The decisions over the next few months will likely shape the future of the Colts’ organization for years, but what happens next is anybody’s guess.

“There is no sugar-coating the fact that there are areas of talent that we need,” Irsay said. “The decisions that are coming up are crucial, and obviously, when you’re looking at a general manager, a head coach, having the No. 1 pick in the draft and knowing that you’re rebuilding in some areas, that is about as massive as it gets.”

As usual, all things in Indy start with Manning.

Irsay must decide whether to pay the four-time league MVP a $28 million bonus in March, allow him to walk away as a free agent or redo the five-year, $90 million contract to make it more salary-cap friendly.

Manning missed the entire season after having his latest neck surgery Sept. 8 — a procedure that has clouded his future in Indianapolis. Without him, the Colts collapsed, missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade and winning the Andrew Luck sweepstakes with a 2-14 mark.

Though Manning has started throwing with teammates and players believe Manning is improving, Irsay must determine whether it’s worth taking a significant cap hit to rebuild around a 35-year-old quarterback who has had neck surgery three times in less than 24 months. If he is healthy, a big if, Irsay has promised to bring back Manning and make another Super Bowl run.

“I think the key thing for me has always been, and particularly since the fusion, is it safe for him to go on the field? Is it something where he is healthy enough to resume his career, to go on the field and play at a high level but also to be in harm’s way in the physical game that we have?” Irsay said. “What he means to the franchise, what he means to the Colts and to the league, (his health) to me always has been the most important decision.”

Irsay said he plans to meet with Manning within the next week, and those answers could dictate which direction the Colts go in 2012.

Manning has good reasons to want Caldwell back. Aside from the franchise quarterback, Caldwell and offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen understand this offense better than anyone, and Caldwell helped Manning achieve his greatest successes. Before Caldwell became quarterbacks coach in 2002, Manning was an elite player with a losing record in the playoffs. With Caldwell, Manning won all four of his MVP awards, two AFC crowns and his only Super Bowl ring.

But there’s no assurance any of the coaches will be back next season. Receiver Pierre Garcon summed up the uncertainty best on Twitter when he posted this: “So what happens now?”

For Caldwell and the coaches, it’s business as usual.

INDIANAPOLIS —
The game — Indianapolis Colts (2-13, 1-3 AFC South) at Jacksonville Jaguars (4-11, 2-3 AFC South), EverBank Field (Grass), Jacksonville, FL, 1 p.m. (EST).

Coverage ­ CBS Sports (Spero Dedes, Steve Beuerlein); Colts Radio Network (Bob Lamey, Will Wolford, Kevin Lee); Sirius NFL Radio Channel 113 (Colts), Channel 112 (Jaguars); XM NFL Radio Channel Channel 233 (Jaguars).

The coaches — Colts: Jim Caldwell (26-21, 3rd year); Jaguars: Mel Tucker (1-3, 1st year). Jim Caldwell has a 3-2 career coaching record against the Jaguars. Tucker is Jacksonville¹s interim head coach and has never faced Indianapolis in his current role.

The series — 22nd regular-season meeting. Colts lead series, 15-6. The Jaguars have posted wins in two of the last three matchups. Indianapolis, though, has won four of the past six and six of the past 10 meetings. The Colts have a 7-3 record against Jacksonville in road games. Six of the last eight games have been decided by a touchdown or less. Seven of the last eight meetings have been decided by 10 points or less. Eight of the last eight matchups have been decided by 14 points or less. Jaguars PK Josh Scobee has provided the margin of victory for Jacksonville in three of the series meetings (53 yards with 0:38 left on 10/24/04; 51 yards with 0:04 left on 9/21/08; and 59 yards with 0:05 left on 10/3/10).

Noting it ­ QB Dan Orlovsky has completed 34-of-58 passes for 326 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions over the past two weeks in wins over Tennessee and Houston. Orlovsky has a 95 passer rating in fourth quarter as a Colts starter in 2011ŠRB Joseph Addai had two rushing touchdowns in his last meeting at JacksonvilleŠWR Reggie Wayne needs 113 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the eighth consecutive season. Wayne has 887 receiving yards this seasonŠWayne has caught two touchdown passes in his last two games, wins over AFC South rivals Tennessee and HoustonŠWR Austin Collie has hauled in four touchdown receptions in his past four meetings with the JaguarsŠDE Robert Mathis has registered three sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in his last two gamesŠMathis needs 1.5 sacks to reach 10 for the fifth time in his NFL career.

Did you know? ­ With Minnesota winning last Saturday against Washington, it’s down to Indy and the Rams as to who will get the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL draft. But draft positioning is the farthest thing from the mind of the Colts.

