Football season is officially back! The Indianapolis Colts will kick off against the St. Louis Rams in their preseason opener at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Shortly thereafter, Andrew Luck will take his first snap as the Colts’ starting quarterback, just the second different starting quarterback in the last 14 years. There’s a lot of buzz and excitement surrounding the new-look 2012 Colts, but there’s also a lot of uncertainty. Roughly 60% of the team’s current roster is new to the Horseshoe; therefore few have proven themselves as reliable team assets. The upside is: We will find out soon enough.

The Colts released their first official depth charts this week for offense, defense, and special teams. They are as follows:

Offense

Defense

Special Teams

The depth charts reflect how the Colts will be positioned in the preseason opener. Keep in mind that things change frequently and dramatically throughout the entirety of training camp and the preseason. I can guarantee the final depth charts the team release will look vastly different from these (except for maybe the quarterback position). To help you get to know the current state of this fresh new team, I recommend reading Paul Kuharsky‘s (writer of ESPN’s AFC South blog) fantastic review of the Colts leading up to their first outing in 2012.

Injured Reserve

It’s not the best way to start off a season, but the Colts also have two players already placed on Injured Reserve, and they will remain there for the entirety of the preseason, regular season, and (if applicable) the playoffs. Both Ben Ijalana and A.J. Edds cleared waivers after suffering season-ending ACL injuries last week. They will remain with the team this year while they heal.

Blackouts, Shmackouts

If preseason sales are any indication, the Colts will not have to black out any televised games this year. The Colts-Rams contest is completely sold out (The only way to win tickets is to win one of Jim Irsay’s highly competitive Twitter contests). I’m thrilled about this early outpouring of fan support. Hopefully support does in fact remain high the entire season, regardless of the outcomes of games. Rebuilding takes time. Success may not be immediate, but it will come at some point.

I hope you are as ready and excited for the Colts’ first preseason outing as I am! I also hope you have enjoyed reading #HorseBytes this offseason. From now on, you can read my post-Colts game reviews in the return of my weekly column “Horseshoe Hero.”

Happy reading, and Go Colts!

Jeff Linkenbach, the Colts' neck protector.

The Indianapolis Colts today released the first version of their depth chart for the 2011 season as the team heads towards their first pre-season game, in St. Louis this Saturday.   While it’s still really early in the process, and nothing too shocking jumps out at you, there are a few items of note to take from the projected lineup as of today.

• Jeff Linkenbach is the starter at LT.   This is as the Colts said it would be, with rookie Anthony Castonzo relegated to backup duties, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see Castonzo start on opening day.
• Jacques McClendon is the starter at LG.   McClendon is something of a work in progress, very strong and smart, but not very polished.  The Colts continue trying to bolster the offensive line, and McClendon at least brings some much needed size (6’3″, 324 pounds).
• Ernie Sims is all the way down at number four among right LBs, but of course, that’s probably due as much to his appendectomy over the weekend as anything else.
• Nate Davis is listed as the fourth quarterback.    Again, no shocker to me, but a lot of folks really seem to think Davis has a future here as, I guess, Manning’s backup.  There is a healthy dose of local bias in that particular viewpoint, and I really don’t see him doing much better in Indy than he did with the 49ers.

With all of the roster moves, here is the Colts new depth chart from Colts.com:

QB: Peyton Manning/Jim Sorgi
RB: Joseph Addai/Dominic Rhodes/Mike Hart/Justin Forsett
H-B: Gijon Robinson/Jacob Tamme/Tom Santi
WR: Reggie Wayne/Marvin Harrison/Anthony Gonzalez/Roy Hall/Pierre Garcon
TE: Dallas Clark/Gijon Robinson/Jacob Tamme/Tom Santi
LT: Tony Ugoh/Dan Federkeil
LG: Charlie Johnson/Jamey Richard
C: Jeff Saturday/Steve Justice
RG: Dan Federkeil/Mike Pollak (out)
RT: Ryan Diem/Corey Hilliard

LE: Raheem Brock/Robert Mathis/Curtis Johnson
RE: Dwight Freeney/Josh Thomas/Marcus Howard
UT: Keyunta Dawson/Eric Foster/Darrell Reid
NT: Eric Foster/Daniel Muir/LaJuan Ramsey
SAM: Clint Session/Philip Wheeler
MIKE: Gary Brackett/Buster Davis
WILL: Freddie Keiaho/Jordan Senn
CB: Kelvin Hayden/Marlin Jackson/Tim Jennings/Keiwan Ratliff/Dante Hughes
FS: Antoine Bethea/Melvin Bullitt
SS: Bob Sanders/Matt Giordano

K: Adam Vinatieri
P: Hunter Smith
LS: Justin Snow
KR: Pierre Garcon/Dominic Rhodes (I believe this is a typo and should be Forsett)/Dominic Rhodes
PR: Pierre Garcon/Keiwan Ratliff
H: Hunter Smith/Jim Sorgi