Colts Face Linebacker Questions This Offseason
INDIANAPOLIS – It’s pretty clear the Colts have a defensive position that isn’t held in as high regard as others.
Linebacker under Lou Anarumo will shrink a bit in numbers and a tad in importance, too.
The Colts will install a new defense and drill this spring without their top two linebackers, with both Zaire Franklin (ankle) and Jaylon Carlies (shoulder) recovering from off-season surgeries.
Franklin’s “clean-up” came last week.
“Hopefully, he will be back by training camp,” Shane Steichen expressed about his defensive captain over the weekend.
Steichen’s hope is also met with no guarantee that Franklin will be on the field when the Colts kick things off at Grand Park in late July. If that doesn’t happen, the belief is the linebacker’s return should happen in the early-ish stages of camp.
Even though the Colts won’t emphasize the linebacker position compared to others, this news still shouldn’t be overlooked.
It’s less than ideal because the Colts are implementing a new defense, with more complexities, and will do it without the two guys who are expected to play virtually all the linebacker snaps this fall.
Instead, it’ll be the likes of Segun Olubi, Cam McGrone, Liam Anderson, Austin Ajiake, Jon Bachie and a couple undrafted options absorbing those starting reps when OTAs begin later this month.
As you’d expect, the coach in Anarumo chooses to look at the optimistic view of more inexperienced guys getting valuable spring reps.
“I think the good news about where we’re at as a total defense is we’ve got some competition, at each level of the of the group,” the new defensive coordinator says. ‘So, we’ll see how things shake out. It’s so early. We’ll never make a decision as a staff in the spring because at the end of the day, until we start running and getting off blocks and tackling people, that’s when you know. That’s when you give somebody a chance to win a job. It’s never going to be in the spring.”
While the Colts had some early draft interest in a few linebackers, when those possibilities didn’t happen, they felt the depth at that position really dropped off.
Hence, why the Colts decided not to take a linebacker in their entire 8-man draft class (it sounds as if 7th round pick Hunter Wohler will mostly be a safety).
“It just didn’t work out,” Chris Ballard said at the end of the draft about not taking a linebacker. “We drafted (Jaylon Carlies) a year ago, who we really like. We thought when he played last year, it was really good.
‘We’ve got some other guys on the roster that we really like. We think we will be OK in that area. You’ve got to understand that Lou it’s a little different than we’ve done in the past where we had a MIKE, WILL and a SAM. Now we are just playing with a MIKE and a WILL. So, not as many guys are as needed as in the past.”
For Franklin, a player with 65 career starts who hardly ever misses a game, not getting this springtime work shouldn’t be the end of the world. But you still can’t totally overlook the main communicator for a new defense missing this time.
For Carlies, this springtime work is even more valuable as he further entrenches himself as an NFL linebacker.
A new era of Colts defensive football this year and we are starting to get a glimpse as to where the focus lies.
The early work of implementing this system is underway and the Colts will have to do it with a second level of the defense looking much different than what is expected to be out there come Week 1.