The Indianapolis Colts have spent the offseason trying to patch holes on defense while also keeping enough experienced bodies around to survive the grind of a long season. They retained Alec Pierce and Daniel Jones, did solid work in the NFL Draft without a first-round pick, and now face the same reality plenty of teams do in this part of the calendar: rookies can help, but you can’t ask them to carry everything.
That’s why a few players who looked like long shots at first glance may actually have a real path to sticking on the 53-man roster.
Jonathan Owens is the easiest one to overlook. He’s on a one-year deal with less than $200K guaranteed, which usually screams roster casualty.
But the Colts didn’t bring him in for nothing, and the safety picture isn’t as settled as it might seem. Cam Bynum is locked in as a starter, and the team used a third-round pick on LSU’s A.J.
Haulcy in the 2025 NFL Draft. Daniel Thomas is also in the mix.
Even so, Haulcy is still a rookie, and the source material notes that he drew mixed reviews in a safety-heavy class because of poor tackling technique. Owens may not be a shutdown presence, but he offers something the Colts can use: experience at a spot where the depth may be thinner than it appears.
Easton Stick also has a better shot than many fans might think. Anthony Richardson is expected to be gone by Week 1, with the possibility of a trade or release hanging over his future.
That situation helps Stick’s case immediately. Riley Leonard got some late-season run last year and looks like the favorite to back up Daniel Jones, but the Colts are still likely to carry three quarterbacks, especially with their injury history.
Stick, a former fifth-round pick from North Dakota State, has been around the league since 2019 and has logged 1,133 passing yards, three touchdowns and one interception across six appearances, including four starts.
Then there’s Derrick Nnadi, a name that doesn’t jump off the page anymore the way it once did. He was once viewed as a strong run defender, but that reputation has faded, and last season he was barely a rotational piece for a Chiefs defense that struggled to pressure the quarterback.
Still, the Colts may value him anyway. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is known to lean toward system fit, and Indianapolis is thin enough up front that it can’t afford to be picky.
Grover Stewart is 33, Colby Wooden is another newcomer, and DeForest Buckner’s health could be a concern all season. With that kind of uncertainty, Nnadi may end up being more useful than many expected.
In Other News...
Colts Enter Camp With One Injury Problem Fans Feared Most
Training camp opens July 29 with the Colts carrying more injury questions than they would like at this stage of the summer. Daniel Jones is working back from an Achilles tendon tear, DeForest Buckner is returning from neck surgery, and Charvarius Ward is also managing a back issue, leaving Indianapolis with several important players still trying to get fully right before the real ramp-up begins.
Alec Pierce adds another layer to the concern. The wideout is recovering from ankle surgery and has not yet resumed football activities, which makes his early-camp status worth watching closely as the Colts sort through their health picture. For a team that needs stability as camp starts, the biggest issue may be simply getting enough of its core pieces on the field at the same time. [Read more 🡒]
Colts Fans Just Got An Uncomfortable Ranking Of Their Top Trade Assets
Every offseason trade-deadline conversation eventually turns into a cold-eyed inventory of what a team could actually get back for its best players, and the Colts are no exception. A recent valuation exercise looked at Laiatu Latu, Quenton Nelson, Jonathan Taylor and Tyler Warren through the usual lenses of age, production, contract control and positional value, then tried to put a market price on each one.
The exercise is useful precisely because it underscores the downside: moving any of those names would almost certainly leave Indianapolis worse off on the field. Latus pass-rush upside, Nelsons quality at a low-value position, Taylors still-real appeal and Warrens long-term promise all make them intriguing assets in theory, but the kind of return they could command is only part of the story. The harder question for the Colts is whether any short-term gain would be worth giving up core talent that still matters to the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Colts Camp Opens With Ballard And Steichen Under Real Pressure
The Colts are heading into camp with the kind of cautious optimism that usually comes only after a messy year and a quiet offseason. The biggest moves were internal, with Daniel Jones back on a two-year deal and Alec Pierce re-signed, while the front office largely bet on continuity instead of chasing splashy outside additions. That leaves Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen at the center of everything, because this season is going to be judged less by what they said in the spring than by whether the roster can finally hold together long enough to matter.
Bleacher Reports one-word read on the mood was wishful, which fits a team that still sees a path forward but knows how narrow it is. The Colts have enough talent and enough reasons to believe, but they also enter camp with several key players working back from injury and the kind of pressure that follows when expectations keep outrunning results. For Ballard and Steichen, the margin for error is thin, and the early weeks of camp will say plenty about whether this is a real reset or just another hopeful start. [Read more 🡒]