At a difficult position to transition to, Colts’ offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter likes the steady progress he is seeing from rookie center Tanor Bortolini.
“We see him, you know, Wednesday is better than Tuesday,” said Cooter. “Thursday is better than Wednesday. He’s just got to keep that process going.
“That’s the rookie process for a lot of positions, but for the center position it’s vital just the mentality of being able to ID those fronts, make those calls, communicate with your buddies and with the guys behind you.”
The Colts selected Bortolini in the fourth round of this past April’s draft. At the NFL Combine in February, Bortolini was one of the standout participants, not only among the offensive line but out of all position groups.
Bortolini posted a near-perfect Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 9.79, which included a 4.94-second 40, along with elite vertical, broad jump, and agility testing.
On the field, Bortolini is someone the Colts believe can play all three interior offensive line positions. At Wisconsin, he played nearly 1,100 snaps at center and during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, he surrendered just two sacks and 17 pressures.
“But for a rookie at the center position,” added Cooter, “you do have a lot going on. There’s these defensive looks, these backers are sliding, we’re motioning. They’re trying to figure out exactly where do we want this run play to go, how do we want to ID this thing. What exactly is this blitz that they keep bringing and how do I pick that thing up? He’s learning those lessons as we go.”
Due to the difficulty of the jump at center from college to the NFL, Bortolini hasn’t been handed the backup role behind Ryan Kelly. Instead, he’s seen time with the third team offense, as well as with the twos, while Danny Pinter and Wesley French–before being placed on IR– were handling the backup center snaps as well.
For what it’s worth, on the Colts’ unofficial depth chart, the backup center position was listed as Pinter or Bortolini or French.
“We ask a lot of those guys communication-wise,” Cooter said, “with our guys up front, with the quarterbacks, with everybody, making decisions about maybe how we’re going to block a certain scheme, how we’re going to pick up a certain blitz.
“We ask a ton of those guys and all we see out of Bort is him getting better and better and better every week, every day, every walkthrough. Cleaning up maybe something that wasn’t perfect the day before and getting that thing fixed for the next day.”
Kelly is entering the final year of his current deal and before training camp began, mentioned that extension talks hadn’t taken place.
How the Colts’ feel about the development of Bortolini at the center position over the next few months will play a role whether or not Kelly returns in 2025.