Why the Indianapolis Colts Secondary Is Poised for a Strong Season

After the Indianapolis Colts' 45-7 loss to the New England Patriots in January, the run defense bore the brunt of the unit's offseason criticism.

That's fair, considering the Colts have given up at least 175 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns in the team's last three games against the Patriots. The team also finished 19th in Football Outsiders' run DVOA and was 23rd in yards per carry allowed.

So yes, run defense was an issue.

The Colts secondary had a decent year, ranking 10th in passing DVOA allowed and 14th in passer rating allowed. While those aren't elite numbers by any means, they are something the team could live with from a defensive standpoint. Of course, those numbers were aided by playing quarterbacks like Charlie Whitehurst, Case Keenum and Blake Bortles for much of the year.

Against top-tier quarterbacks, the Colts secondary was much more inconsistent. The Colts did a very good job against Joe Flacco and Andy Dalton (twice), had one good and one poor game against Peyton Manning and were shredded by Ben Roethlisberger and Tony Romo. Against Tom Brady, well, it didn't really matter.

The defensive unit with the most pieces to build upon, the secondary has been upgraded again in 2014, and while it's not the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, the unit has a chance to be the best Indianapolis has seen in years.

It all starts, of course, with the team's best defensive player: Vontae Davis.

The former Miami Dolphins cornerback has always been a controversial subject, ever since disappointing in Miami despite claiming that the Dolphins had the best cornerback tandem in the league. Since coming to Indianapolis, however, Davis has excelled, especially over the last two seasons.

His 2014 campaign was especially impressive, as the Colts' No. 1 cornerback missed just one game and didn't give up a single touchdown in the regular season or playoffs. Davis had the best passer rating allowed in the regular season, according to Pro Football Focus, and he finished the season with the second-best cover snaps per reception mark as well.

As a reward, Pro Football Focus listed him as the sixth-best player from 2014 on their Top 100 list, an extremely high honor, with Denver's Chris Harris Jr. being the only cornerback placed higher. NFL Network's Top 100 list ranked Davis No. 59, on the other hand.

Now, Davis had a very good season, but he's probably not the sixth-best layer in the league, objectively. The Colts had one of the easiest schedules in terms of opposing quarterback play, and the secondary had bigger holes elsewhere that quarterbacks wisely tried to exploit. But even if you do concede that Davis isn't a Richard Sherman or Darrelle Revis, he's still a top-10 cornerback (at the very least) with lockdown potential.

There are not many cornerbacks that can stonewall a slant pattern to Rob Gronkowski in the playoffs, but Davis did it.

Oh, and he's just 27 years old.

While opposing starting cornerback Greg Toler and slot cornerback Darius Butler are not nearly at Davis' level, together the three form one of the better top-three groups in the league. When all three are healthy, they are capable of blanketing opposing wide receivers for an entire game. 

They matched up very well with teams like Cincinnati and Denver in last year's playoffs, and shut down a very good Baltimore passing game in the regular season as well.

Butler is among the better slot cornerbacks in the league, finishing 14th in cover snaps per reception from the slot in 2014, according to Pro Football Focus. Toler gets picked on a lot as the weakest of the three in his respective role, but he's more inconsistent than anything else. He'll get beat, but he'll also come up with key pass breakups and interceptions.

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 Greg Toler interception  pic.twitter.com/VAoDGSoau1

— SportsReplayRT (@SportsReplayRT) September 16, 2014"

But an underrated part for 2015 is the addition of rookie D'Joun Smith. He was the first secondary player that the Colts drafted, and the first defensive player drafted in the first four rounds in the Ryan Grigson era. There's no guarantee that he'll set the world on fire as a rookie, but he should be an upgrade as a depth corner, which is critical with the Colts' history of nagging injuries at cornerback.

And this doesn't even begin to address the safety position.

Veteran Mike Adams is coming off a very dependable, Pro Bowl season. Cutting LaRon Landry should be an addition-by-subtraction move. While Dwight Lowery can struggle in coverage, he should allow Mike Adams to play a more natural free safety role. Lowery has already drawn attention in the locker room with his work ethic and has made the transition well, per Kevin Bowen of Colts.com, a stark difference from Landry.

Rookie Clayton Geathers should play a part as well, already running with the starting lineup in nickel and dime packages as a linebacker, per Mike Wells of ESPN.com.

The weak spots for the Colts against the pass last season were against running backs and tight ends. Wide receivers rarely beat the Colts up, outside of Antonio Brown (while Davis was injured) and Dez Bryant (in a game that was meaningless for Indianapolis). Instead, it was running backs and tight ends matching up with the Colts linebackers.

According to Football Outsiders, the Colts finished ninth, 11th and 14th against No. 1, No. 2 and other receivers, respectively, in receiving DVOA allowed, but finished 26th and 31st against tight ends and running backs, respectively.

AJ Mast/Associated Press

While the struggles against tight ends and running backs aren't disappearing anytime soon, linebacker Jerrell Freeman getting healthy and finding ways to get Geathers on the field over D'Qwell Jackson will help. Throw in what should be an improved pass rush, and you get a secondary that should only improve upon its solid showing in 2014.

It all starts in the offseason as the Colts attempt to figure out which rotations work best for them. The earlier they can nail down their most effective packages, the better. Fortunately for Indianapolis, playing Buffalo and the New York Jets in the first two games of the 2015 season should allow for some experimentation early on.

But the basics are already taken care of. Davis, Toler and Butler continuing to work together remains a strength for Indianapolis, and Adams and Lowery in the backfield gives the unit experience and reliability.

If the young pieces in Geathers and Smith begin to produce as well, the Colts could be looking at at top-10 unit.