After blowing expectations out of the water during the 2018 season, the Indianapolis Colts now have a target on their back as they prepare to show the success wasn’t just a fluke.
The Colts are likely going to be the favorites to win the AFC South once the regular season begins approaching closer, but head coach Frank Reich doesn’t want to get caught up in the now elevated expectations entering the 2019 campaign.
“Looking back on it we felt like it was an incredibly positive year. Made a lot of progress, a lot of strides,” Reich told 1070 The Fan. “Personally, I try to avoid the temptation at the beginning of the year of expecting expectations.”
The Colts are a team that has risen quickly through the ranks of the league thanks to the return of quarterback Andrew Luck and the improvement of the roster since general manager Chris Ballard took over before the 2017 offseason.
Despite having low expectations heading into the 2018 season, the Colts went on a tear winning nine of their final 10 games and reaching the AFC divisional round, which resulted in a road loss at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now, the Colts are expected to be one of the best teams in the conference. However, Reich doesn’t feel that’s where the emphasis needs to be for the team’s mindset.
“The one expectation that we talked about was that we’re going to try to fight to get better everyday…Now the challenge is to manage expectations where last year everyone’s expectations were low,” said Reich. “Now this year hey we gotta stay focused on the same thing we stay focused on last year, and that’s to get better everyday.”
The Colts made some new additions to the wide receiver corps and all three levels of the defense this offseason, basically hitting each need they were thought to have.
How much improvement the Colts can make in Year 2 under Reich’s command remains to be seen, but they are set up to compete as one of the top teams in the conference.
