With the Indianapolis Colts placing Ryan Kelly on injured reserve, he will have to miss at least the next four games. In his place will again be rookie Tanor Bortolini.
The Colts’ game this upcoming Sunday against Buffalo will be Bortolini’s fourth appearance this season at center. This includes two previous starts against Pittsburgh and Jacksonville when Kelly was out with a neck injury, along with playing 23 snaps against Tennessee when Kelly exited the game.
Bortolini was a fourth-round pick by Indianapolis in this past April’s draft out of Wisconsin and came to the NFL as an experienced player.
However, at the center position it can come with a steep learning curve for young players, particularly the pre-snap component, specifically identifying and communicating the protections needed.
“But for a rookie at the center position,” said Jim Bob Cooter during training camp, “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.”
With that said, Bortolini has handled himself well when on the field. Over his 100 pass-blocking snaps, Bortolini has given up only one pressure, and ranks first out of 36 centers in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric. He also ranks 20th in run-blocking grade as well.
Awaiting Bortolini and the rest of the Colts’ offensive line this week is week is a Bills front that ranks 24th in pressure rate and 26th in yards per rush allowed.
With the offense coming off its worst performance of the season against Minnesota, getting back on track will start with Jonathan Taylor’s success in the run game, which will have a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the offense.