Stock Up, Stock Down on Colts' Offense with Sam Ehlinger at QB

Sam Ehlinger is the new starting quarterback in Indianapolis. Which players are stand to improve the most with the new signal caller?

The Indianapolis Colts have made a change at quarterback, as they have inserted second-year QB Sam Ehlinger as the new starter going forward. With this change at signal-caller, there stands to be some drastic changes (both good and bad) to the offense itself.

So, before the Sam Ehlinger era officially kicks off, let's do a little stock watch on which players will be impacted the most by this move.

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Stock Up: Kylen Granson

Second-year tight end Kylen Granson is the offensive skill position player with the most to gain with this change at quarterback. Young quarterbacks love to have a safety net, and that usually comes in the form of a tight end.

Granson has a bit of a history with Ehlinger, as both players attended the same high school back in Texas. They reunited with the Colts, and their chemistry was quite apparent in the preseason. Granson finished the preseason with five receptions for 53 yards with the young quarterback at the helm.

Kylen Granson has had a solid season thus far, and that can stand to improve even more with his old high school teammate as the starter.

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Stock Down: Parris Campbell

Parris Campbell should still see a healthy dose of targets in this revamped offense going forward, but it is highly unlikely that he hits the usage that he has seen in recent weeks. Campbell saw 20 targets from Matt Ryan the past two weeks, a total that likely won't happen under this new quarterback change.

This isn't to say that Campbell won't be productive with Sam Ehlinger, but he is unlikely to see as many quick targets and touches overall. With the Colts' offense likely to skew back towards run-heavy, a player seeing a ton of targets of late should see a bit of a dip in production.

Stock Up: Alec Pierce

One of the underrated stars of the Colts this season has been rookie wide receiver Alec Pierce. Pierce has been a dominant downfield receiver for the team this year, he just hasn't had many opportunities to show off his skill in this department.

Sam Ehlinger is far from an elite deep ball passer, but he should give the young receiver some more chances vertically. The other area where Pierce should be able to thrive is on broken plays/scramble drills.

Pierce is phenomenal at making himself available for his quarterback in these type of of situations. Ehlinger is the type of quarterback that will break the pocket quite a bit, and Pierce traditionally (at least in college) was great at making things happen for his QB in these situations. 

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Stock Down: The Offensive Line (Sort of)

So this is a tough one to articulate, but I think we could see the Colts' offensive line look even worse with Sam Ehlinger as the starter. Ehlinger will save them from a few sacks here and there, but a QB change could cause even more issues for this atrocious offensive line.

The first reason is protection calls and responsibilities. The Colts struggled to communicate these things well with Matt Ryan as the starter, and I doubt that it will drastically improve with a first time starter in the backfield.

The other aspect is time to throw. Matt Ryan, for all his flaws, was 13th in the NFL in time to throw. A mobile quarterback likely bumps that number up to close to three seconds. That added time to throw will lead to more pressures, making this putrid offensive line look even worse.

Sam Ehlinger will definitely save some sacks and get out of bad situations, but this offensive line will still be just as bad as they have been all year.

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Stock Up: The Colts' Running Game

The once dominant Colts' rushing attack has been abysmal in 2022. The team currently ranks 30th in rushing yards per game, and superstar Jonathan Taylor has been held in check for almost the entire season.

Adding a mobile quarterback to the mix should help open up this rushing attack. If the Colts mix in some designed QB runs and RPO options, that should be enough to freeze defenses long enough for Taylor to get loose.

Overall, the Colts' running game has simply been non existent this season. If Ehlinger can make defenses hesitate for even a fraction of a second, it should be enough to give Jonathan Taylor the spark he needs.

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