INDIANAPOLIS ?The Indianapolis Colts made a firm commitment to Matt Eberflus in January.

They stuck to it after the man who initially hired Eberflus to be Indy’s defensive coordinator Parris Campbell Jersey , Josh McDaniels, reneged on a deal to become the next coach, and they lived up to their promise after eventually hiring Frank Reich in February.It’s worked out well for the Colts.“He’s a consistent guy, he’s got a consistent message every day and he believes in the system,” middle linebacker Anthony Walker said Tuesday. “That’s what you want as a player, a guy who believes in the system.”The system looks awfully familiar to longtime Colts fans.Eberflus reinstalled the Tampa 2 defense, the zone concept popularized by Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy. General manager Chris Ballard saw it work in Chicago under Lovie Smith, one of Dungy’s former pupils, and Reich worked with it on Dungy’s staff when he first started coaching in 2006. Indy capped that season by winning the Super Bowl.The low-key personalities and focused approaches also proved a perfect match.But the real investment came in free agency and the draft.While Colts fans waited impatiently for Ballard to make a splashy move, he mostly avoided the high-priced free agents and instead went with less-familiar names who could excel in Eberflus’ system.The results have been remarkable.Linebacker Darius Leonard, a second-round pick, has a league-high 104 tackles and Walker has 67 tackles, nearly four times as many as he had in 2017.Defensive end Kemoko Turay has shown flashes of being a disruptive pass rusher and Tyquan Lewis showed promise in his first two games after missing the first eight with an injured toe. Both were second-round draft picks in April.“We’re getting to the ball, causing turnovers,” Leonard said. “We don’t do a lot, there’s not a lot of thinking, so it’s very easy for me to go out and play.”Not just for the young guys, either.Jabaal Sheard moved from outside linebacker to defensive end and already has matched his sacks total (5陆) from last season. Veteran defensive lineman Margus Hunt has gone from rotation player to starter and has had a career-best season.Safeties Clayton Geathers and Malik Hooker have been rounding into form after missing most of last season and part of this season with injuries, and outsiders have noticed a difference.“They hustle. They have great team effort. They have very good team speed. They stunt the front and they are all very good hitters,” Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden said recently. “They seem to really like each other. They seem to have a really good, I think http://www.coltsfanshop.com/Ben-Banogu-Jersey , overall down-to-down competitive nature about them.”The individual numbers tell only part of the story.After finishing 30th in the league in yards allowed per game in 2016 and 2017 and 26th or worse in four of Chuck Pagano’s six seasons as head coach, Indy has jumped to No. 20 this season. Through 10 games, they have 26 sacks and are on pace for their highest total since 2013.The Colts’ last four opponents have聽averaged only聽17.5 points per game, and only four teams have more takeaways than Indy (19).Not surprisingly, the Colts (5-5) have won all four, moving back into the playoff picture largely because of a defensive resurgence few expected in Eberflus’ first season.“I think you have to go through this process. Sometimes you take a couple steps forward and one step back or three or four steps forward and one or two back,” Eberflus said. “But it’s really about the guys buying into it.”It could be just the start.The young Colts are still getting acclimated to Eberflus and his scheme, are still learning how to play consistently well and still must demonstrate they can withstand the late-season rigors to make a playoff run.But for the first time in a long time, the Indy defense no longer looks like the weak link. Instead, Eberflus has demonstrated just how promising the future could be.“I think guys are buying into the style slowly, but it’s not consistent yet,” Eberflus said. “Today in the film room we pointed out all the loafs and all the missed assignments, so we can definitely get better week to week, and now it’s about being consistent week to week.”NOTES: With the likelihood of starting center Ryan Kelly out with an injured left knee, the Colts signed center Josh Andrews off the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad. … Indy also put cornerback D.J. Killings on injured reserve and waived cornerback Arthur Maulet.100View Gallery Gallery:View from the sidelines: NFL cheerleaders 2018Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports | Raj Mehta Collins is about to hit free agency, should the Colts make a move?" Free AgencyLandon Collins to the Colts?New,81commentsCollins is about to hit free agency, should the Colts make a move?ESTShare this storyShare this on FacebookShare this on TwitterShareAll sharing optionsShareAll sharing options for:Landon Collins to the Colts?TwitterFacebookRedditPocketFlipboardEmailIt has been reported that the New York Giants do not plan to use the franchise tag on safety Landon Collins. For those that don’t know what the franchise tag is, here is a quick refresher:Teams can choose to place a franchise tag on one player and retain him for another season. That year the organization must pay the athlete either a) the average of the 5 biggest salaries for his position or b) 120% of the players previous annual salary, whichever is greater. A player under the franchise tag must play for the team that tags him the upcoming season (or not play at all, ex: Le’Veon Bell)Teams have until July 15 to work out a multi-year deal with the player Rock Ya-Sin Jersey , if a contract is not decided upon, the player plays under the salary decided by the franchise tag for that season.The franchise tag is just a way for teams retain their top players and buy time to get a long-term contract done. Of the players that I thought would get tagged, the only one that wasn’t is Landon Collins. This is great news for Colts fans because he seems to be a top target for fans. Pairing Collins with Malik Hooker would possibly allow Matthias Farley and Clayton Geathers to come off of the bench. This would give the team a ton of talent and depth at the safety position. With the cap space available to Chris Ballard and the Colts, the capital is there to bring Collins in if there is mutual interest. What has frustrated the situation for Collins in New York is that he wanted a multi-year contract locking him in at a high rate. The Giants were unwilling to give him the tag, which equates to around a 1-year deal for $11 million dollars. While the highest paid safety contract is $13 million a year (Eric Berry) and $11 million is not a lot less, the Giants had $27 million cap to use and they could afford to keep Collins for another year, even if it was just to trade him. The Giants are most certainly going to get a 3rd round compensatory pick for Collins, but I think, if they chose to trade him, the Giants could have gotten a high second.Spotrac predicts his value to be around 9.3 million dollars, which is a Devin McCourty-type salary. I don’t think that Collins will sign for that cheap so I thought I’d take some of the top safety salaries and try to predict Collins future contract:Earl Thomas (4 years $40-million)Reshad Jones (4 years $48-million)MalcomJenkins (4 years $35-million)Harrison Smith (5 year $51-million)The main difference between these guys and Collins is that his tackle count is much higher (106.5 average* missed a few games last year) while these guys are more around 79.9 tackles a season. Another difference is that the guys on there get more interceptions (2.28 INTs per season) than Collins (2 INTs per season* but 5 out of 8 came in 2016). Ball-hawk safeties tend to make more money just because they tend to last longer and turnovers are highly valued. However, I think that Collins is a good enough that he will get paid like a premier talent. If we average out their contracts we get 4-years and $47,300,000 and $11.825 APY (actual number is $43.5 throughout the contract but $47.3 is adjusted for inflation).Overall, I think that the market pushes up his value slightly as there will be teams vying for his talent. In the end, the Colts have more salary capital than anyone else and if they truly want Collins, they’ll have him wearing the horseshoe next year. One the flip side, Ballard has been quoted saying many a-time that “We put a value on a player. When it gets out of our reach, we are comfortable enough to sleep at night saying that we are going to find an answer,” and odds are that bidding for Collins will get out of hand.