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COLTS

Irsay: Just one title with Luck isn't enough

Zak Keefer
zak.keefer@indystar.com

While the NFL Draft mercifully crept towards its final hour Saturday evening, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay snagged a seat in front of reporters at the team's West 56th Street facility. He was giddy, pleased with the work already done and eager for the work ahead. All told, his club would welcome eight draftees to a roster that holds genuine Super Bowl aspirations.

That roster is both very young and very old. Adam Vinatieri (age 42), Robert Mathis (34), Andre Johnson (33) and Frank Gore (31) are each in the twilight of gilded careers. This could be their last shot. Andrew Luck (25), T.Y. Hilton (25) and Coby Fleener (26) are on the precipice of their prime. One figures they'll be at this for a good while.

Irsay was asked about that very predicament, of the delicate balance that comes with needing to win now and needing to win later. He answered by laying out his expectations for the future.

"The realization is, for the lack of a better word, in the Andrew Luck era, we'd like to win at least two world championships," Irsay said. "We don't shy away from that fact."

Most telling in Irsay's response: Two. Two is not an accident. Two is one more world championship than one, which happens to be how many the Colts claimed during The Peyton Manning era, which happens to be a fact that rankles Irsay to this day.

Two, then, is the new barometer. The way Irsay sees it: One wasn't enough then and one won't be enough now.

Info about each player Colts drafted

That lingering frustration – an NFL-record seven straight 12-win seasons from 2003-09, seven AFC South titles, just one Lombardi Trophy – was the catalyst behind Irsay's franchise overhaul after the disastrous 2011 season. Irsay fired his general manager (Bill Polian), his head coach (Jim Caldwell) and cut loose his four-time MVP quarterback (Manning).

The Colts would be rebuilt from the ground up. And this team, by design, would be built differently.

Irsay continued Saturday, elaborating on the blueprint he hopes will result in multiple Super Bowl triumphs. The pillars are in place. What the Colts were attempting to accomplish with this draft: Fill the coffers for sustained success.

"When we look at that, we look at how do we build this roster over the next three years to really be able to go on a run where you can win two Super Bowls in a row, to where you can really be dominant," he said.

We know Irsay doesn't want one. He wants two, three, even four. He wants a dynasty. He wants to mimic the clubs that have delivered the Colts their greatest playoff heartache. New England. Pittsburgh. He was tired of watching his offense put up "Star Wars numbers" – his words a few years back – then fall flat every January except for 2007.

"We have changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more of these," Irsay told USA Today in 2013, holding up his lone Super Bowl ring. "Tom Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three (now four) of these. Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one. That leaves you frustrated."

Frustrated, sure. Envious too. In the Colts' rivals, Irsay saw what he sought: A foundation built on defense. He knows this reality all too well – while offenses come and go in the postseason, defenses hold firm. That's why he brought in a first-time general manager lauded for a keen scouting eye (Ryan Grigson) and a new coach (Chuck Pagano) with a defensive pedigree who would install the very 3-4 scheme that gave the Colts' offense fits for years.

That's why they drafted guys like D'Joun Smith, Henry Anderson, Clayton Geathers and David Parry this weekend. The plan: Learn now, win later.

Links: Colts get average draft grades

The only problem thus far: The early years of the Grigson Era are unfolding in strikingly similar fashion to the early years of the Polian Era. Grigson used his first-ever pick on the no-brainer franchise quarterback then enveloped him with young offensive talent. Eighteen of Grigson's first 30 picks as general manager have come on that side of the ball, and not until this year's draft – Grigson's fourth – did the Colts make defense the focal point.

And yet, on the field, the Colts have soared. Irsay's rebuilding project is years ahead of pace. Luck's not yet started his fourth NFL training camp and he already owns three playoff wins and two division titles. The pieces Grigson has surrounded his young quarterback with (Hilton, Fleener, Dwayne Allen to name a few) have made that possible.

"People forget how empty the cupboards were in 2011 when we started this rebuilding process," Irsay said Saturday. "Success happened too quickly, we covered up some of our weaknesses with some good players."

Read: Andrew Luck.

And … still … the playoff exits ring resoundingly familiar. The Colts have been overpowered, overrun, outmuscled and out-toughed, by Baltimore in 2012 and by New England twice since then. The Colts averaged 12 points a game in those three losses.

Irsay's seen this before. We've all seen this before. In playoff losses in the Manning Era, they averaged 14.

Which makes the team's first-round pick in this year's draft all the more puzzling. After professing the need to add toughness on defense this offseason, particularly along the line, the Colts used their first selection on a 5-9 wide receiver.

Now, Phillip Dorsett could very well turn into a dynamic slot receiver, another toy for Luck to bury defenses with. But it's still hard to figure how he is going to help this team hold New England to fewer than 200 rushing yards in the playoffs.

The Colts' rebuttal to that: Defense, defense, defense, defense with its next four picks, bring a collective exhalation from fans demanding help on that side of the ball. Irsay is preaching patience, believing this young crop of draftees can become the backbone of the team's defense for years to come.

That's the only way the Colts spin the narrative. Irsay has laid out his goals, ambitious as they are. The Colts need to find a way to win now and win later.

Grigson believes he accomplished the first task in free agency. He hopes he found the players to accomplish the latter this weekend.

That's a good thing. Because his boss expects championship(s), and he expects them soon.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.