If anyone making the NFL media rounds knows what it's like to get off to a hot start, it's Jeff Saturday – and he's all in on the Indianapolis Colts' unbeaten run to open 2025.
"Something is just working there," Saturday told Covers on Monday, one day after the Colts improved to 3-0 with a thorough 41-20 drubbing of the host Tennessee Titans. Indianapolis has been the league's feel-good story through the first three weeks, piling up an incredible 103 points while cruising as one of just six remaining unbeaten teams. The Colts are -135 favorites at FanDuel to win the AFC South.
It’s quite a turnaround for a team that was mired in mediocrity a season ago, finishing 8-9 and ranking squarely in the middle of the league offensively.
Key Takeaways
- Saturday credits Colts HC Shane Steichen with creative player usage: "This plan, offensively, is going to be really difficult to stop"
- Saturday draws comparisons between Jonathan Taylor and Edgerrin James: "His contact balance is exceptional"
- Colts TE Tyler Warren is a matchup nightmare: "A big freaking thumper"
- The one early-season trend Saturday hates: "I wish more offenses would help their QBs see the field and be protected"
- Saturday: Close games help teams gel faster – and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are well ahead of the pack in that regard
Saturday's Sundays were fun days – and the modern-day Colts are on their way
Granted, it's going to take the 2025 edition of the Colts a long way to reach the lofty standards set by the franchise during Saturday's time there.
The six-time Pro Bowl center became accustomed to cruising through the early portions of the season. In his first 12 years with the team (1999-2010), the Colts went a combined 37-11 in their opening four games of the season – a span that included four different 7-0 starts to a campaign.
It helps, of course, that Saturday had future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning standing behind him for nearly all of those games. But while current QB Daniel Jones won't soon be confused for an all-time great, he has had plenty of help in guiding the 2025 Colts to their best start since 2009.
"I think they have insanely good balance," Saturday told Covers. "I think (head coach Shane) Steichen has done a tremendous job of leaning into what they do, and can do exceptionally well, and you're seeing it play out and play to the strengths of Daniel Jones, to Taylor, to their receiving corps, and obviously the tight end (rookie Tyler Warren) and the way they have used and moved and created advantages for him.
"Steichen has done a tremendous job in setting these guys up for success."
Saturday said he knew this year's edition was something special the moment they hit the field in their season opener, a 33-8 drubbing of the Miami Dolphins.
"We were standing in the suite, and I was like, ‘this is different,’ you know? This is really different," he said. "Shane has a plan, and this plan, offensively, is going to be really, really difficult to stop, because he's moving people, he's placing people, whether it's different formations, different setups. He can go from three tight ends to none. He just understands."
Jonathan Taylor showing serious Edge
Manning wasn't the only gifted offensive player responsible for the Colts' dominance in the 2000s. Running back Edgerrin James was a revelation in the blue and white, leading the NFL in rushing yards in each of his first two seasons and piling up more than 12,000 yards on the ground in parts of 11 seasons.
While you can't compare quarterback play from then to now, Saturday sees a lot of similarities between James and Jonathan Taylor, who enters Week 4 with a 54-yard lead over the field atop this season's rushing leaderboard.
"First of all, I think his contact balance is exceptional. He doesn't get knocked offline or off-track very easily. With his balance, he doesn't have to put a hand down, put a hand out. He stays within his own framework. And that reminds me a lot of Edge.
"If we were running outside, it might look like he's going to run to the sideline, but then he would put that foot in the ground, and he would get vertical on a play, and you would just be blown away by how explosive he could be from that point where he puts his foot in the ground to wherever the tackle is. That's what JT does, as well."
The advantage of having a player that versatile, Saturday explains, is that he can remain on the field in all situations – and be a threat whether facing a 1st-and-10, a 2nd-and-3 or a 3rd-and-long.
"He gives you not only explosive plays, but he can run between the tackles and go get the ugly yards as well. That is an uncommon attribute for a running back, that he can do both. Most teams, you have a third down guy. You can have a scat back guy. JT can be both.
"You want him to be a pass catcher? Done. You want him to be between the tackles? Done. You want him outside? Done. (He and James) check all of those boxes. I think that's part of what makes him such an exceptional player."
Saturday added with a smile: "He's one of the only players that my son has a jersey of."
Tyler Warren and the next wave of dominant TEs
Saturday's son might soon have another jersey in his collection.
Rookie tight end Tyler Warren has looked dominant in stretches for the Colts, leading the position in receiving yards (193) while sitting tied for the team lead with Michael Pittman Jr. Those historically dominant Colts had their own prominent tight end in Dallas Clark – and Saturday believes Warren might already be better, and for more than just his receiving chops.
