Blue
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- Mar 19, 2019
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We can't start without mentioning Thursday's news of the Colts signing former Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro edge rusher, Justin Houston. Regardless of a signing that big, the defensive line will always be an area to be addressed for every team. The Colts could still use reinforcements, especially since they rely so heavily on rotating through waves of players and specialized groupings.
The Colts didn't have many issues facing them free-agent wise beginning the new year — only Geneo Grissom, Margus Hunt and Al Woods were free agents, and they already brought Hunt back — so they are in the position to focus on upgrading and adding depth rather than playing from behind. The Colts were outstanding at wrecking the backfield in 2018, leading the league with four players with at least 12 tackles for loss, but they ranked tied for 19th in sacks (38.0).
This was a great crop of defensive linemen at the top of free agency, but franchise tags and long-term deals took care of that pretty quickly. With Houston being let go by the Chiefs, it gave the Colts the chance to acquire a high-level pass rusher without having spend major capital to draft one, although that is still a possibility. The rest of the free agent pool is now mostly mid-level starters and rotational players, which is fine considering the depth of this draft class of edge defenders and interior defensive linemen. The trenches and building a roster from the inside, out will always be part of Chris Ballard and Frank Reich's beliefs, so the betting odds say the defensive line will look even deeper coming into training camp in July.