Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar writes about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Indianapolis Colts linebacker Germaine Pratt, whose reunion with Lou Anarumo was just what the doctor ordered.
Well, you have to give the Las Vegas Raiders credit for trying to fix their defense under new head coach Pete Carroll and new general manager John Spytek in the 2025 preseason.
The Raiders’ new braintrust signed a ton of free agents to reinforce things on that side of the ball, and one of those free agents was former Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt, who signed a one-year, $4.26 million contract with $3.75 million guaranteed on June 12, soon after the Bengals released him. The idea was that Pratt, who had always been a versatile linebacker, would help a group that had been minimized by Robert Spillane’s departure to the New England Patriots.
It seemed to work, and people were excited about Pratt’s presence… for a while.
“I can’t reference last season, but I mean, Germaine, what he brings to us? He brings intelligence, he brings leadership qualities, the ability to communicate, and then he’s a big body that moves well. So, all that stuff is positive,” defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said on September 12, when asked what Pratt brought to the team that wasn’t there in 2024.
Pratt also seemed to be happy in his new environment.
“I mean, it’s been fun learning a new system,” Pratt said on August 12. “Obviously, I was in where I was at for six years, so it’s fun being around Maxx [Crosby] and a couple guys that’s in the linebacker room. A lot of guys that have experience playing football, so it’s been fun.”
Then, things got weird. Pratt played a grand total of four games for the Raiders, and while he wasn’t exactly the next Ray Lewis, he seemed to be transitioning well to his second NFL home. Then, in Week 5 when the Raiders traveled to Indianapolis to meet the Colts, Pratt didn’t go with the team (who lost 40-6 to the Colts), and said team released him the day after that October 5 game.
Carroll simply said that the team decided to go in a different direction. Graham seemed a little less sure.
“[We] love having good players around, and is what it is when we make decisions,” Graham said on October 9. “The linebacker position, it’s going to take all 11 out there. We’ll see who’s out there playing and things of that nature, but it’s going to take a good effort to replace a good player like that.”
Well, that would not be the first or the last seemingly impulsive decision the Raiders have made this season. Regardless, though Pratt didn’t travel to Indy to get his block knocked off along with the rest of the team, he was soon on a flight to that fine city. New Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo held that spot with the Bengals from 2019-2024, and since the Bengals took Pratt in the third round of the 2019 draft out of North Carolina State, there was an obvious familiarity. The Colts signed Pratt to a one-year, $1,846,154 contract, and set him loose in their defense.
“I think it’s huge,” Anarumo said on November 18 of Pratt’s addition. “Getting back into the swing of things with us. And he’s done a great job communicating to the group and playing well next to Zaire [Franklin]. And [I] think those guys have really done a good job inside and complementing each other very well.”
Five days after that, in a frustrating 23-20 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that certainly could have gone the other way several different times, Pratt validated every bit of the Colts’, and Anarumo’s faith in him. Pratt went on a heater the likes of which we’ve never seen from him before, totaling 17 (!) solo tackles, 10 stops, two tackles for loss, one pass breakup, and allowing just four catches on five targets for 30 yards.
“Yeah, I thought Pratt played a great game,” head coach Shane Steichen said after the Chiefs loss. “Some tackles for loss in the backfield. I mean, he was phenomenal. He was flying around the whole day, making plays. So, credit to him, [and] credit to the guys up front for creating those gaps for him to get through and make those tackles. But yeah, he was flying around. He had a hell of a game.”
A hell of a game that was lost by a single point in the final result, but Pratt’s ascent in recent weeks is an excellent example of the conundrum which happens when one team fails to realize what it has in a player, and another team will intelligently use prior understanding to know just how a guy will fit.
In a defense that is good enough to help the Colts make a deep playoff run, and has been fortified exponentially by the Sauce Gardner trade, what Germaine Pratt has done and can do should not be overlooked.
