The Colts are about to finish the offseason with some post-draft free agency moves, marking the 10th offseason under Chris Ballard. The decade of Ballard’s management has been a wild rollercoaster ride, albeit not all of it due to Ballard himself. But after this Ballard decade, how does the Colts roster stack up from 2026 compared to 2016, the last year of the Grigson era?
In this position by position series, we breakdown each spot of the Colts roster to see if the Colts are better or worse than their
counterparts from a decade ago. If you want to find our previous entries of this series, you can find them below:
- Quarterbacks
- Running Backs
- Wide Receivers
- Tight Ends
- Offensive Tackles
- Offensive Guards
- Centers
- Edge Rushers
The series finishes up the trenches with DTs next!
2016 DTs: Kendall Langford, Zach Kerr, David Parry, Henry Anderson, Haason Ridgeway, TY McGill, Arthur Jones
2026 DTs: DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Adetomiwa Adebawore, Colby Wooden, Jerry Tillery, Derrick Nnadi
The 2016 DT room was not a position of strength, in part due to injury. Only Haasan Ridgeway and David Parry played all 16 games in the seasons with Langford missing 9 games, the late Arthur Jones missing 8 games, Henry Anderson missing 5 games, and TY McGill missing 11 games. All 7 DL each played 300+ snaps for the Colts in 2025.
With the 2016 Colts running a 3-4 base scheme, this meant a lot of shuffling on the front for the trio of hand in the dirt linemen across various alignments.
Overall the unit combined for:
- 71 Pressures (4.6% Pressure Rate)
- 22 QB Hits (1.4% Hit Rate)
- 10 Sacks (0.7% Sack Rate)
- 145 Tackles (89 Solo)
- 15 Tackles For Loss
The 2026 unit is meanwhile going through a lot of changes, as Neville Gallimore, Eric Johnson II, and Chris Wormley are out as depth linemen but the Colts have added Colby Wooden (via the Zaire Franklin trade with the Green Bay Packers), and former Kansas City Chiefs Defensive Tackles Jerry Tillery and Derrick Nnadi.
And to top it all off, this could be the last year of the dynamic duo of DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart starting for the Colts since 2020. The two are entering their age 32 and 33 seasons respectively, and Buckner is coming off of a major neck injury. Clock is ticking on both of their times in the NFL and with the Colts, which could make 2026 the last chance to try to develop successors in house before one or both of them depart in Free Agency or retire.
Ultimately this group produced around the NFL in 2025:
- 117 Pressures (7.1% Pressure Rate)
- 22 QB Hits (1.3% Hit Rate)
- 10 Sacks (0.6% Sack Rate)
- 224 Tackles (111 Solo)
- 37 Tackles For Loss
Of the Colts backups, there is plenty to note about the depth of this unit as the Colts prepare for post Buckner and Stewart life in the middle of their defense.
Colby Wooden was used as a Nose Tackle in 2025 for the Packers, starting 16 games for them. Wooden is at 273 lbs, which is 1st percentile among all Defensive Tackles, let alone the typically massive space eating Nose Tackles. Despite what should’ve been a terrible spot for him size wise, Wooden led the Packers Defensive Linemen in Tackles, Solo Tackles, and was 3rd in Tackles for Loss behind only Micah Parsons and Rashan Gary. Expect him to slide back into 3 Technique behind DeForest Buckner and compete with Adetomiwa Adebawore for snaps in the rotation.
Derrick Nnadi has started 98 games for the Kansas City Chiefs Defense over the past 8 years, predominantly with strong Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo at the helm. The former 3rd Round pick carved quite a career as a block eater for the Chiefs, helping free up their linebackers to make tackles, pushing the interior of the line to demand double teams, and helping free up pass rushers from getting chipped by Guards.
He was never the best player on the Chiefs Defense, but they kept him around for so long for a reason. He will now be the top backup Nose Tackle behind Grover Stewart.
Adetomiwa Adebawore was admittedly a big draft crush of mine in 2023. Similar to the aforementioned Wooden, Adebawore was at times strangely miscast in college at Northwestern as a Nose Tackle despite being an undersized DT (5th percentile weight at 282 lbs for NFL DTs). Despite this role, he was fairly productive throughout his career at Northwestern, and developed in a strong pass rusher despite his raw technique and questionable role usage. Being one of the freakiest athletes in combine history certainly didn’t hurt, especially with his insane burst shown in agility drills, explosive testing, and his 10 yard split in the 40 yard dash showing his extremely quick get off on tape was no mirage.
In 2025 Adebawore had a breakout, getting 4 sacks and 34 pressures in just 359 pass rush snaps. There was a stretch in the middle of the season where he was top 20 among DTs in win rate and pressures. The 25 year old still is growing and could be hitting a prime as a potential successor to Buckner as a pass rushing 3 Technique.
Advantage: 2026 Colts Defensive Tackles
Both units employ a deep rotation of Defensive Tackles, but the 2016 unit did so due to injury rather than depth. The 2026 unit has the better starters, with a healthy Buckner proving to be a top 10 and Pro Bowl level talent at his position for nearly a decade and Grover Stewart being long regarded as one of the better Nose Tackles/1 Techniques in the NFL. While there is a fascinating depth of both units, the 2026 unit has legitimate starting caliber players (Wooden and Nnadi) on good defenses now as backups on top of the best backup pass rushing DT of the two units in Adetomiwa Adebawore.
Should the Colts interior Defensive Linemen stay healthy, this could be a blowout victory for the 2026 unit. If not, then it might be more c
