The Indianapolis Colts are at home to take on the Miami Dolphins for week 10 of the 2026 season, kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. EST.
With the trade deadline behind us, the Colts coaches and front office have to be hoping the distractions caused by a midseason mass exodus, are behind them as well. Now the problem is, what’s left for them to try to win with? The Indianapolis Colts will start Laquon Treadwell, Ashton Dulin and Anthony Gould today at wide receiver. A former first round bust, a career core special
teamer and a guy who didn’t make the initial 53 man roster. At this point in this lost season I am fully on board with benching Daniel Jones, but it has less to do with Jones’ play, which hasn’t been as awful as the TV copy has made it look (the playcalling and his supporting cast have been just as questionable as his level of play). Anthony Richardson should start at quarterback, not because it will provide better outcomes, but for literally every other reason. He’s exciting, even if he’s bad. He’s been sitting behind a guy who “does all of the right things” behind the scenes, let’s see if that time sitting has done any good. And finally, if the team is going to lose either way, what’s the point in not trying something, anything different?
Now, having said all of that, I don’t think it matters if prime Andrew Luck were on this roster. No one is capable of getting open. Shane Steichen has forgotten how to scheme anyone open and teams are keying so hard on the run game when Jonathan Taylor is in (because they know the receivers can’t get open against even bad NFL cornerbacks), moving the ball down the field has been dependent upon luck and defensive pass interference calls.
During Chris Ballard’s tenure there were always holes in the roster (there are holes in all 32 NFL rosters every season) but for most of those years it felt like they were just a quarterback away from contending. That’s no longer true. When the season started this was a bad team and this bad team has traded away most of it’s best players. The rest of this season could be very ugly.
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The Dolphins are sitting at 1-7. But since week four, they’ve only lost one game by more than one score. In that time they’ve played the Vikings, Bengals, Jets (their lone win), the Patriots and Lions (a 10 point loss). The Dolphins are also a bad football team but they haven’t really been “blown out” since week two, losing to the San Francisco 49ers 13-35.
The Dolphins will be without starting quarterback Malik Willis. Kyle McCord will make his first career start. McCord was the 181st pick (6th round) in the 2025 NFL Draft. He was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles and frankly I’m not going to look up McCord’s transaction history to figure out how he ended up as the QB2 in Miami a year later, but I think the safe bet is on him not making the Eagles roster. So for as bad as things are in Indy, they might just be worse in Miami.
The difference is, everyone expected Miami to be bad. Their owner didn’t tell fans she expected to win and the urgency to win had “never been higher”.
Ultimately this is a game between two very bad NFL football teams. It should be terrible to watch. Frankly, every Colts game for the rest of the season will probably be pretty awful. But I’ll be watching players, not outcomes. I’m interested to watch CJ Allen’s development. I’ll be watching Bryce Boettcher, hoping he’ll start to figure out how to play linebacker in the NFL, because if he does that ability combined with his athleticism could make for a very exciting player. Right now, he’s fun to watch in the same way 2024 Anthony Richardson was, it wasn’t good but there were a lot of interesting plays and it all happened fast. I’ll be watching Jaylahn Tuimoloau continue his ascent as a player and I’ll be rooting hard for Caden Curry who has made plays each and every week.
Offensively I’ll be watching Jalen Farmer and hoping the young man continues to grow. He’s had some good and some bad moments but each week is an invaluable opportunity to improve. I’ll also be watching receiver Deion Burks. For Burks as an individual, it’s difficult to imagine a better scenario. Sixth round receivers rarely get the kind of opportunity Burks is about to have for the rest of the season. I’m interested to see what he does with it.
And if it happens, I’ll be very interested to see Anthony Richardson on the field for the Colts again. And as bad as he was the last time the team tried it, it is time to try it again.
Prediction:
Dolphins: 13
Colts: 12
As always, go Colts.
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This is your week ten open thread so hang out here, chat, celebrate, commiserate, and argue in the comments! Go wild (within reason)!
