Colts defense: 'A whole new culture being built'

Zak Keefer | IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption IndyStar Sports Day podcast: Colts head into a long break IndyStar's Zak Keefer and Stephen Holder discuss where the Indianapolis Colts stand as they head into a summer break. Training camp is next, at the end of the July.

INDIANAPOLIS – Al Woods sees it from the trenches. He’s new here — there is so much new here. What's he noticed?

“How hard they work,” the defensive tackle said. “They work they butts off here. And I’m happy to be here because I work my butt off, too.”

John Simon sees it from the middle. He’s a former Houston Texan, a member, last year, of the league’s top-ranked defense. Now he’s an Indianapolis Colt, part of a rebuilt and rebranded unit that’s coming off a season in which it finished two spots from the bottom of the NFL.

“We definitely have potential,” the linebacker noted, “but until we go out on the field and prove it, it doesn’t mean anything.”

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Matthias Farley sees it from the back end. He’s one of the few holdovers, offered a center fielder’s view of this defense’s 22 — 22! — newcomers. What does he see in front of him?



“A whole new culture that’s being built,” the safety declared.

At no time in the Chuck Pagano era, save his inaugural season in Indianapolis in 2012, when the Colts overhauled darn near the entire roster, has an offseason been met with such stark change around here. This team could field as many as 11 new starters come Week 1 — 13 if you count the specialists. What they’ve done over the past 2½ months, through weight sessions, film sessions, on-field work and one get-out-of-the-office paintball matinee, has gotten to know each other.

The 2017 Colts are beginning to become a team.

And what this week’s minicamp is starting to reveal: weaknesses that have dogged this squad for years — see: the defensive line — could become strengths. That unit, thanks to the considerable chunk of change the Colts dished out in free agency to bolster it, is suddenly flush with talent. Woods, Johnathan Hankins and Margus Hunt join a group that already includes incumbents Henry Anderson, Kendall Langford, David Parry and T.Y. McGill.

If all remain healthy, it could be the best defensive line the Colts have had since the Freeney and Mathis heyday.

“Everybody brings something different to the table,” Woods said of the unit. “You’ve got some guys that bring speed-to-power. Some guys that are pure speed. Some that are just power. That’s a deadly mix. It’s different — and it’s good.”

This is how Pagano summed it up this week: “We’ve gotten younger, and we’ve gotten healthier.”

He’s right. But have they gotten better?

Colts' Chuck Pagano says new GM Chris Ballard tells it like is whether you like it or not Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano says Chris Ballard, the Colts' general manager, is a good football man that knows his job inside and out.

That will reveal itself come September and October.

Consider the upheaval at the linebacker position — this is a unit that will very likely field four new starters this fall — and it’s evident which area of the defense first-year general manager Chris Ballard wanted to attack first. Welcome to town, Jabaal Sheard, John Simon, Barkevious Mingo, Sean Spence and Jon Bostic.

Central to this team’s offseason transformation is the infusion of youth. More than one Colts assistant coach has pointed out this spring that part of the payoff will come on the practice field, where in years past a number of defensive starters were routinely given days off. That list included Robert Mathis, D’Qwell Jackson, Mike Adams and Erik Walden — players who, the coaches pointed out, had over the course of their careers earned the right to take a rest day during the week.

But now, with younger players in their stead, the Colts will have more opportunity to build cohesion throughout the week.

Defensive coordinator Ted Monachino also noted this week that the Colts’ physical transformation was by design. They wanted to get bigger up front, so they did.

“We’ve got some guys that are more the rule than the exception around the league, where a year ago we maybe had a few more exceptions,” Monachino said. “We’re big where we need to be in there. We’re explosive where we need to be in there.”

Time will tell. Pagano has raved about Bostic this spring; Monachino seemed very high on rookie pass rusher Tarell Basham. In the back end, Farley has supplanted 2015 second-round pick T.J. Green as a starting safety — for the time being. With Clayton Geathers (neck) and rookie Malik Hooker (hip) still on the mend, it’s impossible to know who’ll be in the starting lineup come Week 1.

Save for a few exceptions, the same can be said for most of the defense. Pagano, for one, likes the uncertainty. Training camp will matter more than ever before.

The Colts’ sixth-year coach cut the minicamp short Thursday morning, canceling the team’s final practice. Players mingled in the parking lot before heading off toward summer vacation. Six weeks separate the Colts from the grind that is training camp.

“You can’t wait to get back, get to training camp and put the pads on and start playing real football, if you will,” Pagano said. “And see what you got.”

Roster moves

The Colts signed free agent running back Troymaine Pope and placed running back Christine Michael on injured reserve.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.