Did you know 2? ­ The Colts have never been swept by an AFC South opponent since the division came into existence in 2002. The Titans and Texans fell the last two weeks and Jacksonville is up next.

Did you know 3? ­ WR Pierre Garcon needs 75 receiving yards to reach 1,000 for the first time in his NFL career. Garcon has six touchdown receptions this year, which ties his single-season best (2010).

Did you know 4? ­ DE Dwight Freeney has recorded nine career sacks against Jacksonville. DE Robert Mathis is aiming for his third straight game with a sack against the Jaguars.

Stat of the week ­ Reggie Wayne has 1,599 receiving yards against the Jaguars, the most against any opponent.

The game plan –  Finish. That’s the goal heading into the Jacksonville game on Sunday.

Finish with a sweep of AFC South teams after knocking off Tennessee and Houston the last two weeks. Finish on offense when you’re in the red zone.

Find a way to punch the ball into the end zone. And finish on defense. Finish the turnaround that started in the second half of the loss to Baltimore.

Simply put, the Colts must be able to have a sustained running game while taking advantage of passing situations. Defensively, Indianapolis has to be able to slow down the Jaguars running game. And they must find a way to force mistakes by a rookie quarterback.

Key matchups –  Colts WR Reggie Wayne vs. the Jaguars secondary. Wayne usually plays well against Jacksonville and he has played well over the last two weeks in wins over the Titans and Texans. Depending on how his offseason contract negotiations go, Sunday’s game with the Jaguars could very well be Wayne’s last in an Indianapolis uniform.

Jaguars QB Blaine Gabbert vs. the Colts’ pass rush. Indianapolis didn’t do a bad overall job against Gabbert earlier in the season, although there were some crucial breakdowns in the second half of that game that allowed the rookie signal caller to break free of the pocket and make some plays downfield. That can’t happen on Sunday.

Colts run defense vs. Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones-Drew is considered to be the best running back that Indianapolis’ defense faces on a regular basis. He has been tough for the Colts to stop completely. They’ve slowed him down some on occasion, but Indianapolis — who came very close to drafting Jones-Drew in 2006 and teaming him with RB Joseph Addai — has yet to completely shut him down.

The Indianapolis Colts have struggled in 2011. The opened the season 0-13 and looked as if they had a possibility of going winless on the season. Then the team dug in and won two games in a row to move to 2-13 on the season. Through the ups and downs, Reggie Wayne has always been there and has had a very good season.

Indianapolis’ statistics are down across the board on offense from what fans are used to seeing. Peyton Manning has not played this season and the quarterback play has been just awful. Kerry Collins and Curtis Painter were downright awful for the first 11 games of the season. Dan Orlovsky has been a big improvement and has the team playing better football lately.

Even with the poor quarterback play, Reggie Wayne has hung in there and is quietly having a very good season at 33 years old. A lot of talk has been made recently about Wayne’s upcoming free agency and that the December 22 matchup against the Houston Texans could have been his last game at Lucas Oil Stadium. If it was, Wayne didn’t disappoint. He didn’t disappoint this entire season when you factor in what he’s had to play through.

With one game left to play, Wayne has 67 receptions for 887 yards and four touchdowns on the season. Wayne has an average of 13.2 yards per catch which is higher than his averages of the last two seasons. You can’t fault Wayne for the fact that his quarterbacks have been awful and have not been able to get him the ball.

Indianapolis has two wins on the season and both wins were clinched with touchdown catches by Reggie Wayne. This is no coincidence.

Reggie needs 113 yards in the finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars on January 1 to finish off his eighth straight season with over 1,000 yards receiving. This would be an amazing feat when fans look back on this seasons Indianapolis Colt team.

Wide receiver Pierre Garcon currently has one more catch and 37 more yards on the season than Wayne. Garcon has been the beneficiary of several deep balls early in the season and yardage that has been added on late in blowout losses. Wayne has consistently made the big plays and catches in key situations. Anyone who argues that Garcon has become the better player is simply not watching the games.

It’s impossible to say what would have been in Indianapolis if Peyton Manning had not missed the season. What I do know is that Reggie Wayne has not lost a step and deserves to be re-signed in Indianapolis to complete his career there. If anything, he needs to be rewarded for the work he has put in over the last 11 seasons. Fans have to appreciate the work Reggie Wayne has put in all season in 2011.

Kyle Rapoza is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and has been a lifelong fan of the Indianapolis Colts. He attended Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and follows the team closely. Follow him on Twitter @kyler11.

