{"id":708159,"date":"2026-01-27T05:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/708159\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:24:22","slug":"patriots-reach-super-bowl-what-can-the-colts-take-away-from-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/708159\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots reach Super Bowl; what can the Colts take away from season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 26, 2026, 10:30 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

What can the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> learn from the New England Patriots<\/a> 2025 season?<\/p>\n

Well, the first thing is that the defense for the Colts<\/a> has to improve.<\/p>\n

But beyond that and New England going to the Super Bowl, zooming out on things, the Patriots have put together a strong season from nearly the start to the finish. They finished the regular season with 14 wins and earned the two seed in the AFC.<\/p>\n

This sudden turnaround comes after going 4-13 back-to-back seasons.<\/p>\n

To get to this point, change was required. Mike Vrabel was brought in as the head coach, along with there being other changes to his coaching staff. New England was also a big spender in free agency.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

The quarterback position was also figured out in 2024 when the team drafted Drake Maye.<\/p>\n

For the Colts, the 2025 season was a disappointment. Despite a red-hot start, the team finished the season on a seven-game losing streak and missed the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Unlike with New England last offseason, there won’t be sweeping changes in Indianapolis. Specifically, GM Chris Ballard will be back for his 10th season, despite a lack of success.<\/p>\n

But a primary reason that the Colts are running things back is that the organization believes that the early-season success the team had can be repeatable.<\/p>\n

The combination of Shane Steichen and Daniel Jones helped produce one of the most productive offenses in football. Throughout the year, we saw a much more aggressive roster-building approach from Ballard — something that could continue<\/a> into 2026.<\/p>\n

To go along with that, the recently stable franchises in the AFC — Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Baltimore — are all going through varying degrees of change.<\/p>\n

So does all of that mean that the Colts will make the playoffs in 2026? At this point, seeing is believing. But if healthy, one can also see a path towards this team finally returning to the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 26, 2026, 10:30 a.m. ET What can the Indianapolis Colts learn from the New England Patriots 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95887,96015,96127,95903,96853,95895,95899,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-708159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","16":"tag-sstsncolts","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagamerican-football-conference","19":"tag-tagdaniel-jones","20":"tag-tagdrake-maye","21":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","22":"tag-tagmike-vrabel","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115965399129915908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}