Don't look now, but this is Ballard's best team since the Andrew Luck days

There are no excuses for the Colts. This team is poised to take the next step. Ten, 11 wins and a playoff spot, I'm saying. This time, I won't be wrong.

WESTFIELD, Ind. – There are no excuses now for the Indianapolis Colts. None. Zilch. Zero. On paper, this is a playoff team. On paper, this is a 10- or 11-win team. On paper, this is a team that can – should – make some noise in January. They (somehow) won nine games last season with Gardner Minshew playing the majority of the season at quarterback; there’s every reason to believe the Colts will be better than they were one year ago, every reason to think they’ll win double-digit games this year.

I’m not known for being irrationally positive – curmudgeonly/crotchety is more like it, if we’re going to be honest – but I’m bullish on this team.

A year ago, I predicted they would be among the worst teams in the league, winning three games, limited by a rookie quarterback who had scarce college experience at Florida. I saw the season unfolding like 1998, Peyton Manning’s rookie year, when the Colts went 3-13 and Manning set the rookie mark for interceptions (a record that still stands, much to Manning’s chagrin).

I was wrong.

I was really wrong.

The Colts won nine games, most of them with a backup quarterback, many of those games without Jonathan Taylor, who was working through an injury/contract holdout. They did it with an average-or-worse defense. They did it with smoke and mirrors and a first-year head coach, Shane Steichen, who led the Colts to a season nobody saw coming. Even without Richardson and Taylor, the offense was among the better ones in the league, ranking high in splash plays despite Richardson’s and Taylor’s absences. Now imagine what Steichen and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter can do with a (knock on wood) full season with Richardson and Taylor playing together.

Frightening, I’m saying.

“Jonathan Taylor will have a big year,” general manager Chris Ballard said.

A wry smile.

“I swear I’ll stop.”

He didn’t.

“He’ll have a big year,” he said, looking like someone who knows something the rest of us don’t.

So why am I right about this season after being so grievously wrong one year ago?

Because I’m due. Because this is the first year since 2014 and 2015 that the Colts have started the same quarterback (Andrew Luck) in consecutive seasons. And because this is the best team Ballard has put together since Luck roamed the premises. Of course, it should be his best team. This is, after all, his eighth season in charge of the franchise. He’s due, too.