Colts announce initial 53 man roster
 

https://www.colts.com/news/colts-ann...026-nfl-season



The roster breaks down as follows:

QUARTERBACKS (3): Daniel Jones, Riley Leonard, Anthony Richardson Sr.

RUNNING BACKS (3): DJ Giddens, Seth McGowan, Jonathan Taylor

WIDE RECEIVERS (6): Keenan Allen, Deion Burks, Josh Downs, Ashton Dulin, Alec Pierce, Laquon Treadwell

TIGHT ENDS (3): Mo Alie-Cox, Drew Ogletree, Tyler Warren

OFFENSIVE LINE (9): Tanor Bortolini, Jalen Farmer, Matt Goncalves, Quenton Nelson, Bernhard Raimann, Jalen Travis, Luke Tenuta, Dalton Tucker, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger

DEFENSIVE LINE (11): Adetomiwa Adebawore, DeForest Buckner, Micheal Clemons, Caden Curry, George Gumbs Jr., Arden Key, Laiatu Latu, Tim Smith, Grover Stewart, Jerry Tillery, Jaylahn Tuimoloau

LINEBACKERS (6): Austin Ajiake, CJ Allen, Bryce Boettcher, Jaylon Carlies, Tahj Chambers, Akeem Davis-Gaither

CORNERBACKS (5): Johnathan Edwards, Sauce Gardner, Jaylon Jones, Justin Walley, Charvarius Ward Sr.

SAFETIES (4): Cam Bynum, AJ Haulcy, Jonathan Owens, Hunter Wohler

SPECIAL TEAMS (3): Spencer Shrader (K), Rigoberto Sanchez (P), Luke Rhodes (LS)

The Colts claimed DB Kapena Gushiken off waivers from the Eagles and released OT Luke Tenuta. Tenuta was later signed back to the Colts practice squad.

https://www.colts.com/news/colts-cla...-t-luke-tenuta

We were able to find a decent back up center and number 2 wr which was huge. The fact that the center appears to be able to successfully do a shotgun snap immediately gives us an upgrade. We appear to have no depth anywhere and i am very concerned about linebacker and defensive line. I see our only hope is that DJ's first 10 games last year were not a mirage and we have unlocked an All-Pro QB. If you have one of those anything is possible.

this dline is atrocious.

how the fuck do we sit on that much money and field this dline group

It wouldn't matter. It isn't the money (or draft capital) spent, its drafting and spending money on players that are terrible most of the time, mediocre at best with maybe two drafted or signed lineman that have been 'good' for any lenghty period of time over the last 10 years. We cannot scout defensive lineman for shit. We traded for Buckner who was an all pro already. It is painful.

Ballard doin Ballard things.
Holding back this much money speaks to his confidence in the team he built. I don’t know how much marquee talent he could have acquired since likely quite a few had no desire to join this franchise, understandably so. Nevertheless, I refuse to believe he couldn’t significantly improve the roster depth. If you have this much money left at this point solely because nobody wants to come here you’re likely in the company of the Browns, Jets, and Cards.

Here’s to a healthy season because injuries will wreck us more so than most.

I don’t know that I’d describe them as atrocious. Granted that they’d look a lot better with Trey Hendrickson, but he’s a cautionary tale about free agency. Chris Ballard slid all of his chips onto the table in pursuit of the Bengal, assuming that a rich contract and the prospect of reuniting with Lou Anarumo would be enough to make him a Colt. He was wrong, and he had to settle for Arden Key.

As far as the guys the have,

Key picked up 5 sacks, last year, despite playing for a dysfunctional Tennessee team, and missing 5 games. In a better situation in Indy, with a creative defensive mind on the sidelines and the benefit of playing in front of a gifted group of DB’s, his ceiling might be as high as 10 sacks.

DeForest Buckner is an elite Defensive Tackle.

Grover is, at least, a stalwart piece in the middle. While playing next to a healthy Buckner, they allowed little more than 3 yards per carry.

And, we tend to underestimate Latu. In 2025, only 10 DE’s amassed more sacks than him. Beyond that, his career seems to be trending upwards. He almost doubled his pressure rate in year 2, and his final stats skewed lower after Buckner was injured.

Depth pieces arre, if nothing else, intriguing.

The reason they have so much cap space is that they carved out a big chunk of it in anticipation of adding Trey Hendrickson.

Disappointing they couldn’t find a good use for that money after March 12th.

or have a back up plan

I honestly don't think this is the case. Hendrickson's cap hit would've been low for 2026 had they signed him. The Ravens have a $15 million cap hit for him for 2026, and that's on a $28 million AAV deal. I think the Colts like to roll cap space over, which is a smart strategy if there's not a quality player to spend the money on. They have just over $19 million of cap space now, and they're likely wanting to roll that on the hope that Daniel Jones can be the answer at QB, so they can use it toward getting a long term extension done.

After Hendrickson came off the board, there wasn’t much of a pathway open to dramatically improve DE through free agency. When you look at NFL.com’s list of the top free agent DE’s, Hendrickson was 1st. Kwitty Paye was 3rd, and sandwiched in between was Boye Mafe, who might set a splendid edge, bur racked up a total of 2 sacks in 2025.

If Arden Key stays healthy, I expect him to turn in 8 sacks. I hope for 12.

There's also things to consider like Pierce's and Raimann's cap hits both jumping from like $9m each to $30-35m each next season, for example.

I agree. However we were in that position for a reason. It isn't like pass rush is a recent issue. Just frustrates the hell our of me.

Chaisson and/or Oweh would've been better free agent options. Key should be a DPR, with an early down player in front of him. I think the Colts hoped that would be Tuimoloau, but he's not living up to his potential. I'm personally hoping that Caden Curry just forces his way onto the field and becomes a pleasant surprise. I know it was only preseason, but a 17.5% pressure rate and good run defense is hard to ignore. If he can do anything close to that against first teamers, the Colts will put him on the field.

1) Both deals likely have built in restructures.

2) Even with those numbers factored in, the Colts have $60m of cap space before any rollover is added.

And carrying 11 DL seems excessive. Especially since ~half of them are JAGs at best.

with no backup plan


traded Pittman for nothing except cap space that we didn't use.

That is a great point i hadn't thought of. He could easily be on this team with no consequence to the team make up whatsoever. Could have been traded for nothing like he was any time you needed to clear cap space. Such a mismanaged team

Pittman’s cap number on his previous contract would have the Colts over the cap right now.