Indianapolis Colts: 3 battles we’re excited to watch at OTAs

With the player movement portion of the offseason (for the most part) done and dusted, the Indianapolis Colts’ roster for next season is largely locked and loaded.

Given that the Colts only lost a few players to free agency, they’ll have the luxury of returning a myriad of starters from last season. In fact, we’d go as far as to say that fans could project the starters at the quarterback, running back, wide receiver, safety, cornerback and linebacker positions without even looking at a spreadsheet of the roster.

With that being said, there are still a handful of positions whose starters will be determined throughout the final few months of the offseason. That includes organized team activities and training camp, with OTAs getting started this week and picking back up again in June and July.

With that in mind, we’re salivating thinking about the positional battles that’ll be taking place during this span. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to pick three that stand out among the rest.

Here are three battles that we’re excited to watch at Colts OTAs.

3. Edge Rushing Battle

The Colts lost both of their starting defensive ends, Justin Houston and Denico Autry, to free agency and the only outright replacements they brought in came during the draft, when they netted Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo with their first two picks.

While Odeyingbo is still rehabbing from a torn Achilles and likely won’t enter the defensive line rotation until a few weeks into the season, Paye has an excellent chance of starting as a rookie.

Like any position, however, Paye will need to earn that job and the Colts currently have five pass rushers who could feature heavily next season. That includes Tyquan Lewis, Kemoko Turay, Al-Quadin Muhammad and one of Isaac Rochell or Ben Banogu for the final spot.

Who will be the Colts’ two starting defensive ends?

Now that we mention it, Indianapolis’ loaded defensive end room is actually intriguing on two fronts. On one side, the starting job is up for grabs and so is the battle for the final roster spot. After all, they can’t possibly keep those six players and the likes of DeForest Bucker, Grover Stewart and Antwuan Woods coming out of training camp, right?

In any event, Colts fans would be smart to closely monitor the edge rushing battle at OTAs, because either one of Paye, Lewis, Turay and Muhammad could nab the two starting spots.