Indianapolis Colts' linebackers near the bottom of PFF's 2025 rankings
The Indianapolis Colts' linebacker unit ranks near the bottom of Pro Football Focus' rankings ahead of the 2025 NFL season.
PFF's Dalton Wasserman recently ranked all 32 linebacker units, and coming in at No. 31--just ahead of the Tennessee Titans--were the Colts.
"The Colts' linebacker unit consists of one constant, Zaire Franklin, and a ton of variables. Franklin is a tackling machine who has posted identical 60.9 PFF overall grades in each of the past two seasons. For the moment, Jaylon Carlies is expected to start alongside Franklin, but he played just 242 snaps in his rookie season."
As Wasserman noted, there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to the linebacker room, and a lot of that stems from the overall lack of experience. After Zaire Franklin, Jaylon Carlies and his 242 career defensive snaps makes him the next most experienced player at this position.
Beyond Franklin and Carlies on the depth chart is Joe Bachie, who played under Lou Anarumo in Cincinnati, Segun Olubi, and Cameron McGrone. All three have been core special teams contributors in their careers.
While on the outside, there are obvious questions around this unit, internally, the Colts are very bullish on Carlies, who was a sound tackler and held opponents to just 6.0 yards per catch in 2024, and as GM Chris Ballard noted earlier this offseason, Indianapolis has a strong track record of developing this position.
'We've had a lot of success at linebacker, I believe, with drafting and players we've brought in that we think can ascend,' Ballard said, via the Indy Star. 'We think (Jaylon Carlies) can really ascend.'
One reason for optimism when it comes to the Colts' linebacker unit is Anaruom's defensive scheme and how he deploys this position group. With Carlies--a former college safety--bringing an added coverage element to the position, that could free up Franklin to play closer to the line of scrimmage more often, which is where he's at his best.
In addition to that, while Carlies is inexperienced, he seems to be a very good fit for this new defense because of that coverage presence. Under Anarumo, there will be an emphasis on having coverage defenders on the field, especially on third downs in what Anarumo called a "matchup league."
The more disguise-heavy scheme in the secondary can also create hesitation and keep an offense off balance, helping to put the linebackers in advantageous situations.
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