Little has gone wrong for the Indianapolis Colts thus far in 2025, but the injuries suffered by the pass defenders have been the cloud on an otherwise beautiful day. It began over the summer when two promising rookies went down with season-ending issues.
It continued into the preseason, and with each passing week, it seems that Colts’ fans are holding their collective breath in anticipation of yet another pass defender being lost.
Chris Ballard has found some depth, and Lou Anarumo has been able to put it together as part of a serviceable defense so far. If they could just slow down the avalanche and let some players get healthy, the secondary could actually benefit in the long run. A lot of backups are gaining valuable experience.
But pass defense extends beyond the secondary and there is one spot that continues to befuddle the Colts. If they don’t figure out an answer, it could really bite them in the near future.
The Indianapolis Colts need to find a reliable coverage linebacker or else rethink the defense
Blame it on Jaylon Carlies. This would not be a problem had the second-year player not gotten hurt.
The plan was in place. E.J. Speed was leaving, but Zaire Franklin would still be in place to run the defense from the middle of the field and make a thousand tackles. Speed’s presumptive replacement, Carlies, appeared to be a perfect complement to Franklin.
In limited action last season, the former Missouri safety showed elite coverage skills. Of course, there was bound to be a learning curve, but he would be surrounded by a group of veterans who would make the transition run smoothly.
That was the plan. Then Carlies got hurt. He suffered an ankle injury in the Colts’ preseason opener against Baltimore and was sent to the Injured List. He is eligible to return, but so far there have been no solid indications of when that might happen.
The Colts have run through several replacements. Two of them - Cameron McGrone and Joe Bachie – are not even with the team anymore. Bachie started the first five games of the season but he was released last week.
Bachie, a career backup and special teamer, was replaced by Germaine Pratt, who played under Anarumo in Cincinnati. He started 88 games when Anarumo was the defensive coordinator, so it makes sense that the linebacker-thin Colts pounced on Pratt when the Raiders released him a few weeks ago. He walked right into the starting spot.
Pratt is a clear upgrade over anyone else the Colts had. But he is not the best cover linebacker there is. To be clear, he’s not hopeless. But Pratt is a big guy especially as modern inside linebackers go. At 6’3”, 250 pounds, he is better suited to taking on blockers and backs in the box than chasing speedy tight ends across the field.
That showed up against the Chargers, where he registered a very poor 44.0 coverage grade according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).
It didn’t end up hurting Indy against the Colts. And it may not matter this week against the Titans, although there is at least one significant cause for concern. More on that in a minute.
After the Titans, Indianapolis has two more challenging games against Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and they will pose different types of challenges for the Colts’ linebackers tasked with covering opposing tight ends.
Pittsburgh has always relied on its tight ends and this year is no exception. Neither Pat Freiermuth nor Jonnu Smith is having a particularly exciting season, and the mammoth Darnell Washington is known for his blocking more than his pass catching. But combined, those three Steeler tight ends have been a force this season.
They are catching 75% of their targets – a total of 42 catches in six games. 388 yards, five touchdowns and 18 first downs. That suggests that on average. Steelers tight ends will pick three first downs and score one touchdown per game. Against a team that has trouble covering tight ends, that number could go up.
The following week, they get Atlanta and their mercurial tight end Kyle Pitts.
He has never blossomed into the elite player the Falcons thought they were getting when they chose him fourth overall in the 2021 draft – (and some analysts thought the Colts reached when they took Tyler Warren at 14 this past year) – Pitts has developed into the kind of player who can do serious damage when a defense is concentrating too hard on stopping the Falcons other big weapons like Bijan Robinson and Drake London.
A lot of attention will be focused on Robinson. There may well be times when Pratt or Franklin is left alone on Pitts and they need to be up to the task.
Before either of those two games, the struggling Titans might seem like an easy week. I’ll just throw out this one caution. Last year, in a shootout victory, Anarumo’s Bengals allowed Titans’ tight ends Chig Okonkwo, Josh Whyle, and Nick Vannett to catch 14 of 16 targets for 98 yards and one touchdown. Germaine Pratt was one of the linebackers on defense that day.
Whyle and Vannett are no longer in Tennessee. I doubt most Titans fans even remember them by this point. And Okonkwo hasn’t exactly set the world afire. But he and rookie Gunnar Helm can do some damage if Anarumo doesn’t figure out a way to cover them.