A few thoughts on Joseph Addai

I would like to offer my two cents on the Joseph Addai situation.

I have heard at least three different times that the arrival of Donald Brown means Joseph Addai will get his walking papers in the near future … if not this year, then definitely after 2009.

I beg to differ with this view. Every time now I want to evaluate a Colts move, I reference it back to 2006 when the Colts won the Super Bowl. In 2006, the Colts used the two-back approach throughout the season. I figured it was mostly due to the fact that Addai was a rookie and Dominic Rhodes was a veteran, but as the season wore on, it became clear that even if the Colts split the carries to help Addai’s learning curve, the benefit it added was that both Addai and Rhodes were fresh down the stretch. The end result was that the Colts ran the ball down the Bears throat for over 200 yards in Super Bowl XLI and took us to the Promised Land.

He's not done, yet.

When I evaluate the Donald Brown selection, I see a similar situation to 2006. Addai will get the bulk of the carries as Brown goes through the learning curve, but the end result will be that both Addai and Brown will be fresh as the Colts enter December. Given that Addai seemed to be hampered all year by injury, I think that’s a very good thing.

Down the road we could find that the Colts won’t bring back Addai after his contract expires in 2010. That would not surprise me since it has been the Colts standard operating procedure since GM Bill Polian arrived. Despite this, I don’t think for a minute that the arrival of Donald Brown means the Colts are done with Addai or that Addai is washed up.

At least not now, anyway.