The rookie speedback out of Morgan State came up from the practice squad 6 weeks into the season, after Mike Hart's season ending knee injury. Simpson didn't show the promise in the running game that Hart did, but Simpson could return kicks.

Regular Season Rushing/Receiving (almost identical to his preseason line)

Kick Return

via cache.daylife.com

While Simpson's return numbers were very mediocre (35th of 57 players in the league with at least 10 returns) he was the best out of all the kick returners the Colts used.

2007 Returners: T.J. Rushing (23.0 ave), Craphonso Thorpe (21.2 ave)

Contract: Signed through 2010,     2009:385K, 2010:475K

The Colts return game was awful this year, but it was at it's least awful with Simpson returning kickoffs. He wasn't great as a runner, but he was likely hurt even more than Dom and Addai by the line run blocking failures. A rookie back who's best trait is speed, will probably need some good blocking to do well. A dedicated kickoff returner is going to be at risk to be cut if the roster gets tight, but being the clear best option there is a big help. If Simpson can show more as a runningback his spot will be more secure, but he was outperformed as a RB by Addai, Dom, Hart and Ball this year. Simpson is in trouble if the Colts draft or are able to unearth another quality RB or a returnman from the undrafteds.

Najeh Davenport is a 3rd down back trapped in a fullbacks body. He's not a good runner, and is nowhere near as powerful as a back his size should be, but he can catch and moves surprisingly fast in his routes out of the backfield.

Deuce returned kicks about as well as you would expect from a 250lb back off the wavier wire.

via www.colts.com

Deuce was an injury replacement. With the Colts top 4 runningbacks injured, ranging from banged up (Dom) to IR'ed (Hart) and the Colts top kickoff returners unavailable (Rushing-IR'ed, Simpson-bad ankle, Garcon-personal issue) they "solved" both problems at once with Davenport. Najeh turns 30 in a month, he's not getting better and he wasn't good this year.

Deuce was cut before the Chargers game

It will take another injury wave to both the RBs and KRs to bring him back.

Mike Hart showed a lot of promise before blowing out his knee. Now his future depends on recovering quickly as a back that fell in the draft because of a slow 40 time can't afford to be slowed even further.

via www.colts.com

Contract: Signed for 3 more seasons, 56K in bonus money remaining, rookie minimum salary in 08.

Preseason Stats

Regular Season Stats

If Hart can come back at the same level he showed last year he could be the complement back to Addai. That's a big if and a sizable could though. Hart's roster spot is in danger and if he can't show he's the same back the we saw last year he's career will be over before it even started.

[Bumped. Well, duh.--OPS]

The Cleveland Browns have agreed to hire Eric Mangini as their head coach, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press.

Mangini, fired last week by the New York Jets, reached an agreement with the club Wednesday, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because Mangini's contract has not been finalized.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/01/07/mangini.ap/index.html

Kirk will be sticking around in Iowa City for a bit longer.

Dom not only escaped from the soul crushing pit of despair that is Oakland, he did it with his pockets stuffed full of Al Davis' money.

via assets.sbnation.com

In a touching gesture the Colts OL taylored their blocking to match Oakland's easing Dom back into Indy.

Free Agent, 2008 contract-645K

Dom is a solid back. He can catch, he can block, he's a straight ahead runner who takes what the OL gives him. Dom is a jack of all trades, master of none. He's a great #2 back and can step into a 1b role, but he's not a top back for a good running game. Dom should be brought back if he's willing to take another cheap, slightly above veteran minimum deal. If Dom returns he should take enough carries to keep Addai healthy, but he's not the better back. 30-40% of the carries.

Ball spent only one of 17 weeks on the Colts active roster, but he made that one week count.

via www.colts.com

Future Contract Info Unknown, he made 1/17th of a rookie minimum salary this year.

88 yards in 14 touches against the Titans backups week 17, is promising. 6 yards per touch can't be ignored even if it wasn't against top competition. Obviously it's too early to project anything from cleanup duty in a meaningless game, but he justified his existence on the fringe of the roster. Ball showed promise, but if Mike Hart is able to return healthy and Dom or Edge return, Ball will have little chance of making the roster and may not make the practice squad as a 5th RB.

Update: Here's a scouting report on Ball since we only saw a little bit of him.

82 days until the draft. 61 Players currently with the team between the roster, PUP and IR. What better way to get through the long wait, while figuring out what the Colts need than to evaluate the roster in that time. I'll post the Players stats, whatever contract info is available and my thoughts, then it's a open discussion. What did you see? What do you want to happen with the player? Do they need to be replaced in the draft?

The first installment is below

We'll start with one of the more controversial players on the roster.

via cache.daylife.com

Addai has two years remaining on his contract, with a 1.7mil cap charge in 09 and 2.3mil in 2010.

The most alphabetical Colt struggled this year. Career lows across the board. How much of it you put on the line, how much on injury and how much on Addai and his running style depends on the person, but none of the Colts other backs had significantly more success and Addai was a much better back in his first two years.

Addai is a healthy offseason and a bit of OL improvement away from being a great 1a back again. He is too injury prone to carry the full load, but his consistent running, great recieving and excellent pass blocking is a huge boost to the Colts offense. Addai should get 50-70% of the carries depending on his health and the back he's sharing time with.

Addai, thoughts, go.