The Indianapolis Colts are sitting atop the AFC South despite dealing with an offseason and preseason that would have made most teams crumble. While the success is a testament to the front office and coaching staff, credit is also deserved to quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
Over the first half of the season, the Colts saw Brissett take over the starting quarterback role following the surprising retirement on Andrew Luck at the end of August.
Brissett has done well thus far through seven and was named of the NFL’s most underrated players from the first half by Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire.
When Andrew Luck announced his surprise retirement in late August, the Colts weren’t all that worried. They had traded receiver Phillip Dorsett to the Patriots for Brissett in September, 2017, when it was clear that Luck would miss that entire season with a shoulder injury. Brissett took his lumps and grew a lot, and he learned more on the bench under first-year head coach Frank Reich in 2018 as Luck enjoyed his final NFL season. By the time the 2019 season came around, Brissett had a clear grasp of Reich’s offense — everything from the timing of multiple quick passing concepts to the intermediate and deep openings presented by Reich’s creativity with multiple tight ends. And now, through seven games in his first season as a clear starter with no competition, he’s completed 64.8% of his passes this season for 1,590 yards, 14 touchdowns, and three interceptions. And though he’s less inclined to create explosive plays downfield in Reich’s offense (the same could be said of Luck last season), Brissett can still cork off ridiculous passes like this.
Expect more of this in the future, as the 26-year-old Brissett is still getting his skill set together.
The escape from Von Miller in the fourth quarter in Week 8 was the play Farrar was referencing to.
It isn’t clear if Brissett is the long-term answer at quarterback, but he’s been steadily improving and showing traits as a leader through the first half of the season.
