As the NFL season nears its kickoff on Wednesday, September 9th, Indiana sports fans are staring at two teams that look a lot more alike than you’d expect.
The Pacers’ 2025-26 season was supposed to be a gap year built around development. Instead, it turned into a scramble, the kind of year where things spiral fast and the bottom starts looking a lot closer than anyone planned. Even if Indiana ended up with Ivica Zubac for a trade return that had been rapidly shrinking and nearly scammy, that still wasn’t the outcome the Pacers wanted.
The Colts, meanwhile, somehow managed to blend the Pacers’ 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons into one brutal stretch. They opened by winning nearly 10 straight and looked like a real surprise, fueled by breakouts and bouncebacks. Then it all fell apart, and they missed the playoffs entirely.
So here we are, with both teams heading into the same season in the same city and carrying some oddly similar baggage.
The most obvious overlap is at the top. Both teams are waiting on their leaders to come back from major Achilles injuries, with Daniel Jones and Tyrese Haliburton working their way back. In both cases, those players were central to what their teams were trying to do, and the injury left things looking pretty hopeless.
There’s also a familiar type deeper on the roster: the undersized but relentless sparkplug. Josh Downs and TJ McConnell fit that mold perfectly.
Downs slid in the draft out of UNC because of size concerns, while McConnell has built a long career at 6'0 and is still going at age 34. Their ages don’t line up, but the vibe absolutely does.
And then there are the bigger bodies, the players who bring value by doing the dirty work. Tyler Warren and Ivica Zubac are both newcomers from last year who came out hot before injuries slowed them down, with the source material noting that the veracity of Zubac’s injuries is questionable.
Both will be asked to keep proving they can deliver on “big-guy stuff” at a high level. For Warren, that means more blocking and jump-ball playmaking.
For Zubac, it means rebounding and shot-blocking.
The size difference is funny, too. Warren is only 6'6, which puts him closer to guard size than Zubac, who stands at 7'0. That’s just how these sports break down.
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Pacers Still Have One Rivalry That Means More Than Ever
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Now the focus has shifted to Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton, two guards who give the matchup a fresh face without draining any of its old tension. Add in the other key names who have helped shape the recent meetings, and it is easy to see why this remains the one opponent that can make a regular-season game feel like something heavier for Indiana going into the new season. [Read more 🡒]