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Film Room: Ben Banogu, Dayo Odeyingbo Shine Against the Bills

Originally posted on FanNation All Colts | By Zach Hicks | Last updated 8/15/22

Preseason football is fairly difficult to gauge, as teams like to stick to very vanilla and basic play-calls/designs. One thing that we can actually look at, and takeaway from these games, is one on one match-ups between individual players.

With that, these games can be somewhat valuable for players in the trenches and/or players out at wide receiver or cornerback. The Indianapolis Colts have some positional battles going on at every one of those spots, so the preseason opener against the Buffalo Bills provided a little clarity as to how those battles are going.

Today, we are going to focus on the defensive line and dive into which players stood out on Saturday.

Dayo Odeyingbo, Ben Banogu Make Their Mark

The biggest contributor off of the edge in this game was easily second-year pass rusher Dayo Odeyingbo. Surprisingly, Odeyingbo did most of his damage off of the edge as a rotational big end, rather than on the inside like he played last season.

While he is still figuring some things out as a pass rusher, it is hard to ignore his natural talent. He has remarkable power at the point of attack and is fairly fluid for a player of his size. If he learns to clean up some technical concerns, he could be an extremely productive pass rusher for the Colts in the near future.

Odeyingbo finished this game with five pressures, easily leading the team on the night.

The other clear standout in this one was fourth-year edge rusher Ben Banogu. As we all expected, Banogu is putting together another strong camp that is, once again, translating over to the preseason games.

Banogu finished this game with three pressures--including a sack and a quarterback hit-- along with three stops in the run game. He was a constant nuisance all game long for the Bills' offensive line. He seems to have improved his hands a lot this offseason, as he looked rather slippery off of the edge in this one.

Here are a few of his better rushes from this game:

Ifeadi Odenigbo Flashes as a Pass Rusher

It was an ugly start to the game for Ifeadi Odenigbo, as he lost contain on a 27-yard rush early in the first quarter. After that, though, Odenigbo flashed quite a bit as a pass rusher. He may not be as powerful as Dayo or as quick as Banogu, but he offers a little bit of juice off of the edge.

Odenigbo finished the night with two pressures--a sack and a quarterback hit. He had an excellent cross-chop late in the first half that certainly made Yannick Ngakoue proud on the sidelines.

If Odenigbo can keep stacking good games and practices together, he should be able to slide onto the roster as the team's sixth defensive end.

Defensive Tackle Depth is Still Muddied

Moving on to the interior and depth is still a major question mark. In my opinion, I didn't see enough from any of the players involved in this camp battle to say that there are clear front-runners.

Rookie Eric Johnson flashed a little bit in the run game, but he was far from consistent and he didn't offer too much rushing the passer. Veteran Byron Cowart had some impressive run stops but, like with Johnson, he was rather ineffective in the pass rush department.

R.J McIntosh had the roughest night of the players in this battle. He struggled to break off blocks in the run game and provided minimal impact when rushing the passer. If anything, McIntosh may have hurt his chances in this outing.

Rookie Curtis Brooks had an interesting night. He had a fumble recovery early and recorded a tackle that just missed being a sack later in the first half. His athleticism and get-off stood out more than any other player, but he did struggle to disengage from blocks in this game. He helped his chances a little bit in my eyes, but he still looks extremely raw off the film in this game.

Stock Up

Ben Banogu
Dayo Odeyingbo
Ifeadi Odenigbo
Curtis Brooks
Kameron Cline

Stock Down

R.J McIntosh
Chris Williams (due to not playing)

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