The Indianapolis Colts are going with a novel approach to defense this season. They’re going to start at least two players who have zero starts in the NFL.
Stanford rookie David Parry is going to be the team’s starting nose tackle heading into the season. Zach Kerr, who had under 300 snaps last season as an undrafted free agent, will likely start at defensive tackle. And only Kendall Langford, a seven-year veteran, has experience as a starter in the NFL.
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The depth chart is even more inexperienced. Another Stanford rookie, Henry Anderson, will back up Langford at defensive end. Rookie defensive tackle TY McGill was cut by Seattle over the weekend and claimed off waivers by the Colts. The team also decided to keep rookie Earl Okine, in a bit of a surprise move.
That’s four rookies and a second year player taking the vast majority of the snaps for the Colts this season. Of course, the line wouldn’t look nearly this questionable if Art Jones hadn’t suffered a season ending ankle injury. The Colts attempted to get better along the line by signing Langford, and now they’ll be leaning on him to be the leader of this unit.
While the line is dangerously inexperienced, there have been flashes during the preseason. These six players accounted for 13 QB pressures, four sacks, and 25 stops (according to Pro Football Focus). All six players finished with a positive PFF grade as well for the preseason (0.0 is an average performance).
Seeing these numbers is certainly encouraging, despite the fact that most of those plays were made against second and third team offenses.
The first two weeks of the season will be a big test as the Colts face opponents who feature run first offenses, the Bills and Jets. Luckily, neither of those teams feature a dynamic passing attack. This will give the Colts time to build the lines confidence and work out the kinks.
Many will point to the Colts not using their first round pick on a defensive lineman, but that still wouldn’t solve the current problem. In fact defensive tackle Malcom Brown, a player many thought the Colts might draft, hasn’t had a great preseason with the Patriots. He was on PFF’s list of most disappointing rookies so far with a -5.3 overall grade through three games.
Considering the talent on the roster (or lack thereof) the Colts might consider running a 4-3 defense this season, as opposed to the 3-4. They clearly lack the dominant nose tackle required for the 3-4 and with talents like Robert Mathis and Trent Cole, who can play defensive end, it would certainly make the line look better. This will happen at times when the Colts switch to nickel and dime packages.
Among the players cut by the Colts included Kelcy Quarles, Montori Hughes, and last years starter at NT Josh Chapman. Hughes was also a rotational player last season. It should be noted that all of these players went unclaimed on waivers by the other 31 teams in the NFL.
This will be the biggest test for Chuck Pagano this season. He’s always been great with players in the secondary, but getting the Colts to perform better in the trenches is key this season. Having a consistent pass rush without blitzing (read: Cole and Mathis) will certainly help the run defense.
Pagano and defensive coordinator Greg Manusky will need to be more creative with the play calling and packages they use this season. They have versatile players on the roster, but it remains to be seen if this unit can perform at a high enough level to take this team to the Super Bowl.