PHOENIX – The coach knows it’s coming, the spotlight that wasn’t there a year ago and the tests that come with it. Ranked 32nd in some preseason power rankings? Picked to win two measly games?

Not this year. Frank Reich’s Indianapolis Colts won’t be sneaking up on the NFL in 2019.

“There’s no question that there’s this raised expectation,” Reich said Wednesday from the league owners’ meetings in Arizona. “We can talk forever about how, hey, ‘It’s a whole new year, gotta start fresh.’ Everybody in the world is thinking we’re gonna go further than we went last year. You almost have to think that, given the trajectory, given the age of the team, given it’s the second year.”

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He’s right. It’s the upward climb most figure the Colts for in the coming seasons. Ten-win campaigns. Playoff berths. And quite possibly: Runs at a Lombardi Trophy. That’s what happens when you turn a 1-5 start to a sizzling 10-6 finish and push your season to the middle of January, and your star quarterback is healthy, and the bulk of your roster is on its rookie contract, and all the pieces seem to be in place.

But the next step, as general manager Chris Ballard noted recently, often proves to be the hardest.

Reich’s template for 2019? Same as 2018. If last season proved anything, it’s that Reich’s “1-0” maxim works.

“We get in our building, we get in the meeting room and we keep the same mindset we had last year,” Reich said. “And that mindset works. I know everybody knows that, and that’s not gonna change ... so one of the things as a coach, you find ways to continually re-emphasize that same mindset, and you really count on the players to keep that same mindset. And that’s what separates the men from the boys, as far as coaching is concerned. I really do think that. That’s why it’s so hard to maintain being at the top all the time.”

On top of the raised expectations that will soon meet his team when they reconvene for offseason workouts in late April, both Reich and Ballard addressed a handful of topics Wednesday in Phoenix. Among them:

» Reich said he’s been dreaming about having Justin Houston on his side “for a while.” The Colts signed the ex-Chief to a two-year deal last week, a move that addresses a glaring need at pass rush. “I was in that division and coached in that division for three years when Justin was tearing it up,” Reich said, referring to his time as an assistant with the Chargers. “He was always at the forefront of our minds.”

Reich recalled one four-sack day from Houston in 2014. He watched from the other sideline, a helpless coordinator who couldn't keep Houston off his quarterback.

“I told him he owes me,” Reich said. “We were chipping him, double-teaming him ... I’ve always thought he was a special player.”

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Ballard, meanwhile, had quietly courted Houston since the moment he was let go by the Chiefs, a span of more than a week. Acknowledging that it will likely take the 30-year-old a bit of time to transition into the Colts’ speedy 4-3 scheme – Kansas City lined up in a 3-4 – he sees Houston fitting nicely into the Colts’ unit as a defensive end. Part of the pitch? The depth of the team’s defensive line, which Ballard hopes will allow each player to see about 60 or 65 percent of the game’s snaps.

“That way you’re getting a rotation through the season where they’re not wearing down,” Ballard said. “I just think depth, seven or eight quality guys where you can really play with, is going to benefit the whole group, so when you get into December and January they’re still playing good football.

“What we’re doing defensively, what we’re doing from a strength standpoint, we think there are some things we think we can do that will benefit Justin,” he continued. “And sometimes getting cut, it’s hard on players, and they get a little chip on their shoulder from it. Justin will be a really good piece to the puzzle for us.”

» Reich didn’t hold back his excitement about the addition of former Panthers receiver Devin Funchess, whom the Colts handed a one-year deal in free agency. When Ballard initially broached the possibility of signing the 24-year-old Funchess, who is coming off four up-and-down seasons in Carolina, Reich pushed for it.

“I watched Devin’s tape, and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Reich said. “I was like, ‘Please, let’s get this guy.’ That was the guy we really wanted to get.”

Let Reich explain:

“I’m so excited about Devin. I mean, when I watch his tape, what I see is a big man who is really athletic. I like to talk about having route-running skill; this combination of having good feet, good instincts and good body control, and then what sometimes we refer to as body quickness ... it helps you separate at the top of routes, it helps you get off versus press coverage. And Devin has all of that. And he’s got really good feet. I remember watching his tape coming out of college thinking, ‘This guy is a monster physically, and look at his feet. Watch the way this guy runs routes.’ I mean, I remember watching him coming out of college thinking this guy could play in the slot, the way he runs routes. He’s a big man, so the catch radius is massive.”

» The franchise’s all-time sack king, Robert Mathis, will no longer hold an official position on the coaching staff. Mathis, who’d been working as a pass rush specialist the past two seasons, left the team to work with pass rushers at a training facility in Westfield, something he couldn’t do while simultaneously holding an official role with the Colts. Reich said he’ll still consult with the team.

“So, in spirit with us, but just not in the same capacity,” Reich said.

» As for two of his favorite players returning, Reich heaped praise on wide receiver T.Y. Hilton, whom he said is healing well from the nagging ankle injury he fought through late in the season, and Jack Doyle, the trusty tight end who missed 10 games last year with a pair of serious injuries.

“I texted (T.Y.) the other day just to check in and say hello, and I’m so fired up about T.Y.,” Reich said. “I never realized how good he was (until last season). I realized he was good, but I just didn’t realize how good he was. I always thought, ‘Oh, he’s just one of these fast guys that they just throw the ball deep to.’ I never realized he was such a complete receiver. He’s a great technician, great instincts, and then just a top-notch human being. Exactly the kind of guy you want in your locker room.”

As for Doyle, who recovered from a hip injury early in the season only to suffer a lacerated kidney in late November, Reich said the veteran tight end is expected to return to form by training camp. He underwent surgery after the season to alleviate the lingering pain in his hip.

“I feel good about it,” Reich said. “It’s a process, but just knowing the way Jack handles things, (I don’t worry). It was kind of like Andrew last year ... if there’s anybody who can overcome any injury and is going to do everything that he has to just right, it’s going to be somebody like Jack Doyle. So why should I worry about that for even one day? Why would I worry about Andrew last year for even one day?”

» Expect Jacoby Brissett to be a Colt in 2019. The team’s backup quarterback, who has one year left on his rookie contract and could become a free agent next summer, has been a trade target of other teams in the past, but both Ballard and Reich were adamant Wednesday that they want Brissett in Indianapolis this fall.

“Unless something just out of right field comes blowing, Jacoby Brissett’s gonna be a Colt,” Ballard said.

Reich’s made it clear: He’s on the same page.

“It’s impossible for me to have a higher opinion of Jacoby than I do,” the coach said. “I said it last year: I think he’s a top 20 quarterback. I still say that, after watching him for a year, this guy’s really good. I tell Chris all the time, ‘Please don’t let him go. I don’t care what anybody offers him, don’t let him go.’”

» Lastly, as for his franchise quarterback, Reich repeatedly stressed on Wednesday how much more comfortable Andrew Luck will be in this offense in his second year in the system. Afforded his first healthy offseason in five years, Luck has a base built from 2018 he’ll be able to pull from in the coming months as his preparation begins for the 2019 campaign.



“I really do think it’s a pretty big difference (from Year 1 to Year 2),” Reich said. “Just because, again, the confidence, the conviction. We talk about for a quarterback how important it is to be a fast processor, and so you have these schemes, and now you’re getting to the second and third iterations — you’re getting deeper into it, easier and faster. And obviously with his aptitude, it puts us in a good position, and this is the beauty of it, right? It makes everybody else better, too. I mean, it makes everybody else better.”

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.