After a quiet rookie season, the Indianapolis Coltsneed defensive end Jaylahn Tuimoloau to take a big step forward in Year 2.
However, during Chris Ballard's post-cutdown day press conference, while the Colts may remain bullish on Tuimoloau's upside as a pass rusher, most of the GM's comments were focused on his special teams contributions.
"I think he's making good progression," said Ballard. "I thought practices were really good. They get gassed in game like these preseason games they can get gassed pretty quickly. You always got to keep that in mind. And he's playing on teams, every special team. So they get gassed. We think he's making really good progress. I mean, I think the other day he had the first two tackles on kickoff against Detroit.
And I know that doesn't speak to the rush, but we thought he did some really good things, both versus New England and Atlanta. We think he's making good strides."
Tuimoloau, a 2025 second-round pick, saw extended action in the preseason, but had little production. Over 59 pass rush snaps in the Colts' three preseason games, Tuimoloau logged two quarterback pressures, with no hits or sacks.
Entering the upcoming season, there are question marks around whether or not the Colts have enough pass rush juice at defensive end around Laiatu Latu. After Tuimoloau played just over 200 defensive snaps as a rookie, the hope was that he could give this defensive end rotation a boost this season.
Perhaps that ends up happening, but as of now, that remains an unknown.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Can former 2nd round draft pick give Colts boost they need on defense?
