Leaders of Colts Starting Position Battles Following Training Camp

Keenan Allen became the Colts' starting WR3 as soon as he signed with the team earlier this week.

Veteran wideouts Ashton Dulin and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine have flashed throughout training camp as viable starting options, but they've ultimately proved that they're best suited for immediate depth roles

Allen made his Colts debut on Thursday, the team's last training camp practice, but expect his workload to increase in the coming week.

Projected Starter: Keenan Allen (Dulin WR4, NWI WR5)

Defensive End

The Colts were reportedly the leaders of the Trey Hendrickson sweepstakes months back as they tried to pair Lou Anarumo's former sack leader with budding star Laiatu Latu off the edge, but a last-second rug pull by the Baltimore Ravens forced them to pivot.

As a result, the Colts' defensive end opening opposite Latu has been between veteran newcomer Arden Key and second-year player Jaylahn Tuimoloau throughout the preseason.

Tuimoloau flashed early on in training camp, totaling multiple sacks, but has since been forgotten about. Arden Key hasn't had many highlight plays during the preseason, but he's been enough of a steady force to bet on him for the upcoming season.

Projected Starter: Arden Key

Strong Safety

The Colts' first handful of practices at Grand Park featured second-year S Hunter Wohler as the defense's starting option at strong safety, but he was soon thereafter sidelined with a hamstring injury that kept him out of play for nearly two weeks.

Rookie A.J. Haulcy has taken full advantage of the opportunity to slide in during Wohler's absence and has quietly emerged as the team's best option moving forward.

Haulcy's heads-up tip drill interception was no doubt his biggest highlight of camp, but numerous strong blitzes, run fits, and overall promising coverage make him the frontrunner for the starting job at strong safety.

Projected Starter: A.J. Haulcy

Kicker

The starting placekicker battle between Blake Grupe and Spencer Shrader had a brief moment where the latter outshined the former, but had mainly been a lopsided affair throughout training camp.

Grupe exits camp with a 90% completion rate on field goals, whereas Shrader just eclipsed the 70% mark despite two solid days of joint practice work against the Falcons, including back-to-back successful kicks from 48 and 52 yards in two-minute drill situations.

It's been Grupe's job to lose for a while now, so unless he gets the yips and Shrader locks in during these final couple of weeks of the preseason, it's essentially a guarantee that Grupe is the Colts' Week 1 starter.

Projected Starter: Blake Grupe

Linebacker(s)

CJ Allen has been penciled in as Zaire Franklin's replacement at MIKE linebacker in Lou Anarumo's defense since he was drafted 53rd overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.

On top of day-one starting duties as a rookie, Allen was also expected to become the defense's green dot, aka the quarterback of the defense. But Allen kicked off his first NFL training camp by missing the Colts' first two practices as he worked back from a then-recent calf injury. That injury proved to be minor, but Allen soon thereafter injured his hamstring and was sidelined for the next several practices.

Veteran safety Cam Bynum has taken over as the defense's green dot during training camp, and now Allen faces an uphill battle in the remaining weeks of the preseason to prove he deserves to start in Week 1 of his rookie season.

Rookie linebacker Bryce Boettcher has taken advantage of his opportunity with Allen out, as has 2023 UDFA Austin Ajiake. The former had taken the majority of first-team reps during Allen's extended absence and proved to be a steady hand.

However, it's the Colts' veteran linebackers who have recently emerged as starting options.

Veterans Akeem Davis-Gaither and Jaylon Carlies ended training camp as the defense's starting linebackers. They were with the first-team defense throughout both joint practices against the Atlanta Falcons, which marked three consecutive showings of this workload.

Davis-Gaither has been the steady hand throughout training camp, whereas Carlies has recently come on as of late and has really showcased his plus coverage ability.

The Colts regularly rotated their linebackers throughout training camp, and likely will do the same during the regular season, but when it comes to who trots out onto the gridiron first, it seems like ot may just be Davis-Gaither and Carlies after all.

Projected Starters: Akeem Davis-Gaither and Jaylon Carlies