Chris Ballard’s Colts have spent years living in the middle - never quite bad enough to bottom out, never good enough to break through. But at right tackle, Indianapolis may have found another clean hit.
Jalen Travis is only in his second season and only has six career starts under his belt, but the early returns are loud. The Colts drafted him in the fourth round in 2024 out of Iowa State, and after Braden Smith left in free agency this offseason, Travis stepped into the opening and hasn’t looked overwhelmed by it. If anything, he’s made the job look natural.
That matters because Smith had been one of Ballard’s best offensive line finds, joining Quenton Nelson in 2018 to give the Colts a pair of cornerstone blockers on the left and right sides. Nelson arrived in the first round.
Smith came in the second. Travis, meanwhile, was picked more than 100 selections later than 2025 first-round tackles Armand Membou and Kelvin Banks, yet through two games this season he is graded higher than both, according to Pro Football Focus.
He’s also sitting 19th among all NFL tackles in PFF grades, ahead of names like Penei Sewell, Dion Dawkins and Kolton Miller. For a player drafted 11th among offensive tackles in his class, that’s a striking start.
The profile fits too. Travis checks in at just under 6-foot-8, weighs 339 pounds and has the kind of length teams dream about, with arms measuring almost 35 inches.
He also brings more movement than you’d expect from a body built like that, pairing a respectable short shuttle with a vertical jump that would not look out of place on a receiver. And he’s no project in the classroom either; he graduated from Princeton before finishing at Iowa State, where his degree is in anthropology.
All of that is nice. The real point is that he’s playing well.
Through two games, Travis has allowed two pressures and no sacks in 70 pass sets, and he has not been flagged once. Left tackle Bernhard Raimann, by comparison, has given up six pressures. Travis has been steady in pass protection and reliable in the run game, which is exactly what the Colts needed when Smith departed.
There’s a bigger test coming in Week 3, when Indianapolis hosts Will Anderson Jr., Danielle Hunter and the Houston Texans. Travis’ toughest outing last season came in Week 18 against Houston, when he gave up his only sack of the year and matched his season high with four pressures. That makes this week a useful measuring stick for how much he’s grown.
Tony Sparano, the Colts’ line coach, has already seen enough to be encouraged. “This is a tough, smart, physical dude that’s a better athlete than people give him credit for."
That kind of endorsement matters in a room where Quenton Nelson still sets the standard. And for a team that has had its share of roster issues, the offensive line has become a strength. Jalen Travis has slid into a major role without a hiccup, and right now he looks like one more draft win for Ballard.
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