When meeting with the media recently, Indianapolis Colts’ defensive end Samson Ebukam was asked about his early impressions of Lou Anarumo and his defensive scheme.
“He’s serious,” Ebukam said. “He’s very serious. He knows what he wants. He demands and we just gotta go out there and perform. If we perform it’s going to be good.”
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Under Anarumo, we are going to see a more aggressive and disguise-heavy defensive system, which up front, will include more movement to create favorable matchups for the defensive linemen to exploit.
Off the field, as Anarumo described during his introductory press conference, he is going to be a “truth-teller,” whether good, bad, or indifferent, and regardless of what kind of resume a player has put together over their career.
“It really just brings out the competitor inside of people because now nobody knows that’s a locked-down role for you, you never know,” said Ebukam. “He’s new, he’s trying to figure it out himself too. Just him being straight up with us, that’s all the respect. So now we just gotta go out there and perform and show what we can do.”
Last season, this was a Colts‘ defense that ranked 22nd in pressure rate and 26th in sacks.
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Having a more aggressive coverage scheme this season should limit the opponent’s ability to pick this defense apart with the quick game, which made getting after the quarterback much more difficult because the ball was out quickly.
In addition to that, with the coverage disguises helping to keep quarterbacks and offenses guessing, that can help create some additional time to get home as well.
“Everybody is a little bit more serious now,” Ebukam said. “Everybody is trying to make sure they’re on their A-game just so whenever the lights come on, everybody is ready to go.”
Ebukam missed the 2024 season with an Achilles injury but says he will be in a “great spot” by the end of OTAs.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Samson Ebukam on Lou Anarumo and Indianapolis Colts new-look defense