INDIANAPOLIS – A year ago they were awful. That’s what everyone said. A year ago, they were a joke. That’s what everyone giggled.

Remember how dark the horizon looked for the 2018 Indianapolis Colts?

They’d hired a coach who never came. They had a franchise quarterback who might never come back. That’s what everyone snarked.

A year ago, with ESPN predicting gloom (ranking the Colts 28th in the 32-team NFL) and USA Today predicting doom (dead last at 2-14), I wanted to know what veteran left tackle Anthony Castonzo thought. Everyone says you’re going to suck, I’d told Castonzo. Are you?

“I think,” he’d told me in July 2018, “we’re not going to suck.”

He’d said a few other things, hurtful things about my line of questioning – Hey, I’d told him, I don’t think you’re going to suck either! – which is why I was eager to speak with Castonzo on Thursday. Because a year later, the Colts are going to be terrific. That’s what everyone says. A year after calling the Colts the fifth-worst team in the NFL in 2018, ESPN calls them fifth-best in 2019. The Sporting News and NFL.com see the same thing.

Pro Football Talk sees something even better. They have the Colts third.

So what does Castonzo think about this turnaround, expectations going from miniature to massive in a year? Before we go there, let’s go here:

Everyone was wrong a year ago: The Colts were not terrible, winning 10 games in the regular season and once more in the playoffs.

But everyone is right this year: The Colts will be terrific, better than last season, this franchise going from rebuilding to refining in less than a year.

After taking a wrecking ball to the roster in his first two years on the job, general manager Chris Ballard brought out the scalpel in year three. The offensive line is the same. So are most of the defensive linemen, linebackers, corners and safeties. Same tight ends, same young running backs. Same quarterbacks.

The biggest changes have come at the two spots that needed it most, receiver and pass rush, where Ballard signed the only two free agents of note – receiver Devin Funchess from Carolina, outside linebacker Justin Houston from Kansas City – and addressed those areas again early in the 2019 NFL Draft. He used second-round picks on Ohio State receiver Parris Campbell, who is bigger and faster than four-time Pro Bowler T.Y. Hilton, and TCU edge rusher Ben Banogu.

The 2019 Colts will look a lot like the 2018 Colts, just younger, more explosive, and more comfortable after another offseason and training camp under second-year coach Frank Reich and his mostly unchanged staff.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Castonzo was saying Thursday, and no, this isn’t the part I referenced earlier, about expectations. That’s coming. But first, he’s talking about the Colts’ continuity.

“You look at what our management has done,” he said. “It’s a nod to them. You’ve got young players who performed really well, so you can count on those guys moving forward rather than having to replace them with someone from the outside … It’s awesome to have that same roster.”

Same, but better. The Colts are trying to tamp down expectations for second-year receiver Deon Cain, a sixth-round pick out of Clemson in 2018 and training camp revelation before suffering a season-ending knee injury, but it’s too late. We know what we know: The Colts think they have a potential star. Same goes for third-year safety Malik Hooker, who was coming on strong late last season as he continued to improve from a torn ACL suffered midway through his rookie season.

Same kicker (Adam Vinatieri), same punter (Rigoberto Sanchez), same long snapper (Luke Rhodes). Same All-Pro linebacker (Darius Leonard). Same All-Pro guard (Quenton Nelson). Same franchise quarterback (Andrew Luck).

A year ago, NFL media members were writing Colts jokes. Now they’re writing sonnets. And how does Anthony Castonzo feel about it?

“Honestly, I feel the exact same way as I did last year,” he said, “when you asked me that other question.”

Castonzo kept going, but let’s pause for a moment so you can hear how he’d said the word other: Like it had four letters, not five. Like it was an obscenity.

“I’m just looking at tomorrow,” he continued. “What do I have to do tomorrow? Ah, I have step-down crossovers tomorrow. The only thing on my mind is how I’m going to do the next day. I don’t watch any sports TV, I don’t listen to any radio, I’m not on social media, so I don’t hear any of the outside noise.”

So, I’m asking Castonzo, you’re not aware what people are saying?

“I mean,” he said, “I would imagine based on how we did last year that people would expect something of us.”

But factually, I’m saying, you’ve not seen it. Like: ESPN says you’re going to be the fifth-best team in the NFL.

“ESPN thinks we’re going to be the fifth-best team in the NFL?”

They do, I tell him.

“All right.”

That’s all you have to say? All right?

“All right,” Castonzo says again, but as he walks away, I see it. I see him smiling.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.