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The Indianapolis Colts are still in search of their first victory of the season in week 15. This is not what I expected to be writing about at the beginning of the season, but here we are. Indianapolis has only three games remaining to avoid finishing the season winless. This week they will face the Tennessee Titans at home on December 18.

This game will be the best chance for Dan Orlovsky to show what he can do against an average team. In his first two starts, Orlovsky faced the New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens and was not terrible. He was clearly better than Curtis Painter and he actually moved the ball and helped the team score points on offense. There is no reason why he should not do significantly better against the Tennessee Titans.

Indianapolis needs to try to air it out downfield to Pierre Garcon and Reggie Wayne in this game. They have nothing to lose and need to be more aggressive in this game. As a fan of the team, it remains frustrating that the coaching staff refuses to do anything unconventional in an attempt to win. Why not go for it on every fourth down? There is no downside to it at all at this point. There is no reason why fans should expect anything different from Jim Caldwell this week though. It’s as if he has no idea that he is coaching for his job.

Colt fans early in the week appeared lucky enough to be facing rookie quarterback Jake Locker. Matt Hasselbeck now looks like he is on pace to start against the Colts. Whichever quarterback gets the start, they should have no trouble moving the ball against the Colt defense. One sign of hope is that Indianapolis generally does a very good job defending against running back Chris Johnson. If they can slow Johnson down, they may even stand a chance in this game. Tennessee does not have an explosive offense and should not be able to run away in this game.

I think this is a game where Indianapolis remains competitive and can put themselves in a position to win the game. They will likely fall short like every other game this year. At this point, fans can only hope that Dan Orlvosky will pull off his fourth quarter magic and make the game appear closer than it really is again. Orlovsky has shown that he is great at scoring points in the fourth quarter when the game is out of hand. Luckily, I think he’ll be able to do that and give fans hope that the game was actually closer than it really was.

Prediction: Titans 24, Colts 17

Kyle Rapoza is a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and has been a lifelong fan of the Indianapolis Colts. He attended Super Bowl XLIV in Miami and follows the team closely. Follow him on Twitter @kyler11.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Note: The opinions expressed here are my takes on each player’s individual matchup. As always, use your best judgment and conduct your own research on who to start or bench each week. You know your individual team and/or league situation better than anyone else.

Dan Orlovsky, QB

Averaging just 14.70 fantasy points per game in the last four weeks, Orlovsky is not the fantasy quarterback you want on your team leading you in the playoffs. He scored just 8.44 fantasy points last week against the Baltimore Ravens but looks to have a better matchup this week against the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee is giving up 15.54 fantasy points per game to quarterbacks this season but even if he were to hit his average, confidence is low during the playoffs when solid games are necessary.

Donald Brown, RB

Averaging 9.80 fantasy points per game in the last four weeks, Brown has been a surprise performer for owners in deeper leagues. He had a tough game against the Ravens last week scoring only 2.20 fantasy points but looks to rebound this week against the Titans. Tennessee is allowing 18.41 fantasy points per game to running backs this season but much like Orlovsky, my confidence in him during the playoffs is slim. RB Joseph Addai is also back in action but remains unreliable for the rest of the season.

Reggie Wayne, WR

Averaging 9.30 fantasy points per game in the last four weeks, Wayne remains one Indianapolis Colts player I am confident in throughout the fantasy playoffs. He scored just 4.10 fantasy points last week against a tough Ravens team but looks to rebound this week against the Titans. Tennessee is giving up 17.61 fantasy points per game to wide receivers this season, so while he is not expected to have a huge game, he is a reliable No. 3 receiver this week.

Pierre Garcon, WR

Averaging 11.70 fantasy points per game in the last four weeks, Garcon is undoubtedly the best fantasy player on the Colts’ team. While he scored only 4.60 fantasy points last week against the Ravens, he has a good matchup against the Titans and remains Orlovsky’s top target. His risk lies only in the fact Orlovsky is under center.

Jacob Tamme, TE

Both Tamme and TE Dallas Clark should not be given any consideration during the fantasy playoffs. While Tamme did score 7.30 fantasy points last week, it was due to a single 13-yard touchdown reception.

Adam Vinatieri, K

Averaging just 5.50 fantasy pointsper game in the last four weeks, Vinatieri is best suited on the waiver wire for the remainder of the season. It is sad for a kicker who has had such a great career, but history does not translate into fantasy points when gunning for a league championship.

Defense

Averaging 4.30 fantasy points per game in the last four weeks, the Colts’ team defense belongs on the waiver wire with Vinatieri for the remainder of the season.

Sources:

All data provided by Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football

Paul Rados is an avid fantasy football participant and a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @PSRados or leave him a message on Facebook. For a complete look at his freelance work please visit his Blog.

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