INDIANAPOLIS -- Ted Monachino arrived in Indianapolis as the Colts' new defensive coordinator last winter with the vision that he would have cornerbacks Vontae Davis and Darius Butler, defensive lineman Henry Anderson -- possibly -- and safety Clayton Geathers in the starting lineup for Week 1.
Monachino might be on the sideline calling defensive plays without any of those players when they take on the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
Things are so bare in the Colts secondary that Patrick Robinson, who signed with the team in the spring, is the most experienced player in Monachino’s system of their four healthy cornerbacks. The other three healthy cornerbacks -- Antonio Cromartie, Rashaan Melvin and Darryl Morris -- have all been on the roster for less than two weeks.
Good luck.
"Would you love to have four guys play in the back end and play the whole preseason together and have your starters trot out there Week 1 of the regular season? You’d love it," coach Chuck Pagano said. "You can go back, and no matter who we brought in here, you watch the tape and you know that a guy like Rashaan who just got in here, he’s got length, he’s played before, we’ve watched the tape. He’s got speed, toughness and special teams value. The unknown is, 'Okay, how quick can we get him up to speed as far as the scheme goes and the communication?' There’s a little bit there, but they’ll be ready to go."
That’s only the start of things for Indianapolis.
The Colts hope defensive end Kendall Langford will be able to play Sunday after missing the past month following knee surgery. There will be a new starting inside linebacker alongside of D'Qwell Jackson. And veteran Mike Adams will have rookie T.J. Green starting with him at safety.
"We’re all challenged," Monachino said. "What I will tell you is it’s our job as a staff to coach the guys that show up on grass, and we’ve got a squad of defensive players that are going to do everything they can to play winning football on Sunday. It is a challenge. It is a challenge for those guys that are new in the building to get as much done in the install as they can, so we can play our system on Sunday. It’s a huge challenge."
Owner Jim Irsay acknowledged this week that the offense will have to carry a defense that finished 26th in the NFL last season until that unit gets its injured players back.
"I think the other place I’ve been at, (talking players not playing) has killed us in the past; being in Cleveland," Jackson said. "Guys started looking around at what we don’t have and what we can’t have. You can’t play those games. Here we don’t talk about it. Everyone helps each other. Everyone sees it as an opportunity."
There haven’t been any early excuses for potential struggles inside the Colts' locker room. They look at it as an opportunity for some of the young players to take advantage of the extra snaps they’re about to get.
The Colts' beat up secondary will be tested by a Detroit team that was fourth in the NFL in pass attempts, and has a running back (Theo Riddick) who caught 80 passes out of the backfield last season. It’ll be up to Robert Mathis and the rest of the pass-rushers to get to Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Colts had only 35 sacks last season.
Monachino said they have enough variety in their defensive schemes that they will be able to call the proper plays to suit the personnel on the field. He talked in training camp about having an aggressive, attacking defensive unit. It will be a challenge to pull that off with a questionable secondary.
"If we had everyone healthy and every guy at our disposal, there may be some different things in the game-planning," he said. "The game plan is specific to Detroit, and we’re finding out right now what we can do with the guys that we have, and those guys are competitors. They want to go out and they want to play well ... I’m not going to change what we do, but I’m going to make sure we focus our list of calls on the things that they do best."