Three things I've learned since becoming a Colts insider
INDIANAPOLIS - I've been on the Colts beat for the Indianapolis Star for three weeks, and I feel like I've already ridden a rollercoaster with this team.
They had the gritty win over the Jacksonville Jaguars with a big stop at the end, the road pounding over the Buffalo Bills where they asserted dominance and the heartbreaking loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in which they blew another two-score lead.
This is the third NFL team I've covered in addition to the Bears and Lions, and while every team is the same in the way it desperately chases the quarterback position, they're also all different in their trajectories and the personalities of their leaders.
Here are five things I've learned about this Colts team:
Frank Reich isn't afraid to be a human being
In this age of the Internet, coaches often fit the cartoon sketch of an emotionless control freak focused only on the next drill in practice, or the six inches in front of their face.
It isn't that they're all Bill Belichick-like robots; behind the scenes in Detroit and Chicago, John Fox was a jokester and Jim Caldwell was a grandfatherly figure. Coaches often just refuse to show it outside the walls of the facility. They hide inside the bubble for fear of what might happen to them if they step out.
Frank Reich does not live that way, and it makes him an intriguing coach for the first in-season "Hard Knocks."
After the Colts dominated the Bills in Buffalo, Reich shouted his emotion in the locker room before T.Y. Hilton presented a game ball to him. Reich carried that emotion to the news conference, where he dressed up in a suit and read a statement about climbing a mountain that contained the same Bible verse he read after leading the Bills to the largest comeback in NFL history when he played in that city.
Reich showed his willingness to talk to fans Monday when he laid out the decision-making process behind calling 26 consecutive pass plays against the Buccaneers. It won't change everyone's mind, but it's more than football coaches are usually willing to offer up. It lets people know he's listening.
RELATED: Colts coach Frank Reich: Few regrets over not running the ball vs. Bucs
We watch supreme athletes and coaches make millions of dollars to play the games we dreamed about as kids and often forget that they are humans, too. They go home to their kids at night and lie awake wondering whether they're doing right with the path they're on in this life.
My goal as a reporter has always been to bridge that gap. Reich is making that part of the job easy. It's surprising for a man who has spent 27 years of his adult life in this field of work that is so unlike the others. It's refreshing to see him feel things like the rest of us do.
The Colts are at a fascinating intersection with Carson Wentz
At the end of the day, the story of an NFL franchise can be told through what it chose to do at quarterback and how that move accelerated or lengthened the timeline toward competing for a Super Bowl.
This offseason featured some fascinating case studies through the trade market.
The Rams sent two first-round picks to the Lions for Matthew Stafford because they want to chase a Super Bowl immediately with Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey in their primes.
The Panthers sent a second-round pick and two later selections to the Jets for Sam Darnold because they wanted to audition one with a second-year coach.
Insider: How a Colts defense built on turnovers met its kryptonite against Tom Brady, Bucs
The Colts did something in between those extremes by trading for Carson Wentz.
After he led the NFL in interceptions last season, Wentz required a little more rehabilitation than Stafford did. But unlike Darnold, he's reached his ceiling and won in the NFL. At 28 years old, he's right between those two quarterbacks, and the Colts are between the Rams and the Panthers on the contending track.
At least that's how they view themselves, and the numbers are bearing it out. The Rams are 7-4, the Colts are 6-6 and the Panthers are 5-7. Carolina is already moving on from Darnold.
By playing the long-ish game as a franchise, the Colts allowed deficiencies to form at safety, pass rush and wide receiver that will likely keep them from contending for the Super Bowl this season. That can be frustrating coming off an 11-5 season. But Wentz also wasn't likely to go from rock bottom to his ceiling in a single year after changing teams, even as he returned to playing for Reich. That reality caught the franchise in the middle.
Even down a first-round pick this coming spring, the Colts will have plenty of ability to fix the holes that are ever-present on their roster. This season is all about trying to make Wentz a quarterback with a championship ceiling again.
DeForest Buckner is the franchise cornerstone for a reason
As the Colts work with Wentz to decide what he is and isn't and what he needs around him, they do not have questions about who their cornerstone defensive player is. Chris Ballard made that clear when he traded a first-round pick to the 49ers for DeForest Buckner and then gave him a four-year, $84 million contract.
But my three weeks in Indianapolis have made it clear why they did that. Buckner is checking every box right now.
On the field, he's central to how they want to generate pressure in the face of quarterbacks so as to distort the view they have throwing into disguised zone coverage. At 6 feet 7 inches, and with 15 sacks in 27 games with the Colts, Buckner has shown he can do that. He can also command double teams to allow the Colts to defend the run with more defensive backs, as he essentially counts as two front-seven players.
More from Nate r: 15 thoughts on the Colts' heartbreaking loss to the Buccaneers
Off the field, Buckner is a pillar in the community and a voice in the locker room. Part of being a leader in a billion-dollar industry is how you answer for a franchise publicly.
I saw something in Buckner on Sunday, when I asked him how it felt to play so well on the interior just to have Tom Brady get rid of the ball, for the play to seem over and for a penalty to give it new life.
"I wouldn't say we were worn down. I'd say frustrated," Buckner said. "We're frustrated with ourselves. We'd have a stop or whatever it is and then we'd come up with a penalty that would extend the drive. We know those mistakes shot us in the foot and we have to clean those things up."
Not every star player stays this composed. I covered Bears teams where Brandon Marshall and Martellus Bennett couldn't operate that way in the heat of a frustrating loss.
Matthew Stafford always could, and teammates respected him for it. But a time does come for a leader to stand up and effect necessary change, particularly for teammates who haven't signed the contract in order to speak with the same security. Stafford waited too long to do that in Detroit, and it ended with a trade and no solution for the team.
Time will tell whether Buckner feels like he needs to do that and whether he's willing to.
But it's critical that teams place their biggest investments in the right players because they ultimately set the tone for their teammates. Detroit reached a crossroads with Ndamukong Suh. He was an elite player, but his penalties and moodiness spread to the rest of the defense and made it hard to make championship plays. The Lions let him walk, but they never replaced his play on the field. They went from 11-5 with him to 7-9 without him the very next year.
More money usually makes someone more of what they already are. A franchise has to be calculated in what it allows to spread throughout a franchise. It's a big reason Ballard and some other general managers approach free agency with trepidation, as dealing with outside personalities can lead to buyer's remorse.
The Colts seem to have found the right piece with Buckner. Whether they can find it with more cornerstone players will define where they can ultimately go.
Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: What Nate Atkins has learned since reporting on Indianapolis
