Feb. 6, 2026, 2:12 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Indianapolis Colts<\/a>\u00a0have to address the defensive tackle position this offseason. If they choose to do so in free agency, who are the top available options this offseason?<\/p>\n This is a position where the Colts<\/a> again need to bolster the depth behind DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, with Neville Gallimore a free agent, but it also wouldn’t be a bad idea to begin planning ahead for what might be in store at this position in 2027.<\/p>\n Next offseason, Buckner, Stewart, and Adetomiwa Adebawore are all set to be free agents<\/a>. Buckner is currently 33 and coming off a neck injury, while Stewart is 34.<\/p>\n During GM Chris Ballard’s end-of-season press conference, while not referencing the defensive tackle position specifically, he mentioned the need to get younger and faster on the defense as a whole. That could apply to this position group.<\/p>\n In addition to that, the Colts could use more pass-rush juice from the interior. Buckner missed most of the second half of the season and still led this unit in quarterback pressures, according to PFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Salary-cap-wise, the\u00a0Colts are positioned well<\/a>\u00a0to make a splash or two in free agency. We saw Ballard take a more aggressive approach last offseason, which paid off for the Colts, and he’s in a position to do that again.<\/p>\n With help from\u00a0Pro Football Focus’<\/a>\u00a0free agency big board, here are the top available players at defensive tackle.<\/p>\n 10 best available free agent defensive tackles for ColtsDJ Reader,\u00a0Lions<\/a>Calais Campbell, CardinalsDavid Onyemata, FalconsDaQuan Jones, BillsJohn Franklin-Myers, BroncosSebastian Joseph-Day, TitansSheldon Rankins, TexansDa’Shawn Hand, ChargersLevi Onwuzurike, Lions<\/a>Shelby Harris,\u00a0Browns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 6, 2026, 2:12 p.m. ET The\u00a0Indianapolis Colts\u00a0have to address the defensive tackle position this offseason. If they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,102813,95882,98069,95957,99157,97615,100560,98100,96242,100487,95903,98541,98246,95895,95899,106123,106124,98554,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-734778","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-tagadetomiwa-adebawore","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagcalais-campbell","20":"tag-tagcleveland-browns","21":"tag-tagdashawn-hand","22":"tag-tagdaquan-jones","23":"tag-tagdavid-onyemata","24":"tag-tagdeforest-buckner","25":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","26":"tag-taggrover-stewart","27":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","28":"tag-tagjohn-franklin-myers","29":"tag-tagneville-gallimore","30":"tag-tagnfl-hub","31":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","32":"tag-tagsebastian-joseph-day","33":"tag-tagshelby-harris","34":"tag-tagsheldon-rankins","35":"tag-tagsports-news","36":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734778","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=734778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}