Colts at Ravens, 4:25 p.m. Saturday, NFL

INDIANAPOLIS -- Comb through all the carnage – the two torn ACLs, the three bad knees, the six concussions, the torn quad, the torn pec, the bruised hand, the bum ankle, the turf toe, the achy groin, the mangled left arm, the bad throwing shoulder, the other sore shoulder and, oh yeah, the fractured larynx – and you’ve got a battered roster that’s scraping to find healthy bodies for two weeks of meaningless football.

Say this much for these Indianapolis Colts: Not only are they among the most incompetent teams in the NFL this year, they’re also among the most damaged.

Historically so. It’s Week 16. The Colts, a dazzling 3-11, have already sent 16 players to the injured reserve list in 2017, tied for the most of the six-year Chuck Pagano era and good enough for fourth-most in the NFL this season. And that doesn't include Vontae Davis, the former Pro Bowl cornerback who was released midway through the year.

Or Rashaan Melvin, who's been battling a hand injury for the last month.

Or Donte Moncrief, who's been battling an ankle for several weeks.

You get the idea.

The 16 players on IR are 11 more than two division counterparts – the Titans and AFC South-leading Jaguars each only have five – and one less than the Texans, the NFL team very likely gashed most severely by injury this season.

Then again, the Colts might have something to say about that. You know. Andrew Luck ...

Most damning isn’t simply how many pieces the Colts have lost, but who. It starts with Luck and that shoulder of his that he could never get right. That changed everything this fall. The Colts’ season was sunk before it ever began.

But the blows have kept coming, week after week, less ruinous than Luck but gradually destructive nonetheless. Beyond the QB the Colts have sent 12 other starters to IR. It’s gotten so bad you could argue the injured Colts could beat the healthy Colts, and you’d probably be right.

It’s this team’s most injurious season since 2010, when Peyton Manning hauled a battered roster – the Colts sent 17 to IR that year – to 10-6 and a playoff berth. (Amazing what can happen when the quarterback is still healthy.) It’s gotten so bad on West 56th Street this year that the Colts have had to sign a handful of unheralded players out of sheer necessity, players like Jason Vander Laan, K.J. Brent and Anthony Fabiano.

Some of the injuries accrued are simple byproducts of the brutal nature of professional football. Tight end Erik Swoope never took a regular season snap after knee pain surfaced back in training camp. Guard Jack Mewhort, battling knee issues the last two years, never could get right. The first-round pick, safety Malik Hooker, was lost on a brutal downfield block in a Week 7 loss to Jacksonville.

Then there’s defensive end Henry Anderson, who suffered a fractured larynx back in October. Pagano said he’s never seen anything like it in his three decades in the game. Scariest of all: If his throat went untreated, Anderson explained a month after surgery, there’s a possibility he could have died.

He’s fine. (Whew.)

The Colts aren’t. They’re bad. They’re hurting. Injuries aren’t the sole reason why this team sits second-from-the-bottom in the AFC – ahead of only the lowly Browns, who’ve started 0-14 two years in a row – but they certainly haven’t helped. You don’t lose your franchise QB, your No. 2 running back, your starting center, your best linebacker and your best defensive back, among others, and keep winning. Not with a roster this thin.

Ranking the damaged Colts this season, in order of the significance of their injury (the list does not include Edwin Jackson, Christine Michael and George Winn, who were put on IR prior to the season):

13. C Deyshawn Bond, quad, missed 12 games: One of the most unlucky breaks of this unlucky season. Bond, a local product out of Warren Central who’d earned his spot in training camp via a local tryout, was one of the Colts’ best stories early, filling in ably for Ryan Kelly at center. That ended on the second offensive snap in Week 4, when Bond tore his quad in Seattle.

12. LB Jon Bostic, knee, missed two games: This would’ve been a far more significant injury had it happened earlier in the year. A starter every game during his first season in Indy, Bostic improved over the course of the year after a ghastly first month.