I know he had a play Sunday where he was with the lead back," Saturday recalled. "And he goes up there and he pops the backer, and the back makes a great cut, and goes in. So you're seeing his ability to do a number of different things.
"Well, let's say the very next play Shane's like, go at him and then run by him. If you're the linebacker, that's a nightmare, right? Not only is he a big freaking thumper, now he can fake a thump and go right behind me and curl up, and next thing you know, he’s catching one on a play action pass."
Warren is the latest in an impressive run of rookie tight ends – led by Detroit's Sam LaPorta and Las Vegas' Brock Bowers – who have been playmakers and disruptors from Day 1, a far cry from Saturday's prime, when it would often take several years for a TE to make an impact.
"Their unique abilities to not only be pass catchers, but to expand the field, and also be bumpers … they're insanely gifted.
"The first game we were (in Indianapolis), I want to say (Warren) caught the first four or five balls. And you could tell Shane's like, ‘this is what we're going to do. We're going to find ways to get this matchup.’ And he produced every time."
Saturday to OCs: Protect your assets
It hasn't been all smiles for Saturday, who expressed frustration an early-season spate of quarterback injuries that led to one Week 2 game featuring a pair of backups – Cincinnati's Jake Browning and Minnesota's Carson Wentz – forced into action due to respective injuries to Joe Burrow and rookie J.J. McCarthy.
Saturday was careful to point out that not all early-season QB injuries can be blamed on offensive line play – but he doesn't like the lack of protection QBs have seen in the early going.
"I wish more offenses would find ways to get their quarterback under center, get some tight ends, some big bodies in line, and help their quarterbacks see the field and be protected in seeing the field," he told Covers.
"I guess the biggest one for me is, you're seeing all these quarterbacks get banged up and nicked up. We already have backup quarterbacks having to start a lot of games. And I'm not associating all of those injuries to this, but with that position, in and of itself, availability is the greatest ability. We can't have weeks where we don’t have our guy. That's a massive thing."
Saturday recalls how Manning would favor more downfield weapons over added protection. That didn't go over well with his perennial Pro Bowl center.
"Peyton, he wanted as many receivers out as he could get," Saturday recalled. "He wanted five guys. And we understood that. If you can get everybody out, let's get everybody out.
"But the reality is, if we're getting them out at the expense of you taking a beating, you're not going to be the same guy in the fourth quarter that we need, getting us back in a game, or taking us on this final drive, because your body is going to be broken down, your vision is going to be off, you're going to get happy feet, because you've been hit so much."
And there's a reason that approach especially won't fly in today's NFL, according to Saturday.
"Those dudes on the other side are more athletic, they're faster, they're stronger, and they can see, and we can't," he told Covers. "You're giving them the advantage. I used to tell (media) all the time, 'If we can't protect (the QB), it doesn't matter how good it is downfield, because they'll never get there.'"
Saturday also called out a couple of teams that have been particularly egregious in recent years at failing to protect their biggest stars.
"The Houston Texans come to mind right now," he told Covers. C.J. (Stroud) takes beatings, man. Burrow has taken freaking beatings. The coaches have to get on board. 'Hey, this is how we're going to do it. We may have to roll the pocket, we may have to do different things, but we're going to find ways where our best guy and our most important guy doesn't take a beating.'
"You can be the most ingenious human ever. 'I’ve got these schemes. We’ve got sick hybrid coverages.' Well, guess what? When that dude's getting hit, that ball isn't nearly as consistent and doesn’t have nearly the zip on it. And it's not going to be anywhere near where it's supposed to be."
Cardiac Bucs learning plenty about themselves
Not all 3-0 starts are the same. Just ask fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have already endured a season's worth of stress in just three weeks of action.
Not only have the Bucs staged fourth-quarter comebacks in all three of their victories – each of those scores came in the final minute of play, including back-to-back heart-stoppers in which the go-ahead score came with six seconds and three seconds remaining, respectively.
Tampa Bay players and fans might have wished for a little less drama, but Saturday says those kinds of wins bond teams like no other result.
"The tougher the games, and the tighter the games, the more you really know about who you were," he said. "You have games where you're trading blows back and forth, and it's the fourth quarter, and (you've) got to put together a drive.
Tampa, to me, has had an incredible start. They've had three fourth-quarter comebacks. Three straight final drives to close games out and get the win. So what are you learning? You're learning about your QB. You're learning about your receiver corps. You learn about your O-line. You learn about your kicker. You learn about your defense, having to put together key stops. You're figuring that stuff out about yourself."
Saturday says those lessons come in particularly handy as teams approach playoff time.
"If you're just walking through teams and it's like, 'the other team turned it over four times.' The NFL tightens up as the year goes on. You don't have that many games, and especially in the playoffs, you're not going to have teams that just beat themselves. So you know a lot more about yourself if teams aren't beating themselves."
