Losers in five of their last six games, the Indianapolis Colts (6-7) have seen their season go from being a potential division winner to out of the playoffs in the matter of a month and a half.
Sunday’s 38-35 loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-7) all but closed the casket on the Colts’ season—if they lose in Week 15 to the New Orleans Saints, it is officially over.
Here is the stock up, stock down from Sunday’s loss:
Stock Up: WR Marcus Johnson
The Colts have been seriously plagued with injuries at the wide receiver position this season. That said, there have been some intriguing instances when it comes to players stepping up when needed most. The latest player to do so was Johnson.
Leading the team with 105 receiving yards, Johnson got his day started on Jacoby Brissett’s first pass, beating broken coverage for a 46-yard touchdown bomb early in the first quarter.
The Colts have always liked Johnson and he’s proving to be a quality depth piece in the wide receiver room.
Stock Down: CB Pierre Desir
The Colts secondary had a brutal day on Sunday. There’s really no other way to put it. They were bad. Allowing 456 passing yards and several big plays, it was a group effort that led to their worst outing of the season. Desir contributed to that in a big way.
The veteran cornerback hasn’t been enjoying the best season of his career after signing a three-year extension. He got burned by Mike Evans on a 61-yard touchdown in the first quarter to help give the Bucs a lead. Granted, Evan is elite but he just ran right by Desir on a go route without any contest.
The Colts have a young corps of promising cornerbacks, but Desir hasn’t been playing to expectations. Sunday was another example.
Stock Up: CB Rock Ya-Sin
Yes, the secondary was terrible on Sunday. But the rookie in Ya-Sin actually had a pretty strong day. He was making big tackles against the run and even had a nice pass defended in the end zone while in man coverage.
Coming off of an injury that had him questionable entering the matchup made it even more impressive. Giving up the number of big plays as they did is never a good thing, but there were some bright spots in the game.
Ya-Sin was also in the right place at the right time on George Odum’s forced fumble and recovered it to help get the Colts the ball back.
Stock Down: CB Marvell Tell
Sensing a theme here? Actually, Tell’s stock went down not because of a bad performance. In order to have that, Tell would have had to been on the field for more than two (!) defensive snaps.
This is the second week in a row that Tell barely saw any playing time. In fact, the rookie saw more snaps than he did in Week 13 when he didn’t play at all against the Titans.
The Colts instead opted to go with Rolan Milligan in the slot, and that played out just as well as one would think.
Stock Up: K Chase McLaughlin
Missing a field goal while the team loses by three points probably shouldn’t keep the rookie on the stock up list. However, even in that miss, McLaughlin showed a lot of promise in being the successor to the greatest kicker of all time.
Adam Vinatieri’s season is over due to a knee injury that requires surgery but this may be a blessing in disguise for Indy. Regardless of whether Vinatieri wants to return in 2020, the Colts should move on and look toward the future at the position.
McLaughlin showed enough promise making five of his six kicks on Sunday. He did miss a 47-yarder but given that he joined the team on the Thursday before the game, there was bound to be one kick that he missed.
Stock Down: S Clayton Geathers
His stock has been falling pretty hard for the majority of the season and there is a chance this is his final go-round with the Colts. But even with the limited playing time Geathers saw Sunday (18% of snaps), he failed to make an impact play.
With the emergence of Khari Willis and the success in limited work from George Odum, Geathers has been all but forgotten. His coverage skills continue to be a liability, and that showed on Sunday when he was forced to cover a running back on fourth down but easily allowed the conversion.
