FanHouse Mike Hart

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet the ...
Team under Peyton's leadership for the first time without Tom Moore*. That's right. Peyton's only offensive coordinator for his entire 11-year career has been the venerable Moore. Moore's first year at the helm was Manning's rookie season, so the two grew together. It's going to be interesting to see how Manning fares without his mentor calling the shots.

Of course, Manning's obviously cerebral enough to deal quite well with the transition, and the Colts have enough weapons in their arsenal to remain the high-octane offense we're used to seeing every fall.

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With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

The Indianapolis Colts enter the 2009 season as one of the NFL's marquee franchises. They have made the playoffs nine of the last 10 seasons, and have won at least 12 games for six straight seasons. There's a reason for that. Well, there are many reasons, but everything starts with how well the Colts draft. Beginning with the franchise-making decision to take Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf in 1998, Bill Polian has missed once in the first round. I imagine Colts fans are pretty trusting of their Team President when Roger Goodell strolls to the podium.

The only thing that didn't go well for the Colts in their romp of the Ravens Sunday was the state of their backfield.

Joseph Addai was forced to depart the game after only three yards rushing, and rookie Mike Hart suffered a bad knee injury, if reports surfacing have any accuracy. This leaves Dominic Rhodes alone in the backfield. He can deal with being the main running back, as he's done it before in Indianapolis ... but the Colts still need a backup. The Indy Star speculates:

A leading candidate is Chad Simpson, who is on the practice squad. Whomever the Colts add to the roster for Sunday's game at Green Bay likely will have some familiarity with their offense.

That might include Clifton Dawson, who saw action in 13 games a year ago but was waived Aug. 26, or Justin Forsett, who was waived last week. Forsett currently is on Seattle's practice squad. It won't include Kenton Keith, who backed up Addai last season but signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League after being released in late August.

The Colts better keep their fingers crossed that Rhodes can stay healthy and carry a full workload, because none of these candidates are even in the same ballpark as Addai or Hart talent-wise.

The only thing that didn't go well for the Colts in their romp of the Ravens Sunday was the state of their backfield.

Joseph Addai was forced to depart the game after only three yards rushing, and rookie Mike Hart suffered a bad knee injury, if reports surfacing have any accuracy. This leaves Dominic Rhodes alone in the backfield. He can deal with being the main RB, as he's done it before in Indianapolis ... but the Colts still need a backup. The Indy Star speculates:

A leading candidate is Chad Simpson, who is on the practice squad. Whomever the Colts add to the roster for Sunday's game at Green Bay likely will have some familiarity with their offense.

That might include Clifton Dawson, who saw action in 13 games a year ago but was waived Aug. 26, or Justin Forsett, who was waived last week. Forsett currently is on Seattle's practice squad. It won't include Kenton Keith, who backed up Addai last season but signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League after being released in late August.

The Colts better keep their fingers crossed that Rhodes can stay healthy and carry a full workload, because none of these candidates are even in the same ballpark as Addai or Hart, talent-wise.

When the news broke in mid-July that Peyton Manning would be out 4-6 weeks after having knee surgery, the focus immediately turned to his backup, Jim Sorgi. The fifth-year pro out of Wisconsin seems perfectly capable of stalking the sidelines and feigning interest during the regular season, but anything more than mop-up duty is cause for alarm among the Colts faithful.

And then Sorgi goes down with a bum leg during the preseason -- nothing serious, but enough to keep him out of action just in case you-know-who isn't ready for the regular season -- meaning that there's a very real chance Jared Lorenzen or Quinn Gray make the final 53.

Didn't happen. Manning declared he'll play in Week 1, Sorgi will resume his rightful place next to Tom Moore, and J-Load and ThrowPix6 are out of work. To be fair, neither player showed much in the last month; Lorenzen played like he was hungover on cake, and Gray threw enough interceptions to make you think he was really left-handed.

In less depressing news, sixth-round pick Mike Hart made the roster. In fact, every one of the Colts' '08 selections are currently on the team, which is pretty impressive.

Things aren't looking good for Kenton Keith's place on the Indianapolis Colts right now. Not only is Dominic Rhodes back in town after a year away, but Mike Hart was drafted. So far in the pre-season, Hart has 73 yards on only six carries while Keith has gained only 11 yards on four jaunts. Hart has also hauled in five passes for 49 yards.

