Colts Key Position Group Earns Brutal Ranking

The Indianapolis Colts' defense obtained a new coordinator in Lou Anarumo. While the Colts had Gus Bradley for three seasons, Bradley deployed a static approach that quarterbacks quickly became privy to.

Bradley favored soft coverage to give his defenders a chance to come up and make quick tackles, limiting the yardage and forcing fourth downs or field goals. The issue was Indy's stop troops struggled badly with tackling, missing far too many for Bradley's scheme to work.

Now, with Anarumo, Indy will press cover more and offer a mixture of looks to confuse quarterbacks. While Anarumo's defense is tied to the performance of the secondary, linebackers will be critical for his defense to succeed.

After E.J. Speed left in free agency for the Houston Texans, it leaves Zaire Franklin and Jaylon Carlies as the starters on the second level. However, Pro Football Focus doesn't seem to have any confidence in what the linebackers can accomplish in Indianapolis.

Dalton Wasserman dives into why the Colts are the 31st-ranked out of 32 possible squads.

"The Colts' linebacker unit consists of one constant, Zaire Franklin, and a ton of variables. Franklin is a tackling machine who has posted identical 60.9 PFF overall grades in each of the past two seasons. For the moment, Jaylon Carlies is expected to start alongside Franklin, but he played just 242 snaps in his rookie season."

Wasserman concludes by discussing the LB depth behind Franklin and Carlies.

"Behind those two are similarly inexperienced options in Cameron McGrone and Segun Olubi, who were two of the team’s highest-graded special teamers last season."