Why The Colts Are The Best Franchise In The NFL

The Indianapolis Colts have been the most success full team in the NFL for the past decade for a reason - they have the best personnel guys in the league.

When you consider only four of the Colts 53 players have played on another team, you realize how good the Colts college scouting is.

“It isn’t just who you draft, it’s what your reports say,” Colts president Bill Polian explained. “That, and how your board’s constructed. Sometimes who you draft is a function of luck. How that player performs is a function of luck. Injuries or off-field issues (can arise). What I want to make sure of every year — and what our scouting people are charged with doing — is determining whether or not we’re getting the right information and putting the right grade on a player. It’s the input on the baseline level that’s critically important.”

The Colts have had great success finding good players in the undrafted pool. Gary Brackett, Dominic Rhodes, Melvin Bullitt, Nick Harper, Jacob Lacey, Jeff Saturday, Eric Foster, the list goes on and on.

But finding those great players is only half of the puzzle. The Colts are money when it comes to deciding to keep core players, or let them go. The Colts have been able to lock up Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis, Dallas Clark, and Peyton Manning for most of the decade.

The Colts also let go of Edgerrin James, Nick Harper, Jason David, Marlin Jackson, and others when their salary becomes too high. Those players careers' usually go downhill after leaving the Colts.

The last part of the Colts key to success has been the way they go about doing, well everything. The Colts emphasize doing things the right way, and hard work. Indianapolis also enjoys going under-the-radar.

A key example of this is the way the Colts handle rookies. At the Colts training camp rookies are not hazed, that's because coaches and players expect rookies not to play like they're a rookie.

Indianapolis does a great job of leading by example. No matter the situation, the Colts are always prepared. Rex Ryan told media members that Peyton Manning would see blitzes he has never seen before the AFC championship game last season, look how that turned out.

When the Colts are losing they stay calm and they collect themselves. They are almost impossible to beat.

Recently someone asked me how teams beat the Colts. I told them it's simple you just have to outwork them. And that is exactly how the Saints beat the Colts in the Super Bowl and that is how the Patriots dominated the Colts and the rest of the NFL in the early 2000's.

Any given Sunday, right?