Colts Starting Defense Still a Concern

Based on reports coming out of Colts training camp, the defense is still something to worry about as the regular season approaches. Can they fix it?

The Colts were a bad defensive team last season. They changed schemes from a 3-4 to a 4-3 to better utilize the personnel. But just changing schemes doesn’t cover up roster flaws. Based on everything I’ve seen and heard, the defense still needs a lot of work.

The starters got walked all over in last week’s first preseason game. They allowed Seattle to score a touchdown on their only drive with starters in. In camp, they have gotten carved up in camp as well by the first team offense. Reports haven’t looked good for them.

But the team needs to address the poor defense, and quickly. Some of it comes down to health. They still haven’t played with their two starting safeties yet, Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers. But the rest of the starters have been healthy, so they should be good to go by now.

Some of it is learning a new system. It takes time to learn the intricacies of a new system. There are some things that take time and chemistry to learn. But talent should be able to compensate for some lack of knowledge. That talent hasn’t shown yet.

The pass rush is still in serious trouble. The defensive line can’t push the offensive line back towards the quarterback. They also haven’t shown much speed getting around lineman either. The linebackers are all young, so they should get better as the year goes on. The secondary should too.

But no matter what the age of the players is, the defense is going to be an issue. It might be up to the offense to score a ton of points in order to win games.