Colts 2nd-year OT Bernhard Raimann only continuing breakout campaign

Indianapolis Colts 2nd-year offensive tackle Bernhard Raimann has only gotten better since entering the league last year—and it’s his pass protection that’s really stood out so far this season:

He’s also coming off one of the best starts of his early career, playing overseas in Germany in front of close friends and family—and more than holding his own while doing it.

Per PFF (subscription), Raimann is currently ranked as their 5th best offensive tackle with a +82.8 overall grade—featuring a +80.8 pass blocking grade.

In 341 total pass blocking snaps, Raimann has allowed 2.0 sacks, 4 QB Hits, and 17 total pass pressures during 2023, meaning he’s been every bit of a rock solid standout left tackle.

While I’ll stop short of saying the Colts have found their next franchise left tackle quite yet (as those labels are thrown around way too prematurely given the still limited sample size), I will say that Raimann is well on his way in joining former greats such as Tarik Glenn and Anthony Castonzo as Horseshoe blindside bookends.

Even though I’ll always bang the drum that the Minnesota Vikings’ Christian Darrisaw, who was taken two picks after the Colts’ Kwity Paye in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft should’ve been Indy’s pick—as he’s currently PFF’s #1 best graded offensive tackle, Raimann hasn’t been a bad consolation prize and may even be the better value as a 2022 third round pick.

The Colts clearly found a ‘second day’ sleeper, as while Raimann was always highly regarded as an elite athlete at the offensive tackle position, his shorter arms scared some teams off during their draft evaluations—believing he may make for a better offensive guard at the pro level. However, credit to the Colts, they saw the athleticism, footwork, technique, potential, and capitalized.

It took a little bit, as the still developing Raimann endured some initial growing pains as a rookie starting at left tackle last year, but he continued to improve and actually ended up being pretty decent down his debut season’s final stretch.

That momentum has clearly carried over to this season, where Raimann has gotten even better and been an elite player at the left tackle position—particularly in pass protection.