{"id":680802,"date":"2026-01-16T03:04:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680802\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T03:04:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:04:32","slug":"how-did-indianapolis-colts-offensive-unit-compare-to-rest-of-the-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680802\/","title":{"rendered":"How did Indianapolis Colts’ offensive unit compare to rest of the NFL?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 15, 2026, 1:08 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis Colts<\/a> finished the 2025 NFL season with one of the best offensive line units in the game, according to Pro Football Focus.<\/a><\/p>\n

PFF compiled its final rankings of the season, and coming in at No. 2 were the Colts<\/a>. The Denver Broncos<\/a> were the only team ahead of Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

According to PFF’s data, Quenton Nelson was the fourth-ranked guard in football. Tanor Bortolini was one of the NFL’s “top breakout players” by PFF’s grading system.<\/p>\n

“Indianapolis replaced center\u00a0Ryan Kelly<\/a>\u00a0and guard\u00a0Will Fries<\/a>\u00a0with Tanor Bortolini and Matt Goncalves, respectively, and both played at a very high level in 2025,” wrote PFF’s Zoltan Buday.<\/p>\n

Without question, through the first half of the season, the Colts’ offensive line unit was operating at a high level. However, with the eye test, I don’t know that this was the second-best unit down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

From Week 12 on, Jonathan Taylor didn’t eclipse the 100-yard rushing mark. He had only one game during that span where he averaged at least 4.0 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

GM Chris Ballard even mentioned<\/a> during his end-of-season press conference that the offense has to “be able to run it, when we want to run it.”<\/p>\n

In pass protection, the Colts were steadier, ranking tied for ninth in pass-blocking efficiency throughout the season. In terms of pure pressure rate<\/a>, the Colts ranked ninth as well.<\/p>\n

The only free agent among the Colts’ starting five from last season is right tackle Braden Smith — although rookie Jalen Travis held his own at right tackle.<\/p>\n

The Colts likely go into the offseason with their starting five already on the roster, but Ballard must improve the overall depth and competition up front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 15, 2026, 1:08 p.m. ET The Indianapolis Colts finished the 2025 NFL season with one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95886,95903,95901,99453,95896,95888,95895,95899,96930,98126,95902,95883,97473,95881],"class_list":["post-680802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-accessfree","tag-colts","tag-football","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcolts","tag-sstsncolts","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagdenver-broncos","tag-tagindianapolis-colts","tag-tagjonathan-taylor","tag-tagmatt-goncalves","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagquenton-nelson","tag-tagryan-kelly","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtanor-bortolini","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115902563659314874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680802","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=680802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}