Pro Football Focus projected the starting lineup for each NFL team for the upcoming 2024 season. Here is who they believe will be starting on the defensive side of the ball come Week 1 for the Indianapolis Colts.
DI: DeForest Buckner
DI: Grover Stewart
Edge: Samson Ebukam
Edge: Kwity Paye
Edge: Laiatu Latu
LB: Zaire Franklin
LB: EJ Speed
CB: JuJu Brents
CB: Dallis Flowers
CB: Kenny Moore
S: Julian Blackmon
S: Nick Cross
Similarly to the offensive side of the football, this lineup, for the most part, is what you’d expect for a Colts team that saw very little roster turnover during the offseason. However, there are two position groups that do stand out.
The first is at cornerback with Dallis Flowers named the starter opposite of JuJu Brents. If this is how things play out, I don’t think anyone would be surprised. Flowers was the starter for four games last season prior to his injury, allowing just 10.5 yards per catch, recording three pass breakups, and holding quarterbacks to a passer rating under 100.0.
“I thought he was really impressive up until that injury,” said defensive coordinator Gus Bradley after the draft. “He did some good things. He’s got that maturity. Very driven. Knows what he wants and is pretty focused on that; you see him in these walkthroughs.”
However, while it is still very early and there is a long way to go before any starting spots are finalized, during OTAs, it has been Jaylon Jones starting at cornerback over Flowers.
Safety is the other position that caught my attention, specifically Nick Cross starting next to Julian Blackmon. Again, as was the case with Flowers, if this is how things play out, I doubt many will be surprised, but this will be one of the more intriguing training camp battles this summer.
Competing with Cross will be Rodney Thomas, who has played almost 1,700 snaps the last two seasons but is coming off a down year, and Daniel Scott, a 2023 draft pick by the Colts whose rookie season never got going due to injury.
The Colts have had Cross taking some snaps at strong safety in the past, but with Blackmon returning for the 2024 season, it is the free safety role that needs to be filled. In the early going, Cross has been a defensive starter over Thomas and Scott, with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley believing the free safety spot suits his skill set well.
“I think Nick, we tried him at strong, and he can play strong,” said Bradley after the draft, “but I think even looking back at him at college, when he sees things top down, his comfort level and his speed picks up. He’s in a pretty good mindset now. It’ll just play out, and we will see what we come up with.”
Lastly, I’ll also mention that with the addition of Laiatu Latu, it is Dayo Odeyingbo who PFF has getting squeezed out as the potential fourth member of the defensive end rotation. Now, having said that, we know that the Colts want to have a hockey-like rotation along the defensive front, so Odeyingbo will still see plenty of playing time.
However, it also goes to show why there is potential uncertainty around his future with the team next offseason as Odeyingbo enters the final year of his contract. If he truly ends up being the fourth member of the rotation, could he earn a larger contract elsewhere in free agency?