The Indianapolis Colts are “lurking as a darkhorse” in the AFC South, as SI’s Albert Breer put it recently, and a big reason he believes that is because of the offensive and defensive lines.
“The Colts are lurking as a dark horse in the AFC South under second-year coach Shane Steichen, and the lines are a good reason to take that threat seriously,” writes Breer. “Over his seven seasons in charge, Indianapolis GM Chris Ballard has poured resources into both areas, and this feels like it should be a year for all of that to pay off.”
GM Chris Ballard has always been quite clear that he believes in building a defense through the trenches. Just this offseason, we saw the Colts invest heavily into their defensive front, extending DeForest Buckner and adding Raekwon Davis in free agency.
The Colts would also re-sign Grover Stewart and Tyquan Lewis, draft Laiatu Latu, and pick up Kwity Paye’s guaranteed fifth-year option.
According to ESPN’s Stephen Holder, the Colts will enter the season ranked sixth in total cash spending along the defensive front. In terms of the salary cap, almost 20 percent of their 2024 cap space will go towards this position group.
The result of this investment is a very deep group with eight or even nine players between the defensive tackle and defensive end positions that can be relied upon heavily, giving the Colts a hockey-like line rotation along the defensive front, as assistant GM Ed Dodds put it earlier this offseason.
“I think it’ll just be a big problem for other teams,” said Paye about the Colts’ defensive front depth. “You know, like you see teams that make it far in the playoffs, the Chiefs, the 49ers, the Eagles, teams like that where they just have a second D-line that could be a first D-line anywhere else.
“So that’s kind of like, I feel like that’s what we’re trying to build here. There’s no dropoff. As soon as the second D-line coming, the O-line doesn’t have rest, like the O-line doesn’t have the chance to regroup for the first team coming in.”
When the defensive front is finding success, every other player on the field benefits. Slowing the run means putting the offense in predictable, long down-and-distance situations, while quarterback pressures mess up the timing of the play and can lead to errant throws and mistakes.
On offense, while much of the focus this offseason was on adding additional playmaking around Anthony Richardson – which is certainly important – Ballard noted that step No. 1 for building around a young quarterback starts upfront: you’ve got to “block and protect.”
The Colts are returning all five starters from an offensive line unit that, in 2023, ranked top-10 in both yards per rush and quarterback pressure rate.
In addition to that, both Bernhard Raimann and Will Fries will have an additional year of experience under their belts, while offseason surgery for Braden Smith hopefully helps him stay on the field this season.
Having a run game to lean on keeps the offense out of those aforementioned predictable passing situations and opens up the playbook for Shane Steichen. Time in the pocket allows Richardson to go through his progressions and find the open receiver.
“I think after the ’22 season, Tony came in, saw that room for what it was, and it was still a lot of great players but not a lot of confidence,” said Ryan Kelly during minicamp, “and I think there’s a lot of multitude of reasons for that. So when he came in, the first day that we came in last year around this time, it was not even about football Xs and Os, it was about real personal stuff.
“Guys get into that because if you can’t build a relationship in there, then how can you build it out there? And I think that was a good part for us to trust Tony to trust us. And also, he just empowered us to go play. I think that starts with Shane, starts with Tony, starts with Jim Bob. Is to just go out there and play, and just trust our technique, trust that we’re great players and play together.”
As the old saying goes, if you can control the line of scrimmage, you can control the game. And the Colts are set up very well to do that on both sides of the football.
