What happens if the colts

What are the chances Deshaun Watson gets dealt? Highlight-reel catches on national TV have put Pittman on the map and helped the Colts' offense take flight.

Carson Wentz , QB. Jonathan Taylor , RB. Michael Pittman Jr. Bobby Okereke , LB. DeForest Buckner , DT. Darius Leonard , LB. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Colts vs Jaguars Lucas Oil Stadium -. Offense Defense. Passing Yards. Bobby Okereke , LB 78 Sacks 1. Passing Yards Rushing Yards Points For Points Against Once the team was officially moved to Baltimore, the team immediately got off to a tremendous start, at least in the offseason.

With two first-round selections in their grasp, they were able to take offensive lineman Jonathan Ogden and linebacker Ray Lewis with those two picks. Ogden would go on to be the anchor of the Ravens' offensive line for many years in what is viewed as a Hall of Fame-caliber career.

Lewis, on the other hand, is still suiting up for the Ravens every Sunday and is considered to be one of the most feared and dominant linebackers in NFL history.

Once Lewis decides to call it quits, there will be a spot in Canton waiting for him. Since the Ravens' inception in , there have been many great players that have donned a Ravens uniform. However, these players likely would have never played a down in purple-and-black if the Colts hadn't moved. If Irsay had decided to keep the Colts in Baltimore, there would have been no way that the NFL would have given the city a second team.

When Art Modell announced that he would be moving the team, that team would have likely ended up in a larger market like Los Angeles, even though they would have been without an NFL team for just two years at this point in time. There's always the distinct possibility that Modell could have moved the Browns to Indianapolis, the city that the Colts moved to twelve years prior.

After all, Indianapolis had been pushing for an NFL team for many years and they would have likely gotten one. Additionally, you could have also never ruled out a city like Memphis, who had tried for many years to get a professional football franchise. The "City of Blues" did have a USFL team named the Memphis Showboats in and , but that league would fold at the conclusion of the season. To this day, Memphis still remains without a football team. There's no doubt that some of those cities may be far-fetched and befuddling, but there's a great chance that a lot of people would have attended their games.

After all, those cities have a substantial population. Also, Kansas City has had a franchise for many years and there are over cities in America that have a higher population. Regardless, there would not have been another team in Baltimore. As of right now, there would just have been the Colts. You just never know what could have happened. But, I can take a page out of Joe Namath's book and guarantee that the Ravens would have never materialized if the Colts remained in Maryland.

If then-owner Robert Irsay decided to keep the team in Baltimore and endure criticism, paltry attendance ands laughs from the rest of the league, there may not have ever been a team in Indianapolis.

The NFL expanded in with the additions of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Carolina Panthers , and aggrandized even more in with the accession of the Houston Texans.

There's a legitimate possibility that the NFL would have stuck with those plans and they would have never allowed Indianapolis to have a professional football team, leaving the state with just the NBA's Pacers. If that were the case, that would have left a gaping hole in Indiana. However, Irsay was able to move the team to Indianapolis, but the output wasn't much better. The Colts suffered many difficult years of mediocrity in their first 14 years in Indianapolis.

During that span, the Colts were exceedingly pedestrian, as they accumulated a record of This included zero ten-win seasons, one division crown in , three second-place division finishes, three playoff appearances, five seasons of four or less wins, seven different head coaches and a horrendous campaign in But then came , when the Colts franchise was finally rejuvenated. The Colts finished with the league's worst record in , meaning they would hold the first overall selection in the NFL Draft.

Clearly, they made the right choice in choosing the second-generation, highly touted quarterback from Tennessee.

Soon, things turned around significantly. In just his second professional season, Manning lead the Colts to a record, the first time they had surpassed the ten-win mark since their move to Indianapolis. Starting with that season, Manning led the Colts to the playoffs in twelve of the next thirteen seasons, which includes a streak of nine straight playoff appearances from to That streak ties the NFL record. Additionally, Manning lit up defenses as he currently ranks third all-time in passing yards and passing touchdowns.

The quarterback also threw for over 4, yards in eleven seasons, another NFL record. However, prior to the season, it was announced that Manning would have to undergo neck surgery, and would miss the entire season. Following the conclusion of the season, the Colts decided to sever ties with Manning, who had led the team to two Super Bowl appearances, including the city's first victory in over the Chicago Bears.

After his release, teams clamored for his services and he eventually packed his bags for Denver. Without Manning in , the Colts were awful and finished the season with a record of The Colts owned the worst record and held the No. They made the decision to select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who has often been compared to Manning. With a new era ushered in for the Colts, they are now in a big rebuilding process.

However, none of this would have ever happened if Irsay didn't move the team. Not to mention, the Colts have made the city of Indianapolis millions of dollars in revenue since their move in With the money they have made off the Colts franchise, the city has been able to do a lot of great things for its residents and the city in general. Indianapolis wouldn't be the city it is today if those thoughts didn't transpire in Irsay's head all those years ago. There might have never been a franchise in Carolina or Jacksonville.

Although, when you think about it, there might have never been a team in one of those cities if the Colts hadn't moved during that fateful, eerie night.

There's no doubt that Indianapolis was pushing hard for an NFL franchise. But the NFL never granted them one. In early , the Colts' lease on Baltimore's Memorial Stadium had expired. Irsay wanted the city of Baltimore to build another stadium because their current one was beat up, broken down and decrepit.

It didn't seem too much to ask at the time, but city officials were very reluctant to build a new one since there was already one in place that they felt was good enough. At that point, the Colts' attendance was steadily dropping because of the team's lackluster performance over the last few seasons.

Because of this, the city was prudent in spending money on a franchise that fans didn't seem to care about. Negotiations for a new complex were slow and seemingly went on forever.

This caused a big problem between the city and Irsay, as he felt that even though the team was playing abominable, it was still Baltimore's team and they should want to keep their only football team in the city.

It became known that Irsay began shopping the team around to different cities, mainly Indianapolis and Phoenix. Both cities desperately wanted a franchise and Irsay was willing to move because they were willing to do something that Baltimore wasn't, and that was to give them a welcome home and a nice stadium.

In , the city of Indianapolis was working on building a new stadium, specifically for an NFL expansion team. With a new stadium already in place that would be ready for the upcoming season, Irsay felt that Indianapolis was the new home of the Colts.

With Irsay in town to see the Gator Bowl — a hypothetical new home for the Colts — a crowd of somewhere between 40, and 55, filled the stadium to watch the Colts owner land a helicopter on the field.

Owners of the Saints , Oilers, Falcons and Cardinals all briefly mentioned Jacksonville as possibilities in the decade before the city was picked as an expansion site in But if the Colts picked Jacksonville back in the early s, Indianapolis may have been that bargaining chip that eventually got a team via another relocation.

But the real curveball is that getting a team a decade earlier may be a terrible scenario for Jacksonville.

When the shine of a new team wore off, the Jaguars went through the challenges of being a bad team in a small market without much tradition. But the buoy through the toughest times was a stellar stadium and its ironclad lease.

Louis, but the Chargers still end up begrudgingly leaving San Diego to join the Jaguars. March gave us the Indianapolis Colts and the dominoes fell favorably for Arizona, Jacksonville, and even Baltimore — which got a two-time Super Bowl winner in the Ravens. All in all, most cities can be happy with the way things shook out when the Mayflower trucks shipped off for Indianapolis. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

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