After an AFC Championship appearance in 2014, the Indianapolis Colts’ 2015 season was marred by poor play, bad play calling and injuries. The Colts were looking to take that next step towards a Super Bowl appearance by adding veterans Trent Cole, Frank Gore, Todd Herremans and Andre Johnson, but instead missed the playoffs altogether.

The Colts got off to a rough start by losing their first two games and then teetered above and below .500 the rest of the way. One reason for this was the health of Andrew Luck. Luck only played in seven games this season due to an abdominal injury and a lacerated kidney. But even with Luck being out majority of the season, the rest of the Colts’ draft picks from the last four years have not made an impact, which has contributed to their poor play.

To see how the Colts ended up in this scenario, let’s take a look back at the Colts’ 2012 draft class, which set them up to be a power in the AFC. In the 2012 NFL Draft, the Colts selected Andrew Luck in the first round and spent their next three picks on offense to help out their young quarterback. In the second round, they drafted tight end Colby Fleener, and drafted another tight end in Dwayne Allen as well as wide receiver T.Y. Hilton in the third round.

Starting off with Fleener, this has been a down year for him as he finished with 54 receptions for 491 receiving yards and three touchdowns. This is a far cry from last season when he had 51 receptions for 774 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Fleener’s decrease in production could be attributed to the revolving door at quarterback as the Colts started Matt Hasselbeck, Charlie Whitehurst and Josh Freeman. With Hasselbeck at quarterback, he completed 64.9 percent of his passes to Fleener with 5.7 yards per attempt.

But in an NFL where you need a playmaking tight end, the Colts have that in Fleener and expect him to get back to that level next season with a healthy Luck. The Colts selected another tight end in the draft that year in Allen. If Fleener is the flex tight end, then Allen is the blocking tight end for this Colts’ run game, which is ranked a horrendous 29th in the league, averaging 89.9 yards per game.

Just like Fleener, Allen’s numbers are suffering as well. In 2014, he had 395 receiving yards on 29 receptions (13.6 yards per catch) and eight touchdowns. On the other hand, this season he only has 109 receiving yards on 16 receptions (6.8 yards per catch) and a touchdown. Last season in the red zone, Allen had five touchdowns with seven receptions for 32 receiving yards.

Allen was rarely used in the red zone in 2015, only having two receptions for 15 receiving yards and a touchdown. Allen’s numbers, just like Fleener’s, should improve with a healthy Luck.

Finally, the last player from that draft class, T.Y. Hilton, has not seen his production drop too considerably this season. Hilton, who is the Colts’ number one option at wide receiver finished with 69 receptions for 1,124 yards and five touchdowns. But looking deeper into the numbers, Hilton hasn’t been as explosive as he was last season. This season, Hilton only has two games of 100 plus receiving yards (132 vs. Jacksonville, 150 vs. New Orleans), which both games resulted in a loss.

Hilton had five games of 100 plus receiving yards in 2014, including a game against Houston on Oct. 9 when he had 223 receiving yards. Despite no Luck, Hilton has still performed like a number one wide receiver after signing a five-year, $65 million contract over the summer.

The 2012 draft class has made the Colts a contender on the offensive side of the ball and gives them a core to build around.

If the 2012 draft class was a boom, then the 2013 draft class was a bust. In the first round of 2013 NFL Draft, the Colts selected defensive end Bjoern Werner with the 24th overall pick. Coming out Florida State, Werner was one of the premier pass rushers finishing his junior year with 42 total tackles, 18.0 tackles for loss, and 13.0 sacks.

So far in his career with the Colts, Werner has not lived up to the hype as he had to make a position switch linebacker. In 38 career games, he has only started in 16 games with 6.5 sacks, five pass deflections, and a forced fumble.

This season, Werner only played in 10 games with 11 total tackles. He cannot find his way onto the field as veteran linebacker Erik Walden has outplayed him with 40 total tackles and three sacks. In 240 snaps this season, Werner has only played 12.8 percent of defensive snaps and 22.6 percent on special teams.

Werner has not been the defensive playmaker that Indy had hoped he would become,

Finally, in the last two drafts, the Colts added two more weapons to Luck’s arsenal in wide receivers Donte Moncrief (2014) and Phillip Dorsett (2015). Moncrief, the 6-foot-2, 221 lbs. receiver out of Ole Miss has seen an uptick in production this season. As a rookie, he was only targeted 49 times, catching 32 balls for 444 receiving yards and three touchdowns. However, this season, Moncrief was targeted 105 times for 64 receptions for 733 receiving yards and six touchdowns. He has stepped up and became this team’s second option at wide receiver. 

This season with Luck and Hasselbeck at quarterback, Moncrief was targeted a lot on 1st and 10 and 3rd down between 4-6 yards. On 1st and 10, Moncrief was targeted 26 times for 18 receptions with 181 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Then on 3rd down between 4-6 yards, he was targeted 10 times for eight receptions with 103 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Moncrief should be another great weapon for Luck next season and could take that next step as number two wideout in Indianapolis.

Finally, Phillip Dorsett, who the Colts selected in this past year’s draft with 29th overall pick was puzzling. Many people were confused about why the Colts selected Dorsett because they needed help on a defense that was ranked 18th in rushing defense giving up 113.4 yards per game.

This season, Dorsett has only played in 11 games with 225 receiving yards for 18 receptions and a touchdown. In 181 total snaps, Dorsett only spent 15.5 percent of those on offense, which is fourth behind Hilton, Moncrief and Andre Johnson.

Dorsett is still trying to find his way in the Colts’ offense and it was going to take some time especially at a position where Indianapolis is loaded.

The 2012 draft class is the only draft class that has paid off. After that, it’s been way more miss than hit.