When Dylan Gandy and Bryan Fletcher were re-signed, I was sure it was to provide depth for a year or so to let new players ease their way into the rotation. I even thought Gandy would be given a shot at the starting right guard job.

Boy, was I wrong. They were both cut, and it makes me think that they were actually signed to put other teams off the scent of the Colts’ draft plans.

I know what you’re thinking. The Colts don’t work that way. This is the team that cut Jimmy Harbaugh before drafting Peyton Manning, the team that traded Marshall Faulk away before choosing Edgerrin James. But it should be kept in mind that with Manning, the Colts had the top pick and it didn’t matter what the other teams thought. With James? Well, everyone knew the team would draft a halfback, but I have yet to meet the person who predicted it would have been James. And, unless you have irrefutable evidence to the contrary, I would call you a liar if you claimed you did.

But that is all idle speculation. The fact is that Gandy and Fletcher are unemployed. And it occurred at the worst possible time. With every team all excited about their draft picks, it’ll will be hard to raise interest in a couple of castoff veterans. It also doesn’t help that most teams are wary of ex-Colts. Good luck, fellas.

And it is also true that the spots they were supposed to have held — starting right guard and No. 2 tight end — are now open.

• So now the consensus is that Marvin Harrison didn’t do anything wrong other than associate with some unsavory types. These things happen. If I were to own a bar and a car wash in my hometown, I would be extremely foolish if I were to guarantee nothing criminal would ever happen in them.

• Speaking of character, remember Bernard Morris, the Marshall quarterback the Colts had some interest in? A short but strong-armed and athletic fellow, most expected him to be drafted in the sixth or seventh round. But not only was he not drafted, he wasn’t signed as an undrafted free agent.

Although most of the guides listed him as a high-character guy, it came out after the draft that he was accused of hitting a pregnant woman with a beer bottle. Yikes! There are some things you can attribute to youthful hi-jinks, that’s not one of them.

Let this be a lesson to you kids in blogland.

• The Colts official roster lists positions and uniform numbers for the noobs. No real surprises, but I did see some bristle at young Mike Hart being assigned No. 32. Why? I mean James was a very good halfback and a neat guy, but hardly the legendary type worth retiring a number (even for a little while) for. Let the Cardin … oh, never mind.

And every year I always root for the guy — usually a fringe type — assigned my old high school number. Sadly this year, there is no 46.