11. KR/WR Quan Bray, turf toe, missed seven games: Not that the Colts were an especially lethal return unit with Bray in the lineup, but his absence also hurt the depth at wide receiver.

10. CB Vontae Davis, groin, released after Week 9: Back in August, losing Davis midway through the season would’ve sounded catastrophic. In reality it was far from that. The sudden soap opera that emerged midway through the year – Davis was left at home for a Week 9 road trip after feuding with the coaches over a groin injury – ended with his abrupt release. On the field, it actually may have helped the Colts. Hindered by that groin injury, Davis was nowhere near himself in 2017. His exit allowed Rashaan Melvin and Pierre Desir to step into the starting cornerback spots, and flourish.

9. RG Jack Mewhort, knee, missed 11 games: Mewhort, a promising lineman early in his career, has now seen two consecutive seasons end on IR, both due to knee issues. His future is uncertain. He’ll become a free agent in March. He wants to return – “Every day I’m a Colt is a good day,” he said this week – but it’s unknown if the Colts feel the same way.

8. DE Henry Anderson, throat, missed seven games: Anderson’s absence is slightly offset by the solid play of Margus Hunt in his stead. In the larger view, the freak throat injury is a damning blow to Anderson early in his career: This is now three straight seasons he’s ended the year on IR. Next fall will be his last on his rookie contract; he’ll have to prove for the first time he can finish 16 games.

7. TE Erik Swoope, knee, missed all 16 games: This was supposed to be Erik Swoope’s year. He knew it. And it never happened. A knee scope back in training camp sidelined him for several weeks, and even after he returned to practice in late October, the Colts never felt like he was 100 percent. Any chance Swoope had on building on his promising 2016 evaporated. Now, that’ll have to wait until 2018.

6. CB Pierre Desir, pec, missed 9 games: One of the few bright spots midway through the season, Desir, a former Division II product who previously worked cleaning basements to support his family, went down after the Colts’ second loss to Jacksonville in early December. “Really proud of what Pierre has done for us ... it’s a shame,” Pagano said. With Desir down, and later Melvin with a bruised hand, the Colts were forced to start two rookies at corner late in the year: Quincy Wilson and Kenny Moore.

5. RB Robert Turbin, left arm, missed 10 games: Turbin went down doing Robert Turbin things – scraping for a first-down. He infused a much-needed level of physicality into the Colts’ backfield, was the team’s go-to short-yardage back, and held his own in pass protection. He also willingly suited up on special teams. His absence has gone under the radar.

4. John Simon, neck, shoulder, missed seven games: In nine starts Simon not only proved one of Chris Ballard's shrewdest offseason signings, he became this team's best defensive player. In a Week 6 Monday nighter in Tennessee, he finished with 11 tackles (six solo), a sack and a pick-six. The Colts' defense was never a good one in 2017. It was also never the same after it lost Simon.

3. C Ryan Kelly, foot, concussion, missed nine games: 2017 proved a lost season for Kelly, who was one of just five rookie offensive lineman in football to start all 16 games last year. There was the foot in camp, which kept him out the first four weeks. The concussion Kelly suffered in Week 12 was enough to end his season, as the symptoms lingered for weeks and Kelly failed to pass the league protocol. The Colts have churned through four different centers this year, only exacerbating the issues that have plagued this leaky offensive line for years.

2. S Malik Hooker, ACL, missed nine games: For six weeks he was the difference-maker this defense craved, the rare talent the Colts’ mediocre unit has lacked in recent seasons. Three picks in six starts is awfully encouraging, especially when it’s good enough for a quarter of the Colts’ interceptions all year. Hooker was a bright spot, his untimely injury especially costly. He hopes to be ready for training camp come late summer.

1. QB Andrew Luck, missed all 16 games: The Colts’ middling offense is third-to-last in yards, second-to-last in passing, second-to-last in scoring. The team is 3-11. Any questions?

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