On Thursday night, the Indianapolis Colts finished the 2023 preseason with a 27-13 win against the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly didn’t play its starters, but it was still a good opportunity for a young Indy team to get some important reps and grow. In those developmental reps, Indianapolis gave fans reason to be excited for the regular season.
Let’s take a look at three things from the preseason finale that should have Colts fans excited for the regular season.
3. Colts pass rush looked promising
During Indianapolis’ second preseason game, team owner Jim Irsay admitted that he stays up late wondering how the team’s pass rush will look this season. The Colts have been trying to build a dominant pass rush for years; that’s been evident in every draft since Chris Ballard’s been general manager.
In Thursday’s preseason game, the defensive line showed some promise from start to finish. Now, the Eagles didn’t play their starters, so it’s not like Indianapolis went into Philly and dominated the best offensive line in football. But still, there’s reason to be excited about what the defensive line showed in the game.
As a team, the Colts had just three total sacks. Dayo Odeyingbo and Khalid Kareem had one sack and one quarterback hit, Tyquan Lewis and and McTelvin Agim each had a half sack and a quarterback hit. Samson Ebukam also got in on the fun with a quarterback hit.
It’s promising that those stats came from the back-up defensive linemen, because a good pass rush is all about depth. If the starting unit with Kwity Paye and DeForest Buckner can get after the quarterback, as well as the second unit, the Colts could have a relentless pass rush.