The roster is always in flux, but with little happening, I want to look over the defensive side of the roster.

The new Defensive Coordinator, Gus Bradley has to shape this, but I expect the Colts base to basically be a 4-2-5.

IDL: DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, RJ Macintosh, Curtis Brooks (R), Eric Johnson (R), Caeveon Paton (R), Chris Williams (R)

The interior DL is REALLY strong at the 2 starters. Buckner and Stewart are excellent players. The depth is terribly raw. The Colts will need to determine quickly if any of the rookies are good or not. Tyquan Lewis and Dayo Odeyingbo are candidates to shift into the interior, or play swing roles at both the DE and IDL. My understanding is that Tyquan Lewis is still working his way back from his 2021 season ending knee injury. I have not heard when he is likely to be 100%.

DE: ¥annick Ngakoue, Kwity Paye, Dayo Odeyingbo, Ifeadi Odenigbo, Kameron Cline, Brian Cox, Ben Banogu, Scott Patchan (R), Tyquan Lewis

DE is a strong position group. They likely have 4 or 5 good players to rotate, and the last cuts will be difficult.

LB: Darius Leonard, Bobby Okereke, Zaire Franklin, EJ Speed, Brandon King, Forrest Rhine (R), James Skalski (R), Sterling Weatherford (R), JoJo Domain (R).

The LB's are fantastic, simply because Darius Leonard leads them. LB's form a lot of the special teams so the play there will be critical to who makes the team.

CB: Stephan Gilmore, Kenny Moore, Isaiah Rodgers, Marvel Tell, Tony Brown, Anthony Chesley, Brandon Facyson, Alexander Myres, Will Redmond, Chris Wilcox, Dallas Flowers (R), Marcel Dabo (R), Rodney Thomas (R)

The starters should be solid. The depth is a big unknown as their are definitely some guys I don't think are more than PS deep, deep, deep, depth.

Safety: Julian Blackmon, Nick Cross (R), Rodney Macleod, Armani Watts, Trevor Denbow (R)

Safety looks very weak since the surprise retirement of Khari Willis. The Colts will have to add someone good to this group. It really hurts that we did not sign a FA at Safety. Perhaps signing Landon Collins (still unsigned), or trading for a player might be an option.

The base starting defense I see using a 4-2-5:

. . . . . . . . . . . Kwity Paye . . . DeForest Buckner . . . . Grover Stewart . . . Yannick Ngakoue

. . . . Darius Leonard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bobby Okereke

Isaiah Rodgers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kenny Moore . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Gilmore

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nick Cross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julian Blackmon

Starting strong safety is a current weak link. Depth in the IDL is weak. There is a possibility that a CB moves to the Safety group. We've had a number of guys with overlapping skillsets in recent years. But Khari Willis is going to be tough to replace.

My guess is that once training camp starts, we will see a lot of churn as the rookies get a very quick window to make an impression, then the Colts will have to go get better depth players. And my guess is that some player is added soon, at safety, as they need more there.