Why Colts Will Surround Andrew Luck with Team Peyton Manning Didn't Have

It's kind of hard to imagine putting together a better team than what the Indianapolis Colts have had since 1998 when Peyton Manning was drafted with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.

The first season, the Colts were young and feeling each other out and didn't get the results they wanted. After the '98 season, the Colts only finished with fewer than 10 wins twice (2001 and 2012).

The Colts had one of the most consistent and dominant runs of all time in not just the NFL, but almost all of sports. Most teams aren't dominant in this age of sports for that long. Many teams figure out why a team is so dominant and build to beat it. That's what makes this past 14 years great for Colts fans—teams were adjusting, but the Colts were just too good to be beat.

Indianapolis set many NFL records through Manning's tenure, including most 12-win seasons in a row and most wins in a decade. It also appeared in two Super Bowls in the last five years, winning one in 2007 against the Chicago Bears.

How can any team be built better than that run? The answer is simple.

The next five slides will explain.

Won't Be Built Around One Guy

Let's be honest here: The other 52 players to put on a Colts uniform weren't as good as we thought they were. We anointed many of the other Colts position players as some of the best of all time in their position.

They have to thank Peyton Manning for exposing their weaknesses and making them look good.

When Manning suited up, he masked the team's weaknesses. Former Colts VP Bill Polian knew this. He drafted lesser talented guys for less money knowing Manning would make them superstars.

That was never more evident than last season when without Manning, the Colts could only win two games. Before, with the exact same team, Manning took them to nine straight 12-win seasons and 10 straight 10-win seasons.

They were exploited without Manning.

Now the Colts know that will never work. You can't put all your eggs in one basket.

They won't draft based off Andrew Luck's talent. They will surround him with a ton of talent instead.

Plus, everyone is comparing Luck to Manning as far as talent-wise goes. Imagine what Manning would have done with the talent around him that the Colts will put around Luck.

Stronger Defense

One thing that everyone can agree on is that through the last 14 years, the Colts defense has been horrid. It's been the Achilles heel for this franchise.

The Colts have built a defense for a team with the lead in which they knew teams would have to throw and make big plays in the air. The Colts have been drafting small, undersized defensive players that were fast and could get to the quarterback quicker for that reason.

The problem was that if the Colts offense struggled a bit, or faced another high-powered offense, the defense wasn't there to get enough stops to lead the team to more Super Bowls.

Now the Colts are getting more defensively focused with most likely changing to a 3-4 scheme and revamping that horrid side of the ball.

That helps Andrew Luck in that he won't have the pressure to outscore opponents and can just play his game. He will know the defense is actually built to stop people instead of trying to contain them.

The new hire of head coach Chuck Pagano and all the new defensive coaching staff hires should mean an improved defense for the Colts in the coming years.

Better Running Game

When the Colts originally were building their team, they had Edgerrin James to lean on, which helped Manning succeed. They were more of a balanced team as no defense could stop the own trifecta of Manning, James and Marvin Harrison.

Once the Colts realized how good Manning would become and James became a free agent, the Colts decided to put all their eggs in one basket and move forward without James or any sign of a running game. They thought they could rely on the right arm of Manning, and he would lead them to victories.

It worked until playoff games when teams need more of a balanced attack to control the line of scrimmage and keep teams guessing. The Colts were always in the back one-third of rushing stats due to frankly not running the ball much or being built to.

The offensive line was built to pass protect and didn't have much beef to actually create holes for a running game. Again, this was exposed last season as the Colts didn't have an accurate enough quarterback to get the ball where it needed to be before the pressure, and the running game was nonexistent.

The Colts will rebuild this and make more of a balanced attack as what Pagano was used to in Baltimore. That means Luck won't have as much on his plate, and a running game will open up an even better passing game for Luck.

Where the pressure would land for Luck is that he will have all the tools to succeed more than Manning. He will just have to capitalize.

Ability to Outscore People but Won't Have to

Based off the previous two slides, the Colts offense will be more balanced and the defense will be able to finally make some crucial stops.

If Luck is who everyone says he is, the Colts will now have the ability to outscore people, but won't have to lean on that like they did with Manning.

Imagine how dangerous the Colts would have been if they drafted/signed more talented players for Manning instead of picking up scrubs in the late rounds of the draft and having Manning make them look good. Imagine how dangerous they would have been if Manning had a lockdown defense on the other side of the ball getting stops for him.

That's what Andrew Luck will have after a few seasons of rebuilding. He will have a running game to lean on. He will have receiving tools to throw to. He will have a defense that isn't built to contain people, but actually stop them. Luck will have every tool in his arsenal that Manning didn't have based off the failures of what Polian did with not surrounding Manning with more talent.

This is a rare situation where Colts fans may not have to wait long before they're relevant again.

Ask the 49ers and Bills what they think of the situation the Colts have now with replacing a legend with a potential legend.

Luck Isn't Far Behind Manning

Many people will say, "Well, yeah, all the previous slides are great, but what about Luck performing with a better team?"

I have seen Luck play, and he's as close to Manning at this point of his career and Manning was.

Luck is 713-of-1,064 in his three years at Stanford. That's a staggering 67 percent throwing completion rate without much talent around him there. He's thrown for 10,387 yards with 82 touchdown passes and only 22 interceptions.

Luck has broken almost all of Stanford's passing records.

Manning, on the other hand, was 851-of-1,354 with 11,201 yards, 90 touchdowns,and 33 interceptions. He only had a 62 percent completion percentage rate, but did play one more year than Luck.

What makes Luck a little more dangerous is his athletic ability. He rushed quite a bit for a quarterback in college, and the scary thing is he was effective.

He has rushing attempts of 47, 55 and 61 attempts the last three years respectively with 150, 453 and 354 yards respectively. He has seven rushing touchdowns in his collegiate career, and that athletic ability can be crucial in Indy.

In high school Luck threw for 7,139 yards and 53 touchdowns, but what is more remarkable is his 2,085 career rushing yards.

I'm not saying Luck is going to be Peyton Manning, but what I've seen and studied up on so far is that he's the best guy in the last 14 years that has a shot to be.

If he is, and if the Colts front office can really put together a "team" around him instead of making him a one-man team, the Colts could be more dominant than before.