Predicting Colts' 53-Man Roster After Mandatory Minicamp

The Indianapolis Colts have concluded their three-day mandatory minicamp after a few weeks of OTAs. This gave the team the first opportunity to see their new-look group in a team setting, seeing how they operate behind the scenes and on the field in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 simulations.

The media was able to watch several of these practices, which gives us a good preliminary idea of where the Colts are leaning in certain areas of the roster, and which positions might have legitimate battles.

Although we still have training camp to come, here is my first attempt at a 53-man roster prediction based on the eight practices the media have watched between rookie minicamp, OTAs, and mandatory minicamp.

OFFENSE

QUARTERBACK

Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson, Riley Leonard

This group is pretty clear-cut. The question may be if they keep three quarterbacks, but I think the Colts like Leonard enough not to risk him on waivers to get him to the practice squad.

RUNNING BACK

Jonathan Taylor, DJ Giddens, Khalil Herbert

The Colts finally have a running back group with playable talent throughout, so having just three on the active roster, with one or two between Salvon Ahmed, Tyler Goodson, and Ulysses Bentley on the practice squad, is the perfect balance.

WIDE RECEIVER

Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce, Josh Downs, AD Mitchell, Ashton Dulin, Anthony Gould

This is a deep group made up of productive pass-catchers and special-teams standouts. There aren't many tough cuts here aside from Laquon Treadwell consistently playing at a high level against second and third-teamers, but it's a numbers game.

TIGHT END

Tyler Warren, Drew Ogletree, Will Mallory, Jelani Woods

Warren's addition has created flexibility. Having both Ogletree and Mo Alie-Cox feels redundant given that Warren will see the lion's share of the snaps at tight end, and he can both block and catch, so you don't need two players behind him whose specialty is blocking when you could utilize a pass-catcher like Mallory and someone with potential as both a blocker and receiver like Woods. Woods is healthy right now, but has missed the last two years with hamstring and foot injuries. If he gets injured again before the season, the Colts can move on with Alie-Cox instead.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Bernhard Raimann, Quenton Nelson, Tanor Bortolini, Matt Goncalves, Braden Smith, Jalen Travis, Blake Freeland, Danny Pinter, Dalton Tucker

Pinter and Tucker are gimmes as backups at center and right guard. Pinter has played well before when starting at center, and Tucker got experience starting seven games last year as a rookie undrafted free agent. The Colts want to give Freeland a chance to take another step in his development, but he was out all of minicamp with an injury. We'll see his participation level in training camp and if he can look better than he did last summer. If not, the Colts may want to bring in another backup lineman.

DEFENSE

DEFENSIVE LINE

Laiatu Latu, DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Kwity Paye, Samson Ebukam, JT Tuimoloau, Tyquan Lewis, Neville Gallimore, Tim Smith, Adetomiwa Adebawore

The Colts brought Eric Johnson II back, but if sixth-round pick Tim Smith earns his spot as the backup behind Grover Stewart, then Johnson becomes expendable. Defensive end Isaiah Land was a tough cut, but it's hard to justify the space with Ebukam coming back and the Colts drafting Tuimoloau.

LINEBACKER

Zaire Franklin, Jaylon Carlies, Segun Olubi, Cameron McGrone, Joe Bachie

Sitting here before training camp, I'm skeptical of the linebacker position. Franklin and Carlies have been out all spring recovering from ankle and shoulder procedures, respectively. That allowed the Colts to evaluate the rest of their linebackers, which is the silver lining. We saw a lot of Olubi, Bachie, and McGrone in relief on Franklin and Carlies.

CORNERBACK

Charvarius Ward, Kenny Moore II, Jaylon Jones, Justin Walley, Samuel Womack III, Corey Ballentine

This is a pretty crowded group that I struggled to whittle down for a couple of reasons. First, I made the tough cut of JuJu Brents. He's likely not going to start, but he does have some special-teams experience as a rookie, which helps. However, Womack is more versatile and can also play special teams. Ballentine makes the roster primarily as a core special-teams player.

SAFETY

Camryn Bynum, Nick Cross, Rodney Thomas II, Hunter Wohler

I'm curious if the Colts keep one more safety than this for the purposes of special teams, but also because defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo will use three safeties at a time in certain looks. Thomas and Wohler are the ones I'm most confident will make it, although both Daniel Scott and Trey Washington could stand out in training camp and make things interesting.

SPECIAL TEAMS

KICKER

Spencer Shrader

There's a kicker battle brewing between Shrader and Maddux Trujillo. So far from what the media has seen at practice, both kickers have yet to miss (although they've had more practices that we didn't see). The way the ball leaves Trujillo's foot is notably powerful. However, Shrader has a long history with Colts special teams coordinator Brian Mason dating back to Notre Dame, and the Colts felt comfortable releasing Matt Gay this offseason because of Shrader.

PUNTER

Rigoberto Sanchez

Sanchez is quietly one of the NFL's best punters and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career.

LONG SNAPPER

Luke Rhodes

Rhodes is a dependable long snapper. No need to shake things up here.

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