Nate Irving or Sio Moore? Who starts for the Colts

The Indianapolis Colts only have a few position battles this offseason, but inside linebacker might just be the most important one.

After a breakout season, the Colts let inside linebacker Jerrell Freeman walk in free agency. The talented former CFL star was a four year starter in Indianapolis and was one of the most versatile players on defense. Now that he’s gone, the Colts are stuck hoping that someone on the roster might emerge to take his place next to D’Qwell Jackson.

The two leading candidates are Nate Irving and Sio Moore. Both players have starting experience with their former teams (the Broncos and Raiders, respectively) but they’ve also had to contend with injuries the past few years.

Irving appears to have the inside track as he enters his sixth year in the NFL, while Moore is heading into his fourth. Luckily for the two players they’re being given equal opportunities due to a hamstring injury to Jackson (he’s being held out as a precaution). The extra reps in OTAs will give the team a good idea of who will be given first team reps when training camp begins.

Coach Chuck Pagano spoke on the subject of the battle at inside linebacker, but didn’t give any indication as to which player they were leaning towards.

"“I’m hesitant to say anything nice about anybody because when we start writing good stuff about anybody, complacency starts to set in. It was one of the positions, you go into the offseason, you go into the draft, you go into the OTAs a little bit concerned about it, but it looks like a group that’s developing into a pretty solid group.“Sio’s doing a nice job. Him and Nate, both are healthy. Both are 100 percent. Both have done a nice job picking up the scheme and the terminology. D’Qwell’s missed some days here and there with a slight hammy, so those guys have gotten the lion’s share of the reps and they’re taking advantage of it.“I love where they’re at. They’ve got a long way to go. They’d be the first to tell you that. The keys and reads, Jim Herrmann is doing a great job with that group. They’re seeing things. They can run, they’re athletic, they can match up, they can cover tight ends down the seams, they cover guys out of the backfield. We’ve got some pretty shifty guys back there now as far as the running back group goes. They’re doing a good job.”"

The Colts are installing a new-ish defensive scheme, so all of the players will be learning at essentially the same pace. It remains to be seen what changes will be made to the defense with a new coordinator but the same head coach who happens to have a defensive background. So neither player has an advantage in that regard.

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It is tough to say which player might be a better fit on defense. Irving only took 106 snaps last season while Moore had even less at 67. It is interesting to note that Irving had a better grade than Jackson last season, according to Pro Football Focus. Jackson had a rough season, but was actually fairly solid in coverage which has historically been where he’s struggled.

Football Outsiders has some interesting, and seemingly contradictory, stats on last year’s defense. The Colts were 20th in the NFL against tight ends and 30th against slot receivers, both of which have a tendency to operate in the middle of the field. However, they also ranked fourth in coverage over the middle. It paints a picture of a team that struggled on the outside and on short passes but was much better against deep passes and anything across the middle.

What we don’t know for sure is how much of this seemingly “good” defense can be attributed to Freeman. He was one of the few players over the middle with speed (it should be noted that both Moore and Irving posted nearly identical 40-times before their respective drafts).

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Moore is seen as a bit more versatile at linebacker with some coverage skills. Irving on the other hand is a good in the box linebacker and solid tackler who excels in run support. Based on those notions, you’d be inclined to give Moore the nod as Irving sounds similar in style to Jackson.

But these notions are based on limited exposure and in different schemes than what the Colts are implementing. More competition is never a bad thing, but if neither player pans out the Colts will find themselves incredibly vulnerable across the middle in 2016.

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