Colts' Young Star Narrowly Misses Significant Honor

The Indianapolis Colts were recently described as a team short on young, elite talent. However, one of the young building blocks they do have is knocking on the door of being one of the best players in the NFL at his position.

Left tackle Bernhard Raimann is entering his fourth year in the pros, and he's one of the only players on the Colts you could consider indispensable. He's entering the final year of his contract, and though there are already 15 tackles in the NFL making at least $20 million per year, he will certainly be among them by this time next year.

Raimann is home at arguably the most important position among the most critical group on a roster: the offensive line. A panel of NFL executives, coaches, and scouts thinks he's on the precipice of big things.

In ESPN's annual survey of league personnel, they considered Raimann an honorable mention, just outside the NFL's top 10 offensive tackles.

"He is a good example of sticking with a player," a veteran NFL scout told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. "He started slowly but has continued to improve and was really good last year."

Raimann is a true draft-and-develop success story for the Colts. They took him as a very inexperienced player in the third round of the 2022 draft. However, despite a near-disastrous rookie debut game, he finished as the No. 25 NFL offensive tackle that year (73.3), according to Pro Football Focus, and has improved in his three seasons.

Raimann finished fifth among NFL offensive tackles in 2023 (82.7) and eighth in 2024 (85.1), meaning Raimann was a top-25 NFL offensive tackle as a rookie and then top-10 in his first two full seasons as a starter. Raimann was the Colts' top-ranked full-time offensive player in 2024 despite missing three starts, but there is still room for him to get even better, as he gave up a team-high four sacks and was third with six penalties.

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