INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — At 31 years old and now in his 10th NFL season, Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner is still having fun playing football.
Winning — the Colts rolled the Miami Dolphins, 33-8, last Sunday — and playing in a new scheme for coordinator Lou Anarumo, which is giving Buckner interesting tasks, will do that for a player who has remained patient with a franchise that hasn't rewarded him with much success to this point.
On Sunday, Buckner played 33 snaps on defense (69% of the Colts' total defensive snaps), lining up 20 times inside, another 11 on the edge, and once at nose tackle. Buckner rushed the passer 22 times, defended the run nine times, and even dropped into coverage once. The play after he did it, fellow defensive lineman Laiatu Latu came up with an interception.
"Oh, yeah. It's a lot of fun," Buckner said of being moved around and not sticking to the traditional roles of a hand-down three-technique defensive tackle. "You know, to move me to different positions around the D line. Some things that I did early in my career, so teams can't really just key on me and just focusing on me like, 'Oh, he's going to be here on third down or first or second down.' So, it's a lot of fun."
The Colts' defense throwing exotic and ever-changing looks at the Dolphins offense had them in peril throughout the afternoon. Miami generated just 211 yards of offense while also turning the ball over three times.
"I feel like we did really the best I've seen in a long time, since we've been here, of just playing great complementary football," Buckner said about the ability for the Colts' offense and defense to play off of each other. "Defense gets a turnover and the offense goes out there and executes and, on all seven drives and comes up with points. That's what you want to see. That's why you love to play the game."
So far, Buckner believes in what he's seeing from Anarumo as a coach and playcaller. Sunday was a great example of the Colts coming into the game with a great gameplan, making the correct, instinctive play calls throughout a game, and the players executing the plan.
"Oh yeah, man. It's a lot of fun. I mean, going out there knowing that every call is being executed at a high level," Buckner commented. "He's (Anarumo) got a good feel for the game and not just waiting to determine something. I feel like there's times where throughout the game where he's dictating them to check to certain plays that we know they're going to check to. You know what I mean? He's anticipating and putting us in position to make plays."
The Colts have one more day of practice on Friday before hosting the Denver Broncos at Lucas Oil Stadium for their Week 2 matchup this Sunday at 4:05 p.m. ET.
Jake Arthur has been covering the Indianapolis Colts for over a dozen years and is a member of the PFWA. He's one half of the Locked On Colts podcast and has worked for the Colts' official website, On SI, and more. You can follow him on X @JakeArthurNFL.