Opponent Breakdown: Indianapolis Colts

An insider's look at the Miami Dolphins' upcoming opponent.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. (11) celebrates his touchdown against the Tennessee Titans during the fourth quarter at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins will return from their bye Sunday when they face the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. They are looking for a second consecutive victory that would even their 2024 record at 3-3.

ESPN reporter Stephen Holder joined the All Dolphins Podcast this week to discuss everything related to the Colts, who are 3-3 after their Week 6 victory against the Tennessee Titans, and the matchup.

Here are excerpts from that interview. The full interview can be found below.

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STATE OF THE COLTS

There are 16 teams in the AFC, and you have some interesting ones because they're really, really bad. Some that are interesting because they're really good. And then you've got the Colts. What do we make of them? Are they legit playoff contenders? Are they bound to be nine and eight or eight and nine and out of the playoffs again?

Holder: They are right where I think they belong, which is right in the middle. Not good, not bad. They're 3-3. Even their record is ordinary, right? So, like, everything about them says not a great team, not a bad team, but also, for right now at least, not a team that is a playoff contender. I mean, I think they could be in the race. race, really the next month, a month to six weeks, I think, will determine what this team is. And we'll know more, too. I think we'll get a better read because they'll get some guys back from injury. They feel good about that. So that helps. Hopefully, (Anthony) Richardson can get some continuity. I mean, the game in which he was injured was, I thought, his best performance of the season. He only played a quarter, but he went right down the field in the first two drives against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which most teams aren't able to do. So that was the first opening drive touchdown they allowed since December. So pretty impressive. But again, we talked about consistency and continuity and all those things. That has been a problem. So we'll see. I think your description is pretty accurate. I mean, you gotta prove it, you know? And right now, they are a team that, in many measures, their defense has been underwhelming, their offense is fine, but you know, not elite. They're just kind of a middling team until they're different until they prove differently.

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THE COLTS OFFENSE AND DEFENSE

While it makes sense for the Colts to go back to Anthony Richardson, considering they made him the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft, is it crazy to suggest they actually might be better with Joe Flacco at quarterback?

Holder: So it's a question a lot of people are asking, including some Colts fans. So it's not a preposterous question. The answer for me, I can only speak for me, is I think you go with Anthony Richardson. Even taking the future out of it, and here's why. Because certainly the part of this is, yes, he has to develop for the future and they have to find out what they have. That is true. Even taking that out of the equation, I believe the offense has a higher ceiling when he is on the field. That does not mean that from play to play to play, that it's all going to be pretty and roses and tulips. Sometimes it gets ugly, and he isn't consistent. However, the one thing that he does consistently, and this is something that their coach Shane Steichen is a huge believer in, the one thing he does is he makes the big play. And I would say, lastly, this very long answer, I would say that Flacco did do a great job. There's no question about it. But I thought the difference between him playing Jacksonville in the previous week and then his second start this past Sunday against Tennessee was very different. Tennessee defense that you know, right, is very good and has good personnel. He struggled, OK? He was under 6 yards per attempt and did not have the big plays. I think 189 yards passing. It was very much like a flat go, a 39-year-old, 40-year-old Flacco type of game. So you can get more upside with your offense with Anthony Richardson than that.

The Colts are ranked 31st in the NFL in run defense; what has gone wrong?

Holder: I think it is the most underwhelming part of this team this year. Not necessarily just because it's bad but also because it was supposed to be good. So the injuries are a factor, OK, that's fair. But even before the injuries started to mount, they started the season this way. They had Joe Mixon run all over them in Week 1 when they had a full complement of players. It happened again in Week 2. So they saw this for multiple weeks, even before the injuries really started to mount. I do think they settled in a little bit after those first couple of weeks, but then the injuries eroded the personnel. So you almost can't tell the difference, right? But I did see a little bit better performance in the second half against Tennessee. Their two running backs combined were about 5.5 yards per carry in the first half against Tennessee. The Colts did shut that down in the second half to their credit and made them really kind of one-dimensional to a degree, which puts the ball in Will Levis' hands, which can be problematic. So, that was a good showing. Whether they can do it for four quarters and really step up, it remains to be seen.

Of course, if we're talking about the run defense problems, we should mention the Colts signed DT Raekwon Davis to a two-year, $14 million contract as a free agent in the offseason, a move that clearly hasn't panned out yet, right?

Holder: It's interesting. Timing is everything in life. And the Colts are a team that last year really suffered when they had interior defensive line injuries. Or actually, there was a suspension to Grover Stewart for six games. DeForest Buckner was playing but hurt, and that really impacted their run defense and also certainly the pass rush, the interior pass rush. So the thought was, OK, let's actually go out and spend some money to provide some depth at that position. The problem has come in where, with Buckner being out of the lineup, they've had to play Raekwon far more than they intended. So now he's playing snaps that they did not set out for him to play. He was really supposed to be depth, and he became, for all intents and purposes, to a degree, a little bit of a starter or at least a very big part of the rotation. So that's a different responsibility and that can certainly put a player in a position where he has to produce more and sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I would say he's gotten better in the last couple of weeks. I thought initially he was, I thought, pretty invisible. Now, in his defense, he had a really strange physical issue in training camp, really missed all of training camp. He had a blood pressure, an elevated blood pressure issue. And we never really got a lot of details about it, but he did not practice, I think, until the final practice of training camp. They had a joint workout in Cincinnati before their last preseason game; that was his first practice of the preseason. So he was very much out of shape, which is natural. They had to kind of keep his physical activity in check. And so he really was starting from zero after working all off-season to get in shape, came into camp, and they caught this issue. So I think he started behind the 8-ball and we'll see how far he can take this and continue hopefully elevating. But certainly he was not an impact player initially, more impact lately, but he still got a little ways to go.

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OUTLOOK FOR THE GAME

The Dolphins rushed for 193 yards in their last game, so logic would suggest they would focus on the run game again against the Colts' porous run defense.

Holder: Look, I mean, that's like a plausible scenario. I mean, that's been a blueprint for teams that have beaten the Colts. OK, that's true. Like I said, they've gotten better at it. They have somewhat, I don't think they've rectified it, but they have shown some pushback against the run, I guess. I don't think they're good against the run, but I think they're not as bad, let's put it that way, in like the last week and a half or so. So we'll see. That's the first thing I'd say. The other thing I would say is that they will stress you, like, theoretically, stress you with the big plays on offense. You know, you have Alec Pierce at wide receiver who's leading the NFL in yards per catch. He had zero catches on Sunday. I imagine he's very much looking forward to Anthony Richardson coming back because, for better or worse, he will put the ball in play down the field and give him a chance at those 50-50 balls, which I think he is tremendous at. So you're seeing Josh Downs, I think, now as a No. 2 receiver, really starting to get more after the catch and really stressing defenses to bring him down the open field. So they're finding their playmakers, and they're really getting more out of them. I think Jonathan Taylor coming back would certainly be the cherry on top. So it just depends on whether the Colts can tap into that and maybe make the running game a little less potent for Miami because maybe they make it a higher-scoring affair.