{"id":701944,"date":"2026-01-24T17:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/701944\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T17:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T17:13:11","slug":"colts-land-top-ranked-pass-rusher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/701944\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts land top ranked pass rusher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 24, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

It’s never too early to take a look ahead to the 2026 NFL draft. So, who did the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> select in a recent two-round mock draft?<\/p>\n

After acquiring Sauce Gardner at the NFL trade deadline, the Colts<\/a> are without a first-round pick this year. The first opportunity they will have to make a selection comes in Round 2 and pick No. 47 overall.<\/p>\n

Not having a first-round selection puts an added emphasis on GM Chris Ballard’s ability to find some immediate help on Day 2 and the early portion of Day 3 of the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

“It does put a premium on making sure those second, third, fourth round picks end up being really good,” Ballard said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, using PFF’s mock draft simulator<\/a>, who did the Colts come away with?<\/p>\n

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

In this mock, the Colts selected Missouri defensive end Zion Young.<\/p>\n

This pick, according to ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr<\/a>.’s big board, would be a tremendous value for the Colts. Young is the fourth-ranked defensive end on Kiper’s big board.<\/p>\n

Listed at 6-5 – 262, Young had a breakout year in 2025, recording 56 pressures and eight sacks. He also graded out as one of PFF’s better run defenders among his position group.<\/p>\n

As Ballard said during his end-of-season press conference, the Colts need “more fuel” up front. This unit struggled to get after the quarterback consistently last season.<\/p>\n

In addition to needing more production, Kwity Paye, Samson Ebukam, and Tyquan Lewis are all set to be free agents.<\/p>\n

Defensive end has to be a major priority this offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 24, 2026, 10:40 a.m. ET It’s never too early to take a look ahead to the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95892,95903,97373,95896,95888,95895,95899,97372,96176,95883,97375,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-701944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","16":"tag-sstsncolts","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagespn-inc","19":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","20":"tag-tagkwity-paye","21":"tag-tagnational-sports","22":"tag-tagnfl","23":"tag-tagnfl-hub","24":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","25":"tag-tagsamson-ebukam","26":"tag-tagsauce-gardner","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtyquan-lewis","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115951200259045614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701944","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=701944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}