Indianapolis Colts: The crazy spread of offensive production

The Indianapolis Colts have healthy Andrew Luck back, and perhaps the best version of Luck we have ever seen. They are spreading the ball offensively.

When you think of the best offenses in the NFL in 2018, the Indianapolis Colts are probably not the first team to come to mind.

You probably think of the Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Kareem Hunt along with their stellar offensive line and head coach Andy Reid.

Maybe you think of Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams, led by Jared Goff, Todd Gurley, Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, and their stellar offensive line.

The New Orleans Saints with league MVP favorite Drew Brees and his entire crew of playmakers also probably come to mind, but the Indianapolis Colts? What is this, 2012?

The Colts’ offense is certainly not known nationally for anyone or anything other than Andrew Luck, and for the past couple of years, more attention has been paid to his health than his on-field production.

After a significant physical transformation and proper healing this past offseason, Luck returned to the field in 2018 with relatively mild outside expectations. After the Colts started the season off 1-5, it seemed like the low expectations were more than justified and Luck just might not be the same guy.

Over the course of the last five weeks however, the Colts have won four straight games and Luck is playing like a true MVP candidate, completing 67.3 percent of his passes this season with 29 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.

Luck has also been sacked just 10 times this year, which has to feel to him like he’s not getting sacked at all considering how often he was hit in the past and the fact that it was likely the frequency with which he took hard hits that knocked him out of the NFL for a year.

More than just having a healthy Andrew Luck, though, the Colts seem to finally have a really effective scheme, a solid offensive line, and playmakers around Luck who are, let’s call it overachieving.

The Colts, on paper, don’t appear to be anything special at the skill positions.

They went into this season with head coach Frank Reich, whose presence in Indianapolis is more fortuitous than strategy. The Colts hired Josh McDaniels before he backed out and stayed on as offensive coordinator of the Patriots. If McDaniels had not backed out, Reich would be someone else’s head coach.

What he’s done over the last month with the Colts is coach of the year worthy.

The most staggering statistic or fact about the 2018 Indianapolis Colts? Their offense has 13 different players with a rushing or receiving touchdown, and Andrew Luck has yet to run one in with his elite scrambling ability to make it 14.

Among those 13 players are former first-round castoff Eric Ebron, who leads Indianapolis with a whopping 10 touchdowns in 10 games this season. T.Y. Hilton has six scores, Marlon Mack has five, and rookie Nyheim Hines has three.

Backup tight end Erik Swoope has three touchdowns, and Mo Alie-Cox has two. The Colts have seven other players with one touchdown this season.

What does this mean? It means this Indianapolis offense is clicking like almost none other in the league. It doesn’t matter which players they put on the field, the players are executing, Luck is staying upright and seeing the field, and they are exploiting the defenses they are playing.

The Colts are having their way and they look like a tough team to beat over the course of the season. Unless teams can find a way to start hitting Luck with a higher frequency, he’s operating at such an elite level right now it doesn’t feel like he can be stopped.