Three second-year Indianapolis Colts players were named to Pro Football Focus ‘All-Breakout Team’ for the 2025 NFL season.
PFF’s Bradley Locker recently selected one breakout player from each position group, and included on that list were Tanor Bortolini at center, Laiatu Latu at defensive end, and Jaylon Carlies at linebacker.
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Bortolini is competing with Danny Pinter for the starting center role, but very much held his own when called upon as a rookie. Bortolini appeared in eight games last season, including five starts, and surrendered no sacks and seven pressures over 211 pass-blocking snaps.
Among all centers, Bortolini ranked 15th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric and was 22nd out of 40 centers in run-blocking grade.
“I saw a young player that got better each time he went out there,” offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. said. “The game wasn’t too big for him. Athletically, he has a ton to offer in terms of what he’s able to do on the move, in terms of how he’s able to to mirror people in pass protection.”
With Latu, while his total production numbers won’t leap off the page–his 38 pressures ranked 50th–a sign of what’s to come is the consistency at which he won his reps.
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According to PFF’s tracking data, Latu ranked 27th among all defensive ends in pass rush win rate. When a player consistently wins his matchups, the production usually follows, not to mention that Latu should benefit greatly from playing in Lou Anarumo’s scheme.
“He does it the right way,” Shane Steichen said via the team site at the NFL annual meeting. “The way he works, his work ethic is tremendous. I think you’ll see a big jump from Year 1 to Year 2. I think he had four (sacks) his rookie year, if we can get into double digits in Year 2 that’d be tremendous.”
Lastly, Carlies figures to step into the starting role next to Zaire Franklin. Carlies played 242 snaps as a rookie, which included several starts. He proved to be a reliable tackler and sound in coverage during that span.
Carlies’ background as a college safety could make him an excellent fit for Anarumo’s disguise-heavy, coverage-oriented system. As GM Chris Ballard has described, the Colts view Carlies as an “ascending” player.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: 2025 All-Breakout team: 3 Indianapolis Colts’ players make PFF’s list