The Indianapolis Colts addressed many of their needs during the 2020 NFL draft and while many believed the defensive end position to be one of them, general manager Chris Ballard thought otherwise.

Related Remaining needs for the Colts after the NFL draft

Throughout their nine selections, the Colts didn’t use a single pick on an edge player to add to the room. That’s because Ballard and Co. believe in the talent they already have in the room even with the departure of veteran Jabaal Sheard.

“We’ve still got (Kemoko) Turay. We’ve still got (Ben) Banogu. It’s a good group. We’ve still got Tyquan (Lewis). I like our front. We’ve got young players and they’ve got to come on. We drafted them for a reason. Let’s see them play and come on,” Ballard said after the draft. “All of them have played pretty good football in spurts. Now we’ve got to get them to do it a little more consistently. We like their talent and we like our defensive line. We think we’ve got a good group.”

On the edge, the starters are likely going to be Justin Houston and Kemoko Turay. It is likely that Al-Quadin Muhammad works in as a rotational piece while the hope is that Ben Banogu shows growth in his game in Year 2.

It will also be interesting to see if the Colts will use both Denico Autry and Tyquan Lewis—two primary defensive tackles—on the edge. When both were acquired, the Colts talked about their ability to also play on the edge, but they’ve stayed mostly on the inside.

The Colts have a long way to go before the depth chart and 53-man roster are assembled, but it seems they have a lot of confidence in the group right now.