Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen indicated earlier this week that veteran linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither would wear the defense’s lone helmet transmitter, and thus, be denoted with the infamous green dot for rapidly communicating the defensive play-calling to his teammates on the field.
Having previously bestowed that honor to veteran safety Cam Bynum, it clearly didn’t work out during Sunday’s blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens, as the Colts defense clearly experienced numerous communication
issues pre-snap and resulting blown coverage assignments thereafter.
The Colts defense may have already been in for a long day going up against the likes of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry in Week 1—and an entire offseason for them to prepare, but that only made it longer.
The Colts had entered training camp with the notion that either rookie 2nd round linebacker CJ Allen or Bynum would don the green dot, but after Allen was limited throughout training camp with injuries and relegated to the 2nd-team defense, the nod ultimately went to the latter, which turned out to be a major mistake in hindsight.
Look, I get the Colts coaching staff’s rationale to some extent.
Longtime linebacker Zaire Franklin previously wore the green dot for the Indy defense. After he was traded to the Green Bay Packers this past offseason, the Colts didn’t have a clear and obvious answer at starting linebacker.
Davis-Gaither is a veteran, but it’s his first year with Indianapolis, and the thought is that he’s more of a stopgap than core starter going forward. It also wasn’t a guarantee that he’d be safely penciled into the starting lineup at linebacker—as he had to earn it, just like his defensive teammates. Bynum was locked in at starting safety.
The Colts ideally wanted Allen to stand out in training camp and preseason and also earn a starting job, and thus, the green dot outright, but that obviously didn’t happen. So instead, they bestowed the honor on Bynum, who’s already played a season in Indianapolis as part of Lou Anarumo’s defense and is considered a veteran leader in backend of their secondary and entire unit collectively.
There’s a few major issues I have though are as follows:
- No other NFL team in the entire NFL deploys a green dot on their starting safety, as it’s all linebackers. The Colts may have thought they were being a trendsetter, but sometimes you have to question if you’re the only one swimming in the deep end of the pool, maybe there’s good reason for it.
- The Colts had at least the preseason finale when their starters initially played to test out Bynum effectively donning the green dot for their defense. Maybe the Detroit Lions purposefully didn’t show them exotic offensive looks. After all, it’s only preseason, but did they notice it was an issue at all? Even from like a practical and logistics standpoint when Bynum had to run a mile back to the defensive huddle?
- Davis-Gaither is new to the Colts at a free agent signing this past offseason, but he also played under Anarumo previously as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals defense from 2020-24. It’s not a brand new defense out of the box by any means for him. Even in the short-term, it would’ve made sense for him to handle interim green dot duties, at least until either Allen or fellow rookie Bryce Boettcher got up to speed.
When shedding light on the precarious situation and rightfully being relieved of ‘green dot duty,’ Bynum seem rather relieved himself. While he didn’t directly throw the coaching staff under the bus, he clearly was more than comfortable with the team’s abrupt decision to transition the helmet transmitter assignment to Davis-Gaither instead:
“Yeah, there’s a few scenarios, where there’s a deep ball and I’m playing post safety, and you know I’m running to the ball, incomplete pass, and then I have to run back to the huddle,” said Bynum during Wednesday’s post-practice media availability. “I’m not saying it’s not possible, but there’s times where if the offense is on the ball quick, and I’m coming from afar, I’m running to the huddle listening to the call, and I’m trying to get it back.”
“So I think, like I said, I think it’s really good for a linebacker to do it, and I think it’ll help the defense also to play a lot better this week. . . . I think it’s a really good move to have Akeem do it, especially knowing that he’s a good veteran, and that he can do that part also.”
It’s not Bynum’s fault by any means. He was being a pro, and accepted the additional play-calling responsibilities as the coaching staff requested from him. It’s the Colts coaching staff’s for asking him to do it in the first place.
