{"id":937920,"date":"2026-07-06T04:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/937920\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:39:15","slug":"colts-preparing-for-all-new-starters-at-lb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/937920\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts Preparing For All New Starters At LB"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago, veterans Zaire Franklin<\/a> and Germaine Pratt<\/a> led the Colts\u2019 linebacking corps with safety Nick Cross<\/a> assisting with a good amount of time in the box. Today, Franklin resides in Green Bay as a result of a trade<\/a>, Cross is with the Commanders as a free agent addition<\/a>, and Pratt remains a free agent after the expiration of his one-year deal with the Colts. Indianapolis is now preparing to head into the 2026 season with all new starting linebackers and a good amount of youth on defense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>According to ESPN\u2019s Stephen Holder, second-round rookie CJ Allen<\/a> is expected to take over as the team\u2019s new starting middle linebacker<\/a>. The only linebackers returning in Indianapolis who saw any playing time in 2025 are Austin Ajiake<\/a>, an undrafted free agent from 2023, and Jaylon Carlies<\/a>, a fifth-round pick two years ago. Allen joins the Colts after a consensus All-American season at Georgia in which he tallied 88 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks. He\u2019s an excellent tackler, he\u2019s quick to diagnose plays, and he doesn\u2019t commit penalties.<\/p>\n

Allen wasn\u2019t the only rookie linebacker the Colts drafted. They also selected Oregon\u2019s Bryce Boettcher<\/a>, a former MLB draft pick, in the fourth round. At the moment, Boettcher also appears to be in line for an impact role, potentially even as another rookie starter. Boettcher was a tackling machine for the Ducks. Over his last two seasons with the team, he totaled a combined 230 total tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, and three sacks. Boettcher was expected to be an immediate contributor on special teams, but he may also end up being one the team\u2019s top options to start as a rookie.<\/p>\n

The only other player with a strong likelihood to start is veteran Akeem Davis-Gaither<\/a>. Davis-Gaither spent the first five years of his career in Cincinnati, starting only four games in his first four years and earning seven starts in his final year with the Bengals two years ago. He signed a two-year deal to join the Cardinals last year and started 13 of 17 games, leading the team in playing time at the linebacker position and tallying 117 total tackles. He stands to add some veteran experience to a very young linebacking corps.<\/p>\n

Holder pointed out that the youth does not end at linebacker. He reported that third-round safety A.J. Haulcy<\/a> has an early lead in a battle for the starting strong safety role. Holder added that second-year nickelback Justin Walley<\/a> and second-year defensive end JT Tuimoloau<\/a> are also expected to to be featured prominently on defense this year. The Colts\u2019 defense finished 21st in points allowed and 23rd in yards allowed last year, so there isn\u2019t much harm in hitting the reset button. It appears the team will embrace youth as they attempt to retool the unit starting this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year ago, veterans Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt led the Colts\u2019 linebacking corps with safety Nick Cross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[11036,7524,23243,94152,32203,2005,7,2977,2004,392,2381,5000,298,1008,6],"class_list":["post-937920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-a-j-haulcy","tag-akeem-davis-gaither","tag-austin-ajiake","tag-bryce-boettcher","tag-cj-allen","tag-colts","tag-football","tag-germaine-pratt","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-jaylon-carlies","tag-jt-tuimoloau","tag-justin-walley","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116871192119095380","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937920","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=937920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}