Colts Have Clear Weak Spot to Work On in Camp

The Indianapolis Colts clearly needed to make some changes on the defensive side of the ball heading into this offseason.

After finishing near the bottom of the league in several key categories in 2024, the team moved on from defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, replacing him with Lou Anarumo. They then let some key contributors walk in free agency while adding other expensive ones to positions of need.

However, there are several players returning who were still part of the defense's problems in 2024.

ESPN senior NFL writer Bill Barnwell recently gave each NFL team a superlative based on the work they did this offseason, and the one given to the Colts gave a harsh dose of reality, but with some optimism afoot:

Most likely to focus on tackling drills in training camp.

It's not a huge stretch to suggest that subpar tackling might have cost the Colts a postseason spot in 2024. According to Pro Football Reference, the Colts whiffed on 157 tackle attempts last season, 23 more than any other team. They faced the fourth-most defensive snaps, which explains some of that chasm, but the tape backs up those numbers. I'm not sure any team had a worse 60 minutes of tackling than the Colts did against the Giants in Week 17, when they allowed 45 points to Drew Lock & Co. and were officially knocked out of the playoff race.

Nobody should be surprised, then, that general manager Chris Ballard's offseason moves aimed to address those tackling woes. At safety, Indianapolis is swapping out Julian Blackmon, who has whiffed on 12% or more of his tackle attempts in four of his five NFL seasons, for former Vikings safety Cam Bynum, whose career missed tackle rate is 7.1%.

At corner, Samuel Womack III (12.2% missed tackle rate) will be replaced by Charvarius Ward, who has the lowest missed tackle rate of any player since entering the league in 2018, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Linebacker E.J. Speed, whose missed tackle rates over the past two seasons were both north of 10%, wasn't re-signed. Jaylon Carlies, who started six games a year ago and should be in line for the full-time job in 2025, missed only 5.3% of his tackles as a rookie.

Will better tackling make the Colts a great defense? No. But this was a team that ranked 30th in third-down conversion rate (44.4%) a year ago, in part because Colts defenders couldn't make tackles short of the sticks. Better tackling will get them off the field.

The Colts ranked 29th (361.2 YPG) in the NFL in overall defense in 2024, including 26th against the pass (229.4 YPG), 24th against the run (131.8 YPG), and 24th in points allowed (25.1 PPG).

They allowed their opponent to hit at least 400 yards of offense in six games and allowed at least 200 yards rushing in three games. There were several matchups where missed tackles plagued the Colts throughout the contest, allowing runners to rack up yards after contact and pass-catchers to accrue yards after the catch.

Issues with tackling were a big problem that helped lead to these low marks, and ultimately, the Colts moving on from Bradley.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Colts had seven defenders -- Jaylon Jones, E.J. Speed, Tyquan Lewis, DeForest Buckner, Kenny Moore II, Laiatu Latu, and Dayo Odeyingbo -- with a tackling grade below 50.0, which would be considered quite poor. However, each player, except for Latu (25.7%) and Odeyingbo (24.3%), had a reasonable missed tackle rate. Speed and Odeyingbo both left the Colts in free agency this offseason.

The Colts have their new coordinator in Anarumo, but they won't get to enjoy the potential of what the defensive unit can be unless they clean up their issues in tackling.

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