The Indianapolis Colts must come away from the 2026 NFL Draft with serious linebacker help.
There's a position group for the Indianapolis Colts that has been begging for improvement for a couple of years now, and that's linebacker.
In 2024, there was legitimate hope that the duo of Zaire Franklin and E.J. Speed could be impactful, but they proved to be too similar players in the wrong ways. In 2025, the Colts hung their hat on Franklin and Jaylon Carlies, but Carlies has been injured more often than not, and Franklin regressed.
Now, Franklin has been traded away, and Carlies has to fight for any playing time he can get.
Nick Shook of NFL.com recently set out to assign each NFL team one goal they must nail in the upcoming 2026 NFL Draft, and, unsurprisingly, he said that addressing linebacker should be the Colts' biggest goal.
"The Colts don't have a first-round pick thanks to the Sauce Gardner trade, but they do have a need at the second level of their defense. Akeem Davis-Gaither arrives via free agency and is projected to line up alongside Austin Ajiake, a former undrafted free agent who played just 14 percent of their defensive snaps last season.
"The second round is a perfect place to find some linebacking talent (Jacob Rodriguez, Jake Golday) and it's is where GM Chris Ballard should zero in."
In 2025, just one Colts linebacker ranked among the team's 10 best defensive players, according to Pro Football Focus: Germaine Pratt, who ranked 10th.
Colts linebackers were responsible for just three direct takeaways, and Pratt had each of them. While Franklin forced a fumble that the Colts recovered, he had 13 combined forced fumbles/interceptions/pass breakups in 2024, compared to just six in 2025.
Now, Pratt is a free agent, and Franklin is a Green Bay Packer. Key backup Segun Olubi also left in free agency.
This is about as barren a position group as the Colts have had entering the draft in recent memory, so even they couldn't attempt to oversell it like they tried to last offseason.
Akeem Davis-Gaither is one of the more notable free agent signings the Colts have made, but he just became a full-time starter for the first time in his six-year career last year with the Arizona Cardinals, and received mixed reviews. The hope is that reuniting him with Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, whom he played for with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2020-24, will allow him to take another step.
Austin Ajiake would likely be the other starter, but the 157 defensive snaps he played last year were mostly out of circumstance, with the Colts' linebacker corps being as bad as it was.
Carlies has spent 21 of his first possible 34 games on the sidelines with injuries. As a rookie in 2024 under DC Gus Bradley, he received 242 defensive snaps and started six games. In 2025, with Anarumo, Carlies was falling down the depth chart before an ankle injury in training camp cost him about four months, and he played just two defensive snaps during the season versus 25 on special teams.
The Colts claimed John Bullock off waivers this offseason and signed Joseph Vaughn and Devin Veresuk to reserve/future contracts.
Bullock was an undrafted rookie for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2025 who played 253 snaps on special teams and just five on defense. Vaughn was also an undrafted rookie in 2025, but did not play, while Veresuk is an NFL rookie in 2026 who hails from the Canadian Football League.
The Colts have just two picks inside the top 100, with No. 47 in Round 2 and No. 78 in Round 3. However, the draft is rich in linebacker talent in that area.
Look out for players like Anthony Hill Jr., Jacob Rodriguez, Jake Golday, Josiah Trotter, and Kyle Louis to be on the Colts' radar on Day 2.