The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL).
The club was officially founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1953, as the Baltimore Colts, replacing a previous team of that name that folded in 1950. After 31 seasons in Baltimore, Colts owner Robert Irsay moved the team to Indianapolis.
The Colts have had 33 starting quarterbacks (QB) in the history of their franchise. The Colts' past starting quarterbacks include Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Unitas, as well as the Associated Press National Football League Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) winners Earl Morrall and Bert Jones. Unitas also won the MVP award three times in his career. The franchise's first starting quarterback was Fred Enke, who started 9 games in total for the Colts. The Colts' starting quarterback from 1998 to 2011 was 5-time MVP Peyton Manning. Manning's tenure was followed by Andrew Luck from 2012 to 2018, until his sudden retirement during the 2019 preseason. Originally meant to serve as a backup, Jacoby Brissett ended up starting 15 games for the Colts in the 2017 season due to Luck being injured, and threw for over 3,000 yards and 13 touchdowns; he returned to his backup role the following year. Following Luck's retirement prior to the 2019 season, Brissett became the Colts full-time starting quarterback. Prior to the 2020 season, the Colts signed free agent Philip Rivers, making Brissett again the backup quarterback. On February 18, 2021, the Colts traded a 2021 third round pick and a 2022 second round conditional pick to the Philadelphia Eagles for quarterback Carson Wentz. Brissett signed as a free agent with the Miami Dolphins, and Wentz became the Colts' starting quarterback.[1] He started all seventeen of the Colts' games in the league's first season in the new format, before being traded to the Washington Commanders.[2][3] Indianapolis then traded a 3rd-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft for longtime Atlanta Falcons star Matt Ryan, who started at quarterback in each of the Colts' first seven games to begin the 2022 season. [4][5]