Though many of the players from the perennially playoff-bound Indianapolis Colts are still around, it's a new era in Colts camp these days. The turnover on the coaching staff has been vast, especially for a team who has seemingly gone 12-4 in their sleep for all of recent memory -- and it goes all the way to the top. With a new head coach and two new coordinators, the players have some adjusting to do. On the defensive side of the ball, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders appears to believe in his new defensive boss, former Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Larry Coyer.
"We're excited to have him here. (He's added) a lot of different wrinkles for us. Good thing is he'll move us around a little bit more. We're excited. Everything has not been installed yet, but from what he said there's a lot of good things that we haven't done, which is good. It opens up everyone's game."
The Colts were successful under Ron Meeks, but in the famed "Tampa-2" scheme Tony Dungy instilled -- which was run by Meeks -- the players don't have much freedom to roam. When playing a zone, especially cover-2, the players have to maintain discipline and stay in their specific areas. With Sanders' mention that Coyer will move them around more, it's possible he's hinting there will be some more freedom.
Then again, he could mean Coyer will take advantage of their depth at safety and play different guys at different positions, depending upon the situation. The Colts, when healthy, have three solid safeties.
"(We are) very deep and very talented. It's definitely a good thing for us. It's great to have one good safety on the team, but when you have three or four different guys who can all play on the same level it's great," the 28-year-old Sanders said of himself, Antoine Bethea and Melvin Bullitt.
"Antoine has done an excellent job. He's a Pro-Bowler. Bullitt is very good and coming along well. We have a lot of other young guys that hope to make this team and prove to everybody that they belong here. It's great to have those guys around. You just never know when guys are going to get injured and who is going to be playing, and you need those backups to be ready."
With Sanders in particular, the talk always seems to come back to that "I" word. Injury. He almost can't escape it. The immensely talented, yet oft-injured safety has played in only 45 of 80 possible regular-season games since entering the league. Last season he only played six games. So, the obvious question to Sanders would be: How do you feel?
"I feel good. That's all I really want to say about that. I feel good. My soul is good, and I'm in good spirits. I'm doing all right."
It's easy to be upbeat at this time of the year for all football teams. It's an optimistic time of the year by nature, so it's no surprise a veteran-laden team with great leadership like the Colts are remaining in good spirits. The positivity emanating from the locker room is a testament to the professionalism of the team.
This team is accustomed to winning, not change. The true litmus test for the squad will be how they respond to adversity, once it should hit.
For now, though, it's all excitement at Colts camp.
"I'm very excited," Sanders said. "When you get to this point in mini-camp the season is pretty much here. We're ready to go and excited. It's good to see the young guys come in and see new faces and have guys get to work and get acclimated to what we do around here."
