Top 10 players of Indy Colts' 499 games

Tony Dungy, the most temperate of men, was angry, and it showed.

On that same late-autumn afternoon in 2004, the Indianapolis Colts coach had given left tackle Tarik Glenn the good news (he had been elected to the Pro Bowl for the first time) and the bad (actually, he had not). The NFL had botched the news.

Dungy was angry to disappoint Glenn and further irritated because he felt Glenn was deserving.

That's how it is with this list. Glenn is deserving of consideration as one of the top players of the Colts' Indianapolis era, which hits its 500-game milestone Sunday, when the Tennessee Titans visit Lucas Oil Stadium.

But Chris Hinton, one of the top tackles of his era, gets the honor.

Great cases can similarly be made for players like safety Bob Sanders, center Jeff Saturday, tight end Dallas Clark and linebacker Duane Bickett, but each time someone else was deemed better.

So our listing of the top players of the first 499 games follows. As for Glenn, the story had a happy ending. He was the first alternate in 2004 but went to Honolulu as an injury replacement. It was the first of his three appearances.

Top players (no particular order, although the top looks that way)

• Peyton Manning. He is to the Indianapolis Colts what John Unitas was to the Baltimore Colts. Enough said.

• Marvin Harrison. This one is almost as easy. He and Manning own most of the NFL's meaningful quarterback-receiver records and both will be members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Harrison as early as next year. Harrison succeeded Jerry Rice as the NFL's best receiver from 1999-2006.

• Edgerrin James. "Edge" not only led the NFL in rushing his first two seasons, 1,563 yards in 1999 and 1,709 in 2000, he was their running game. He accounted for 756 of their 844 rushes those two seasons, an extraordinary load. James is the Colts' career leader with 9,226 yards.

• Dwight Freeney. He didn't start his first game until Week 10 of his rookie season, 2002, at Philadelphia. He had four tackles, a sack and forced three fumbles that afternoon. He finished the season with 13 sacks, and two years later set a franchise record and led the NFL's with 16. His 107½ sacks are the Colts' career record.

• Robert Mathis. He and Freeney comprised as good a pair of rushers coming off the corners as played in the league most seasons between 2003 and 2012. Playing off their numbers, "98-93 Bring the Heat Boulevard" was their motto. For years Mathis was devalued as the guy playing off the blocking schemes devoted to Freeney. Freeney is gone. Mathis leads the league with 14½ sacks and owns the career record for forced fumbles with 40, four of them this season.

• Reggie Wayne. Harrison's understudy has proved an extraordinary student. He is eighth in NFL history with 1,006 receptions and 11th with 13,566 receiving yards. He remained one of the Colts' three best players during this, his 13th season, until a season-ending knee injury suffered Week 7.

• Chris Hinton. He played 13 seasons, the first seven with the Colts, during which time he was elected to six Pro Bowls. He went to Honolulu as a guard and a tackle but his home was left tackle, one of the game's half-dozen most important positions.

• Ray Donaldson. He played 17 seasons, 13 for the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts and went to the Pro Bowl four consecutive times early in the Indianapolis era (1986-89). Donaldson played so well for so long, he was voted to Honolulu in his 16th and 17th seasons while playing at Dallas.

• Marshall Faulk. His was the steady and sometimes spectacular presence that helped Manning through his difficult rookie season, 3-13 in 1998. Manning called Faulk his "security blanket." Faulk rushed for 1,319 yards and six touchdowns, and he caught 86 passes for 908 yards and four touchdowns in 1998. In five seasons with the Colts, he rushed for 5,320 yards, caught 297 passes for 2,804 yards and scored 51 touchdowns.

• Eric Dickerson. He played only nine games for the Colts in 1987 after the mega-trade that brought him to Indianapolis from the Los Angeles Rams but rushed for 1,011 yards and became the face of the franchise. Two years later he became the first Colt to lead the league in rushing since Alan Ameche in 1955 with 1,639 yards and 14 touchdowns. Dickerson ran for 5,194 yards in his four-plus seasons in Indianapolis. He and Faulk are the only players of the Colts' Indianapolis era in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Mike Chappell and Phillip B. Wilson contributed to this report.

Email Star reporter Phil Richards at phil.richards@indystar.com and follow him on Twitter at @philrichards6.