Month: January 2025

To state the obvious, a lot went wrong for the Indianapolis Colts’ defense this season. But if you ask defensive tackle DeForest Buckner what one of the biggest contributing factors were to the inconsistent play, he says it’s egos.

“Ego,” said Buckner on Monday when asked about the defensive woes. “There’s times where ego gets in the way. And I feel like, especially in our business, playing in the NFL at a high level and as a team, everybody needs to check their ego at the door.”

Buckner would go on to say that he ego problem he would feel it and see it on tape. It also wasn’t just one or two players, but “a lot of guys” that contributed to the issue. And as a leader, Buckner takes responsibility for that.

“I take part ownership of that and serving in a much better way next year,” said Buckner.

The Colts defense will finish the 2024 season ranked 24th in scoring defense, 28th in yards per pass attempt surrendered and 26th in run defense.

The tipping point for this unit, however, came in Week 17 against the New York Giants. In that game, the Colts defense surrendered 38 points to what had been the lowest scoring offense in football. This performance came on the heels of the defense giving up 30 points to a Tennessee offense that ranked 27th in scoring this season.

Has had been the case all season, missed tackles and assignment breakdowns resulting in explosive plays for the offense plagued the Colts defense in those two games.

“It’s not like we haven’t called things out throughout the season,” said Buckner. “I feel like as leaders in the locker room, holding guys accountable and one of those things, and that’s one of those things you can ask any one of my teammates that I do on a weekly basis. We just gotta do a better job with eliminating that stuff and we just gotta win.”

Following the game, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley called the play from the defense “embarrassing,” adding that while there may be accountability within the building, there’s a need for greater individual ownership over the results. These are sentiments that Buckner then echoed on Monday.

“You can hold guys accountable and all of this, but part of it is taking ownership and taking that personal accountability,” said Buckner. “You can call guys out and you can take ownership of your own stuff, but you can’t force someone to take ownership of their own stuff. That’s something we need to do a better job.”

As of Monday morning, when Shane Steichen met with the media, he said that a decision about Bradley’s future with the team hadn’t been made at that time. However, moving on from seems like a move that is inevitable at this time.

But having said that, a new defensive coordinator may not be the cure-all that the Colts hope it can be if the ego issues that Buckner described aren’t corrected.

“We all have egos but the great teams those guys they sacrifice that ego and check it at the door,” Buckner said.