From 1999 through 2018, the Indianapolis Colts were one of the NFL’s luckiest (pun intended) teams when it came to quarterback security. That Peyton Manning guy worked out pretty well, and the transition from the Manning era to the Andrew Luck era (with the Curtis Painter/Dan Orlovsky/Kerry Collins year of 2011 in-between) was about as seamless as anyone could have hoped.
Since Luck’s bombshell retirement announcement on August 24, 2019… well, that security is no longer secure. From 2019 through 2025,
only the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Football Team/Commanders/[YOUR NAME HERE] have gone through more starting quarterbacks. Even with the Daniel Jones signing last year that was a major win until it wasn’t, it’s been a tough row to hoe.
Jones is back on the roster with his two-year, $88 contract with $44 million guaranteed, and if Jones can replicate what he did in Shane Steichen’s offense in the first half of the season, all will be well in the Circle City. From Weeks 1-9, the Colts ranked first in Offensive DVOA, and everything was humming. Then, Jones regressed a bit, and was lost to a right Achilles tear and a fractured fibula in Week 13, and that was that.
The Colts were 8-2 before their Week 11 bye, and they didn’t win a single game after that. Which left the team at 8-9 for the second straight season, and Steichen with a 25-26 regular-season record over three full seasons.
“That’s not good enough, is the bottom line,” Steichen said at his end-of-season presser, when someone brought up that overall record, and Steichen’s 7-22 record against winning teams. “I’ve got to find the answers to that for sure because we’ve got to get over the hump; .500 is not good enough in this league. You’ve got to get over the hump. You’ve got to get your butt [going] in the postseason, and we’ve got to find ways to do that. Win the tight games, do a better job of that, putting the guys in position – training camp, practice, whatever it is, to get over that hump.”
If the Colts are to prove that they’re more than a paper tiger in 2026, they will need more than just Jones’ best — they’ll need that from everybody on the roster. The stars, obviously, but it will be crucial for underrated players to come up and prove why they deserve more praise.
To that end, I’ve identified three Hidden Gems for the 2026 Colts — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.
Underrated veteran: Center Tanor Bortolini
From 2016 through 2024, the Colts were also set at center, because when healthy, Ryan Kelly was one of the NFL’s best at that position. But when Kelly signed with the Minnesota Vikings before the 2025 season, Indy already had a replacement plan in place. They selected Wisconsin’s Tanor Bortolini with the 118th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2024 draft. This after Bortolini’s four high-quality seasons with the Badgers in which he allowed three sacks and 23 pressures over 962 pass-blocking reps, and a scouting combine where he REALLY put himself on the map.
If you went back to Bortolini’s tape after the combine, there was some formidable stuff there.
Bortolini had just 351 snaps in his rookie season around Kelly’s injuries, but when he was asked to take over the center position in 2025, he did so seamlessly — and did so snapping the ball to three different quarterbacks in Jones, Philip Rivers, and Riley Leonard. Anyone who knows how wild the variance can be in quarterback understanding of protection calls knows how tough that can be.
Regardless, Bortolini allowed no sacks, five quarterback hits, and 12 quarterback hurries in 2025, and the run-blocking was both calculated and nasty. The 6′ 4¼”, 303-pound Bortolini is just as happy forcing a defensive tackle to the ground with a cockroach block as he is executing two-level blocks to perfection.
He could be even better in 2026 and beyond.
“Tremendously — it’s grown a ton,” Bortolini said in late July, when asked how much his technique has improved under offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr. “I think it’s cool because, like, at the end of OTAs, it’s like, ‘You know what? I want to go look back and see, where did I start?’ So, I went back to the first OTA practice that I ever had here, and I was like, ‘Man, I suck. Like, I suck.’ I was like, ‘Wow.’ Looking back, I’m like, ‘What am I doing, man?’
“But you know, it’s obviously football. Especially offensive line play, I think is a very detailed game, and I think Tony does a great job. It’s not a one-size-fits-all game either. Q [Quenton Nelson] is going to have certain strengths that he does better than I do, and I’ll have ones that I do better than him. Tony does a good job at trying to put us in a position and allow us different techniques that allow us to showcase what we’re good at and kind of find a way to minimize the things you aren’t so good at.”
At this rate, finding things that Tanor Bortolini doesn’t do well could be quite a task.
Underrated free agent: EDGE Arden Key
Last season, 2024 first-round pick Laiatu Latu started to really live up to his draft capital with an 11-sack, 61-pressure season in which he looked like the EDGE1, and he did so without a lot of help. DeForest Buckner, Adetomiwa Adebawore, Kwity Paye, and Neville Gallimore all had four sacks to finish second on the defense, and nobody else on the team had more pressures than Paye’s 38.
Which is why general manager Chris Ballard gave veteran Arden Key a three-year, $21 million contract with $13 million guaranteed. Last season for the Tennessee Titans, Key had five sacks and 33 pressures in just 294 pass-rushing reps, and outside of Jeffery Simmons, he’s a guy who is used to getting those quarterback disruptions without a ton of help.
Key missed five games last season due to injury, and he turned 30 on May 3, so there are rotational/pitch count issues to think about. But at his best, Key can bring a ton of juice to Lou Anarumo’s defensive line, and he’s eager to be a mentor for the Colts’ younger edge-rushers.
“Yeah, I’m here to help them,” Key said in June of the group. “I’m here just to build with those guys. I’ve been training with Buck [DeForest Buckner] the last five years, and every year we just talk about, ‘What if we played together, what if we did this?’ Now, I’m actually here. So, I’m just here to capitalize on the opportunity to come in and help on the pass rush and stopping the run, because you got to stop the run in order to get to the passer.
“So, do those little things, and do it together.”
Underrated draft pick: LB Bryce Boettcher
Trading Zaire Franklin to the Green Bay Packers was a move that was more about Franklin’s contract than his performance, and the deal leaves Anarumo a bit light on the linebacker side. Ballard signed veteran Akeem Davis-Gaither to a one-year, $2.725 million contract, and drafted Georgia’s C.J. Allen in the second round, and Oregon’s Bryce Boettcher with the 135th overall pick in the fourth round.
Allen’s game is more well-known, but Boettcher is an interesting addition who can do a bit of everything. Last season for the Ducks, the 6’2”, 232-pound Boettcher had 94 solo tackles, 49 stops, five tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, and in coverage, he allowed 34 catches on 45 targets for 204 yards, 141 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 74.7.
So, what if the 2026 Colts sport two rookie linebackers as starters in 2026? Ballard has insisted that it’s not an automatic recipe for disaster, drawing on 2018, his second year as the Colts’ GM.
“Yeah, we’ve done it before,” Ballard said. “We did it back in ’18. We had [an] all-rookie group, as a matter of fact. Now Anthony Walker Jr., I think, was in Year 2, but that was a really, really young group. That’s going to be a fun group to watch, because they’ve all got talent.”
Ballard may be a bit confused about the player experience — Walker was indeed a second-year man, and Shaquille Leonard was a total badass who won Defensive Rookie of the Year — but the point remains. Anarumo and others have pointed to how well Boettcher is picking up the defense, and that he’s a “heavy-handed” player for a smaller, lighter ‘backer.
Given that his versatility is what the NFL wants out of its linebackers these days, it could be that Boettcher becomes an unexpected source of stability on that side of the ball.
