The Colts made nine selections in this past April’s draft, and on their initial 53-man roster, three of them were left off.
Not making the Colts roster were fifth-round pick Jaylin Simpson, sixth-round pick Micah Abraham, and seventh-round pick Jonah Laulu.
The Colts decided to go light at the cornerback position, rostering just five players. Ultimately, they had a decision to make here–choosing to either roster experience on the back-end of the depth chart or the developmental upside of Simpson and Abraham.
Given the overall uncertainty of this position group, they went with the former.
The boundary cornerback position will be one of the bigger unknowns for the Colts entering the regular season. The margin for error at this position group from top to bottom seems to be razor thin, giving them less flexibility when it comes to roster construction.
The Colts don’t have the luxury of having stability at the position, allowing them to keep Simpson and/or Abraham. Instead, they need Baker and the 469 snaps he played in 2023 on the team as insurance if things go awry.
If called upon, neither Simpson nor Abraham were ready for regular season action and neither provided much help on special teams, which likely contributed to this decision.
Laulu being left of the roster at defensive tackle is less surprising. He joined a well-established position group with DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, and Rakewon Davis that also saw the emergence of Adetomiwa Adebawore over the summer.
Laulu’s path to making the team would again have come at the back end of the roster in that fifth-spot as a developmental player. But the Colts went with Taven Bryan, who can likely make a bigger impact this season, and his experience.
With Simpson, Abraham, and Laulu, odds are the Colts get all three of them back on the practice squad, providing them with the red-shirt-like years they need to continue developing and hopefully be able to contribute down the road.