Colts waive former first round pick Bjoern Werner

The Indianapolis Colts today waived outside linebacker Bjoern Werner, their first round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.

Drafted to be a pass rushing threat for the Colts, Werner simply failed to produce during his three seasons with the team despite being given a number of chances.  The Colts gave him a shot at both outside linebacker positions and gave him a shot both as a starter and as a backup.  Ultimately, Werner never got things together and was never really able to contribute the way the Colts expected him to.

The move shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.  Though the timing was uncertain (since there wasn't much cap savings, this wasn't a cap-motivated move and therefore didn't have to come right now), it was fully expected that Werner would not be on the roster in 2016.  It was easy to tell that the Colts had essentially moved on from Werner last year, and we wrote as much, as Werner was inactive for several games in 2015.  Werner played in 38 games for the Colts (starting 16) and recorded 77 tackles, 6.5 sacks, five passes defensed, one forced fumble, and two fumble recoveries.

There's no other way to say it: Bjoern Werner was a bust.  The Colts were counting on him to develop into a legitimate pass rush threat, and he didn't do that.  So they gave him plenty of chances to work at strongside linebacker in defending against the run, and that didn't work out either.  Hopefully he's able to sign somewhere and revive his career, but Werner a clear bust in Indy.  It's no surprise that the Colts are moving on from him, as they already began to do that last year.