The Twelfth in an Off-Season Position-by-Position Series on the Colts
INDIANAPOLIS – Without question, Antoine Bethea said his role changed.
Bethea, who has completed five solid seasons, said the slew of injuries that hit the Colts' safety position – not to mention the rest of the secondary – meant a different feel to this past season than in any of his first four in the NFL.
Yes, he said, the season was still about making plays.
And it was still about progressing as a player.
But Bethea said it was just as true that there were other responsibilities – specifically, being a leader of a group that went from being very, very experienced in training camp to being very, very young and inexperienced by season's end.
It was, Bethea said, a challenge.
And it was a different season than any Bethea had previously faced.
Yet, he played through it, and did so at a high enough level that he helped the Colts' safety position continue to be what it has been in recent seasons – a productive, reliable position and a key to a defense that helped the Colts to an NFL record-tying ninth consecutive playoff appearance.
"There were a lot of different guys coming in," Bethea said late during the 2010 NFL season. "I felt I had to keep my composure a lot of times just to help the situation we were in, to help the other guys stepping in."
The Colts, after opening the season with Bethea and Bob Sanders starting at safety alongside six-year veteran Kelvin Hayden and second-year veteran Jerraud Powers at cornerback, started eight different combinations in the secondary.
Powers started 10 games before being placed on injured reserve with four games remaining in the season, and Hayden started 11 before missing the final five games with a neck injury.
Justin Tryon, acquired in an early-season trade with the Washington Redskins, started six games at cornerback, and Jacob Lacey – a second-year veteran acquired as a rookie free agent before last season – started eight games after missing four outings earlier in the season.
The safety situation also underwent dramatic changes.
Sanders, after starting the season, sustained a biceps injury in the regular-season opener, and despite being on the active roster throughout much of the season did not play again. Melvin Bullitt, who started throughout the 2008 and 2009 seasons in place of Sanders, started three games in 2010, then sustained a season-ending injury in Week 4.
Aaron Francisco started 12 games following Bullitt being lost for the season, finishing the season with 56 tackles, two interceptions and three passes defensed.
Bullitt registered 13 tackles in four games, and also had an interception he returned 19 yards. With Bullitt and Sanders out, Mike Newton, Ken Hamlin and Al Afalava finished the season on the roster as reserve safeties.
"This is the year I probably learned more – just being the situation we were in," Bethea said. "With a lot of people shuffling in and out, I took on a different role.
"Before, I would say I was a leader with some other guys back there. This year, there were just a lot of different guys coming in."
Not that Bethea said he spent time worrying, but he said at times the number of injuries was difficult to comprehend.
"To be honest, I said that a few times in the year," Bethea said. "When we first started, it was one of those years where we thought this could be a year where we'd have a really, really deep secondary. One guy goes down, then another guy goes down. It just so happens that an injury here, an injury there, you're playing with guys that you really didn't expect to play with."
Bethea said at one point in the season, he and Defensive Backs Coach Alan Williams realized during a practice that Bethea and two others were the only defensive backs still playing who had been with the team during training camp in August.
"It was one of those things, but I think we handled the situation well," Bethea said.
Bethea said the Colts approached the situation as they had in recent seasons – by focusing on who was playing rather than who wasn't. The Colts finished the season 13th in the NFL in pass defense with 10 interceptions, with one of the most important coming when Bethea intercepted David Garrard in the second half of a 34-24 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The play helped stop a drive at a time when the Jaguars were gaining momentum in a crucial December game. After the Colts held off a second-half rally, Indianapolis had control of the AFC South. They never relinquished that control, clinching a ninth consecutive playoff appearance with a 23-20 victory over Tennessee in the regular-season finale.
And while Bethea, a Pro Bowl safety following the 2007 and 2009 seasons, was not selected to the game this past season, at least one former coach considered that something of an injustice.
"I think he has every right to be disappointed," former Tennessee Head Coach Jeff Fisher said of Bethea. "I think he's a Pro Bowl safety. He's a complete safety. He makes plays on the ball, he's a tremendous open-field tackler and he's a very, very smart player."
As for Bethea, he said of his season, "I did some good things. Obviously, there are some things you could work on, but I felt like I had a pretty solid year."
