If Bernhard Raimann isn’t available for the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in Minnesota, who will get the start at left tackle?
Raimann entered concussion protocol on Monday and as of Friday morning, he remains there, having missed both practices up to this point in the week.
If the Colts are without Raimann, their options at left tackle come down to either rookie Matt Goncalves or Blake Freeland.
Freeland is the more experienced of the two, playing 701 offensive snaps as a rookie in 2023, most of which came at right tackle, filling in for Braden Smith.
However, Freeland would very much take his lumps over the course of that season, surrendering 45 pressures and ranking 80th out of 86 eligible tackles in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric.
This summer, the swing tackle competition between Goncalves and Freeland was one of the position battles that took place. Like any rookie Goncalves had some ups and downs in the preseason, but he was the far more steady of the two.
And while there was never a formal announcement that Goncalves won that competition, hrough the first handful of games of the season, he was active on gamedays while Freeland was not.
Perhaps the Colts go off script and opt to go with the more experienced Freeland, who perhaps has shown improvement in recent weeks because he has been active as well, but my guess is that Goncalves will make his first NFL start.
Goncalves comes to the NFL having played both the right and left tackle positions during his college career at Pittsburgh. During the preseason, he would again play both tackle positions, as did Freeland, and Goncalves had his best performance while on the left side, for what it’s worth.
Regardless of who the starter is if Raimann can’t go, the Colts’ offensive line faces a big test this week against a Vikings defense that not only leads the NFL in pressure rate, but also blitzes at the highest-rate in football as well, and does an excellent job at disguising where those pressures are coming from.
On Friday afternoon, the Colts’ final injury report will be released, at which point we will get a better idea of whether or not Raimann might be able to go.