{"id":340938,"date":"2025-09-04T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/340938\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:08:10","slug":"espn-lists-surprising-x-factor-for-2025-colts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/340938\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN lists surprising \u2018X-Factor\u2019 for 2025 Colts"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak, the Indianapolis Colts have a surprising \u2018X-factor\u2019 for the upcoming 2025 regular season, 2nd-year center Tanor Bortolini<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts: C\u00a0Tanor Bortolini<\/p>\n

The quarterback position has dominated headlines in Indianapolis, but there\u2019s another, critical storyline to track: the offensive line.\u00a0Ryan Kelly\u00a0is not starting as the Colts\u2019 center for the first time since he was drafted in 2016. In his place is Bortolini, a 2024 fourth-round selection who played more than 300 snaps at center in relief of the injured Kelly a year ago.<\/p>\n

Bortolini looked pretty solid, but a new center is a new center \u2014 especially important when the quarterback is new, as well. We already saw a\u00a0major protection miscue\u00a0in the Colts\u2019 preseason with\u00a0Anthony Richardson Sr.\u00a0under center. When a young center takes the helm with a quarterback new to the system, as\u00a0Week 1 starter\u00a0Daniel Jones\u00a0is, it\u2019s easy for assignments to get missed in pass protection \u2014 and the running game can suffer the same errors.<\/p>\n

I liked what I saw on Bortolini\u2019s film, and his movement skills will shine on screens and perimeter runs. How high is his ceiling as an anchor in pass protection and pre-snap processor? It remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

For the first time since 2015, following longtime veteran center Ryan Kelly\u2019s expected departure in free agency, the Colts will have a presumed new fixture anchoring the middle of their revamped offensive line.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Originally a 2024 4th round pick of the Colts, Bortolini was selected an offseason ago with the expectation that he\u2019d be the \u2018center in waiting\u2019 behind Kelly, who was a pending 2025 free agent.<\/p>\n

While Bortolini was regarded as very polished, cerebral, and athletic coming out of Wisconsin, he largely got to be eased into his new starting role with Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

That being said, he was thrown into the fire a little earlier than anticipated, as Bortolini made 5 starts as a rookie this past season. He largely held his own, as per PFF, he earned a +65.1 overall grade.<\/p>\n

Bortolini being listed as the \u2018X-factor\u2019 here is a bit of a breath of fresh air, as it\u2019s seemingly been since demoted 3rd-year quarterback Anthony Richardson for the past two seasons. By all indications, the Colts have a pretty good young starting center in the fold again, but Bortolini will still have to prove it on the field full-time this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak, the Indianapolis Colts have a surprising \u2018X-factor\u2019 for the upcoming 2025 regular season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[1504,2005,2772,7,2004,392,2381,6,8316,2788],"class_list":{"0":"post-340938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-anthony-richardson","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-daniel-jones","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-indianapolis","13":"tag-indianapolis-colts","14":"tag-indianapoliscolts","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-ryan-kelly","17":"tag-tanor-bortolini"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115145952754880297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}