lot of factors went into Brissett being an underachiever in 2019—the Week 9 injury against Pittsburgh, the lack of production from the receivers and injuries all around.
One thing Brissett did have was a consistent run offense that finished top-10 in the NFL, and a defense that was around top-10 until the final month of the season.
Looking at Brissett’s raw stats and he finished 26th in completion percentage, 27th in pass yards, 26th in pass touchdowns, 20th in QBR and 18th in QB rating. Those simply won’t get it done in the NFL. Even so, Brissett could have the 2020 campaign to make his case to be a long-term quarterback.
TE Eric Ebron
After coming to Indianapolis in 2018 and having a career season, most knew Ebron won’t repeat the Pro Bowl level of play in 2019. But many still thought he could still have a solid 2019 season.
Safe to say the retirement of Luck hurt Ebron’s season as much as Ebron did. Inconsistent play, numerous drops and complaining about his role with the offense summed up the 2019 season for Ebron that ended abruptly after the Week 13 loss to the Houston Texans when he decided to have ankle surgery and go on injured reserve.
After career highs in 2018, Ebron had his second-worst season of his NFL career stats-wise. Only 31 catches, 375 yards and 3 touchdowns in 11 games for Ebron.
Chris Ballard said in his end-of-season presser, “We will probably move on” when asked if the Colts will look to re-sign Ebron.
K Adam Vinatieri
Sometimes in the NFL, a player is in the league one too many years. That could be the case for Vinatieri in 2019.
2018 was an average season for Vinatieri and after deciding to come back for one more season, he struggled in what could be his final season in the NFL.
The struggles could be tied to the knee injury that occurred in the preseason as Vinatieri started the first two games 1/5 on extra points and 1/3 on field goals. 2019 was Vinatieri’s worst season as a kicker, career lows in field goal percentage (68%) and extra point percentage (78.6%) and his struggles arguably cost the Colts at least two games.
Vinatieri went on season-ending injured reserve after Week 13 and rookie Chase McLaughlin came in and played exceptionally, hitting 5/6 field goals and all 11 extra points. With Vinatieri being a free agent this offseason, don’t expect the Colts to bring back the 47-year-old kicker.