Now Keith is hurt, and the Colts are hoping that he makes the team's 3:30 practice. Uh, if anything I'd guess Keith should be the one hoping he can go. We've already reported that there are several young players impressing Tony Dungy and company in camp thus far, and that several injured veterans are well on their way to exiting the PUP list quite soon.

Personally, I don't think there's any reason to keep Keith on this roster. Between Joseph Addai, Rhodes, and Hart, the Colts have all the backfield talent they need to succeed in Peyton Manning's Tom Moore's offense.

Fantasy Spin after the jump ...

Things aren't looking good for Kenton Keith's place on the Indianapolis Colts right now. Not only is Dominic Rhodes back in town after a year away, but Mike Hart was drafted. So far in the pre-season, Hart has 73 yards on only six carries while Keith has gained only 11 yards on four jaunts. Hart has also hauled in five passes for 49 yards.

Now Keith is hurt, and the Colts are hoping that he makes the team's 3:30 practice. Uh, if anything I'd guess Keith should be the one hoping he can go. We've already reported that there are several young players impressing Tony Dungy and company in camp thus far, and that several injured veterans are well on their way to exiting the PUP list quite soon.

Personally, I don't think there's any reason to keep Keith on this roster. Between Joseph Addai, Rhodes, and Hart, the Colts have all the backfield talent they need to succeed in Peyton Manning's Tom Moore's offense.

Fantasy Spin after the jump ...

You don't build an NFL team via free agency or trades. Unlike a few other sports, you really can't. There are too many players and salary cap implications. This is why you'll never see a team reload like the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Cubs can in baseball, for example. The best football franchises are the ones that understand this -- like the Pats, Chargers, etc. -- and do it well.

This just in: Colts Prez Bill Polian knows what he's doing. Whether it was choosing Peyton Manning over Ryan Leaf, Edgerrin James over Ricky Williams, letting Edge walk and replacing him with Joseph Addai instead of LenDale White ... most of what he touches turns to gold. There are a ton of low-profile draftees as well. This whole team was built via the draft.

That is why it was hardly surprising to see a crop of unheralded rookies exceed expectations Sunday night in Canton.

"There were a lot of really good performances from our young guys that have us excited," Dungy said Monday afternoon.

I'll say.

Look, I understand the game was completely meaningless and many high-profile stars didn't even suit up. In fact, by the time most of these guys shined there were a bunch of dudes playing that won't even make the Redskins final roster.

Good news: Colts sixth-round pick Mike Hart is pleasantly surprised by his NFL experience so far. Bad news: he's still got a lot of work to do to make the team amid a pretty crowded backfield.

"It's a little different," Hart said ... "The only surprise is it's not as tough as I thought it was going to be, as far as practice and those type of things ... It's more laid back."

... "Indianapolis is a different organization. You watch 'Hard Knocks' on HBO and you expect to be hazed and a lot of those things, but the Colts are a lot different. It's not as bad as I thought -- we don't get taped, we don't get hazed with the Colts."

Too bad the Colts didn't draft Erasmus James in 2005. Things might've turned out differently.

Hart, who set the record for most rushing yards by a freshman at Michigan, and left four years later as the school's all-time leading rusher, will be fighting for a roster spot in Indianapolis. Newly (re-)signed Dominic Rhodes and Kenton Keith will battle for the backup/change-of-pace job behind Joseph Addai. If Hart shows well in the coming weeks and months, he could also be in the mix.

The easiest way for low-round picks to make the club in on special teams, and given the Colts have one of the worst units in the league, it might not take much for Hart to sneak onto the final 53.

Notes on a trip to the NFL Scouting Combine.

In the photo, Michigan running back Mike Hart is talking to the media at the Indianapolis Scouting Combine. Hart was smart, funny and articulate, and he'll be quoted in a bunch of newspaper articles tomorrow.

There have also been some little-known, small-college players who talked to the media at this year's Combine, and they won't be quoted in many newspaper articles. The reason is that unlike Hart, they haven't mastered the art of speaking in complete-sentence sound bites that reporters can easily pick up and use for their stories.

In general, the players at the Combine look pretty much the way you'd expect a 22-year-old getting ready for a job interview to look: A little nervous, a little overwhelmed, but trying to put their best faces forward. But it's striking how much better the guys like Hart, who has a great deal of experience with media scrutiny in college, are at presenting themselves than the guys who spent their college years at small schools, without TV cameras in their faces.