The new Colts offense under QB Andrew Luck will feature tight ends Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen, the next two players the Colts drafted after Luck. Minus Peyton Manning, the Colts, according to ESPN Stats & Information, ran two-tight end sets for only 242 plays last season, fourth-fewest in the league.
"It is a matchup nightmare,'' Colts coach Chuck Pagano told reporters over the weekend. "Coming off of the AFC Championship Game, nobody knew better than the Ravens going into that game with the two guys [Gronkowski and Hernandez] that [the Patriots] have. It is across the league. You can see it more and more every year.
"You can choose to put a defensive back on them, and they will be undersized, they will get outmuscled and they will get 'big-boyed' for the ball. Then you can put a safety or a linebacker on them and they can't run with them. So we feel like the two guys [Allen and Fleener] that we added, and Dominique [Jones] is a physical presence, that guy is 260 pounds and moving around really well. It is a matchup nightmare for any defense."
This is clearly good news for both Fleener and Allen, who project to see the field quite a bit this season if they can pick up the offense quickly. If he can get stornger, Fleener has the potential to become the next Rob Gronkowski. Fleener is 6'6", 260 lbs and ran a 4.51 40-yard dash at his pro day. He averaged 19.6 YPC in college. All of those numbers meet or exceed Gronkowski's measurables/stats at the same time in his career. Plus, he has a built-in rapport with Luck, who also went to Stanford.
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