{"id":823665,"date":"2026-03-20T19:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/823665\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:26:14","slug":"how-free-agent-arden-key-can-impact-colts-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/823665\/","title":{"rendered":"How free agent Arden Key can impact Colts defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 20, 2026, 3:01 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Among the numerous additions that the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> have made in free agency, GM Chris Ballard boosted the defensive end depth by signing Arden Key.<\/p>\n

So what can Key add to the Colts<\/a>‘ defensive end unit?<\/p>\n

Last season, Key logged 33 pressures and ranked 77th in\u00a0PFF’s<\/a>\u00a0pass rush win rate metric and, for what it’s worth, graded out well in run defense grade.<\/p>\n

Key’s production has been steady, with him recording between 33 and 40 pressures in each of the last three seasons.\u00a0His most productive season came in 2022, when Key tallied 51 pressures.<\/p>\n

For a Colts team in search of more pass rush juice, Key’s ability to get off the ball quickly<\/a> can help accomplish that.<\/p>\n

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“Energy,” Key said about what he can bring to the team, via Colts.com<\/a>. “Great legendary guys that I’ve played with and everything that I’ve learned from them, I can teach to the young guys, and to the older guys as well.”<\/p>\n

Ideally, Key will fill a rotational role at the defensive end position, bolstering the depth and providing a more steady pass rush presence off the bench. He could very well slot into the role held by Samson Ebukam last season.<\/p>\n

However, out of all the additions made by the Colts, the team still hasn’t added that high-impact presence to pair with Laiatu Latu. So as of now, Key could find himself in a starting role, depending on what happens in the NFL draft and the development of JT Tuimoloau.<\/p>\n

“Everything they did last year,” Key said, “I mean if it wasn’t for injuries, we’d be talking a whole different story right now. They were very close and I felt like I definitely could come in and bring them over the hump.”<\/p>\n

Key signed a two-year, $20 million deal<\/a> to join the Colts after spending the last three seasons in Tennessee. This will be his ninth NFL season. He was a third-round pick by the 49ers in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 20, 2026, 3:01 p.m. ET Among the numerous additions that the Indianapolis Colts have made in free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95878,7,6,49915,95900,95882,98073,95903,95896,95888,95906,97372,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-823665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnflcolts","tag-sstsncolts","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagarden-key","tag-tagindianapolis-colts","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsamson-ebukam","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116263150516317215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823665","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=823665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}