WESTFIELD, Ind. – It's unfair to say the Colts did nothing in the 2024 offseason.

They added a few players in the NFL Draft who have an opportunity to make an immediate impact, like defensive end Laiatu Latu and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell. Defensive tackle Raekwon Davis was signed in free agency to shore up depth – and provide reliable rotation – behind stalwart starters DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart. Quarterback Joe Flacco, an ultimate veteran, was signed to back up Anthony Richardson and provide valuable insight and advice to the second-year quarterback.

But the Colts return 87 percent of their offensive starts and 95 percent of their defensive starts from the 2023 season. The most notable departures on offense – quarterback Gardner Minshew II and running back Zack Moss – are replaced by Richardson and running back Jonathan Taylor, two of the players the Colts are counting most to power their offense in 2024. On defense, the biggest departure may have been defensive end Jacob Martin, who left for the Chicago Bears in free agency after registering a pair of sacks in a rotational role last year.

Otherwise, the bulk of this roster might as well have parked their cars and walked into the locker room at Grand Park Wednesday quoting George Costanza ("I'm back, baby, I'm back") or John Wick ("Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back").

"The core guys on both sides of the ball have been together for a while now so we know how each other thinks, plays, we know guys will be in certain spots at certain times throughout a play," Buckner said. "It definitely gets the ball rolling quicker."

Now, the goal for guys like Michael Pittman Jr., Kenny Moore II, Julian Blackmon and Tyquan Lewis – among others – is to turn the Colts' emphasis on continuity in the spring into victories in the fall and winter. And that process begins in the summer with Thursday's first training camp practice, which kicks off at 10 a.m. at Grand Park in Westfield.

The upshot to all that continuity on both sides of the ball is a quicker acclimation period to camp, which the Colts see as allowing them to maximize the amount of quality work they're getting during practices, meetings and walkthroughs over the next few weeks.

"It'll be very important for us to have shared language," cornerback Kenny Moore II said. "The IQ, the vision, the standard — everybody already knows the standard, so it won't be us taking a couple steps back to try to re-teach a new guy or a free agent, whoever it is. We already know who it's going to be. So from there we gotta stay healthy and follow it from there."

On offense, the Colts return their Week 1 starting quarterback from the prior season for the first time since 2016 – the rookie year for center Ryan Kelly, the longest-tenured member of the Colts.

"I think we saw in the offseason building what we already worked on and what we did so well last year, I think it's just build on that," Kelly said. "… And I think just taking a deeper dive into what our offense can be. Obviously with Anthony (Richardson) there, the offense changes a lot opposed to last year when he wasn't there. So just build on that and getting closer as a team and building on something special."

For these returning players, too, the sting of how the 2023 season ended – with a failed fourth-and-short conversion 15 yards shy of the Houston Texans' end zone – has been an undercurrent, but not a focus, to their offseason motivation.

"It definitely hurt," Buckner said. "We were a couple plays away from winning the division and going to the playoffs and making a run. It definitely stung. But you can only hold on to that feeling for so long. It's definitely a scar for sure, but you've got to learn from it and remember that feeling and continue to go in to this next season with a lot of juice and remembering that moment, how it felt and how you don't want to feel it again."

General manager Chris Ballard said Wednesday he feels like "we got a really good football team" heading into training camp, while emphasizing this group has earn everything in front of them over the next six-plus months. A lot of the Colts' team-wide confidence comes from having so many returning players from 2023.

And, maybe, that continuity – or, alternatively, the lack of earth-shattering news bombs from NFL newsbreakers – is why the Colts are a little under the radar in the national football discussion.

"I felt like this offseason we were definitely overlooked," Franklin said. "People considered us a run-of-the-mill, middle of the pack team like we weren't 30 yards away from a division title. So I think it's up to us to prove who we are going to be this year."