Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard expressed the desire to make his defense younger and faster this offseason. I get where he’s coming from. I’d like to get younger and faster too. Unfortunately, neither of us seems to have been all that successful in achieving the goal.
Given how maligned the Colts’ defense was last season, it is easy to forget that they were not bad at all against the run. They only allowed two opposing backs to gain more than 100 yards in 2025. Indy lost both games.
Through five games this season, Lou Anarumo’s younger and faster defense has surrendered more than 100 yards on the ground to three different running backs. Would you be surprised to learn that those are Indy’s three losses this season? Indy’s run defense has gone from being pretty good to being pretty bad. The question is why.
The Indianapolis Colts don’t win when they don’t stop the run
Five games may not provide enough data to make a definite case, but the early numbers suggest an undeniable problem.
In 2025, the Colts allowed opponents to rush for 102 yards per game. That was seventh-best in the league. They surrendered just 3.9 yards per rushing attempt, third-best in the league.
This year, both numbers have ballooned. Opponents have rushed for 130 yards per game and are averaging 5 yards per rush. Both numbers rank them 28th in the NFL. In other words, they have gone from one of the better rushing defenses to one of the worst, seemingly in the space of one offseason.
If you are looking for mitigating explanations – beyond the simple conclusion that the team is just plain worse than it was last season – there are a couple that come to mind.
First, Indy’s offense was so good last season that they often established big leads early in games. That affected the game script. We might expect opponents to abandon the run once they fell behind. That, in turn, would make last year’s rush defense look a little better on paper.
Unfortunately, that really doesn’t hold up. For one thing, it would not explain yards-per-rush increasing by more than a full yard. And despite the game script, opponents are averaging the same number of runs that they did last year. They are just doing it far better.
The other mitigation provides a bit more encouragement. The 2026 numbers are skewed by two genuinely atrocious performances in Weeks 1 and 2. Anarumo’s defense was far better in the two wins against Houston and Washington.
Of course, those are also two weak, decimated offenses. Their Week 5 performance against a run-of-the-mill Steelers club should have provided a better gauge.
Sadly, Indy's defense failed that test, reverting back to the porous run defense that was on display in Weeks 1 and 2.
If those mitigating factors do not provide sufficient explanation, we are left with one baldly obvious conclusion. The personnel assembled by Chris Ballard and coached by Lou Anarumo simply are not as good as last year. And as we have noted, most observers didn’t think much of last year’s performance.
Let’s look at the specific moves made by Anarumo.
We’ll leave the perimeter corners out of this discussion. They do play an important role in run defense, but that is not their main responsibility. Besides, the Colts retained their two starting outside corners, so there isn’t much to compare.
Of the nine defenders who play more central positions, five from last year's club are gone. Three – Kwity Paye, Kenny Moore and Nick Cross – were very sound run defenders.
I assume the logic in allowing them all to leave was that Paye did not provide enough pass pressure, Cross was weak in coverage, and Moore was getting old. That’s all true. But it is also true that they were all significantly better run defenders than the players who have replaced them.
Justin Walley and AJ Haulcy have both struggled in all aspects of defense. To be fair, both are young and showing signs of improvement. Perhaps by the end of the season, they will develop into the cornerstones Ballard expected. But for now, they are liabilities against the run … at least compared to the players they replaced.
As for Paye, his replacement was Arden Key, who was both older and worse against the run. Again, to be fair, Key is just a stopgap. Jaylahn Tuimoloau, Caden Curry, and/or George Gumbs should eventually take over this role. As with the young defensive backs, none have provided strong play against the run yet.
As for the middle of the line, Ballard did nothing to get younger and faster. He retained aging stars DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, and neither has been especially sturdy against the run this year. Buckner’s regression has been most troubling. He remains the heart and soul of the defense, and there is no question he is still capable of making good plays.
But his Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grade against the run is the lowest of his illustrious career. Such grades are not always meaningful, but in this case, I think it does accurately suggest that Buckner is not quite the same player he has been in the past. True, it has only been five games, but he is averaging fewer than two solo tackles per game for the first time in his career.
And instead of finding a younger and faster backup to replace the departed Neville Gallimore, Ballard signed 30-year-old Jerry Tillery, who currently ranks 132nd out of 133 defensive tackles against the run. (He has New Orleans’ Nathan Shepherd to thank for not being last.)
Finally, we have the linebackers. No position on the field is more associated with stopping the run. Ballard and Anarumo did not like veterans Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt last year, so they brought in Akeem Davis-Gaither via free agency and chose CJ Allen and Bryce Boettcher in Rounds 2 and 4 in last April’s draft.
Davis-Gaither has been decent. He leads the team in tackles by a wide margin, though I’m not convinced he has been an upgrade from Franklin. As for the younger, faster players like Allen, Boettcher, Jaylon Carlies, and Austin Ajiake, they have combined for a total of 58 tackles.
That’s one more than Miami rookie Jacob Rodriguez – drafted a few spots ahead of Allen – has by himself this year. And as you may have noticed, Ballard just brought Germaine Pratt back to the team. I guess he wasn't that old and slow after all.
There are bound to be growing pains with young players, and that may be what is happening with Walley, Haulcy, Boettcher, and Allen. Maybe they will, in fact, provide that younger, faster defense that the club is looking for. But it had best happen soon, or 2026 will be just another year in which the Colts miss the playoffs.
The good news? Indy plays Tennessee this Sunday, a team with a weak running game that the Colts handled rather easily last year. But that was last year. This year – at least early on – this defense is not nearly as good at stopping the run, even if they are younger and faster.
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