Braden Smith absences became an issue in Indianapolis in recent years, but the Colts had used the same primary right tackle for the past eight seasons. As they did when Ryan Kelly left as a 2025 free agent, the Colts will need to replace a long-running O-line starter.
Indianapolis promoted from within to fill Kelly’s post, inserting Tanor Bortolini into their lineup to start his second season. A similar plan exists post-Smith. The Texans gave Smith a two-year, $20MM contract that includes $13.5MM guaranteed at signing. The Colts are not looking to, as of now at least, to add a veteran. Instead, Fox59’s Mike Chappell notes second-year blocker Jalen Travis moving into the lineup at RT will be the goal.
The Colts drafted Travis in the 2025 fourth round, furthering the similarities between the Kelly succession plan and the one hatched to replace Smith. Indy added Bortolini in the 2024 fourth round and turned to him as a starter during Kelly injury absences that year. Travis played sparingly as a rookie before starting the final four Colts games, bringing a near-21-year age gap between center and quarterback when he snapped to Philip Rivers in three of those contests.
Transferring from Princeton to Iowa State, Travis played left tackle during his season with the Cyclones. He also worked on the blind side in his final season at the Ivy League program. Travis logged 61 LT snaps and 247 RT snaps as a Colts rookie. While he did not play enough to qualify as a regular, Pro Football Focus viewed the Day 3 draftee’s work favorably (via 72.2 grade that would have been good enough for 32nd among tackles).
Indy turned to two second-year blockers in 2025 — Bortolini and Matt Goncalves — as Will Fries also departed in free agency. Goncalves is a converted tackle, and Chappell adds he could be shifted back to the outside in the event Travis is not ready. That would leave a hole at right guard, where Goncalves played 949 snaps last season. For now, however, the Colts are planning to go with a rather tall right side of the O-line by aligning the 6-foot-6 Goncalves and the 6-8 Travis alongside one another.
The Colts also lost safety starter Nick Cross in free agency. This was to be expected, as the AFC South club has devoted considerable resources to strengthening its secondary in recent years. After authorizing a $10MM-per-year deal for Kenny Moore, the Colts won bidding wars for Charvarius Ward (three years, $54MM) and Camryn Bynum (4/60) in free agency last year. They then agreed on a trade that sent Sauce Gardner‘s four-year, $120.4MM extension over from New York. This spree of investments made it unrealistic Cross — a two-year starter — would stay. The Commanders signed Cross to a two-year, $13MM pact.
Indianapolis gave Jonathan Owens and Juanyeh Thomas low-cost deals, with Chappell indicating a competition is coming to fill Cross’ role. But each of the Colts’ top three decisionmakers — Carlie Irsay-Gordon, Chris Ballard, Shane Steichen — brought up 2025 seventh-round pick Hunter Wohler recently, per the Indianapolis Star’s Joel Erickson, pointing to the Wisconsin alum having a real shot to make a big leap. Wohler joined fellow Colts 2025 DB draftee Justin Walley in missing all of last season due to a summer injury; Wohler went down with a Lisfranc issue, landing on IR in mid-August.
Wohler earned first-team All-Big Ten acclaim in 2023, making 120 tackles (5.5 for loss) and snaring two interceptions. Known a bit more for his Simone Biles marriage, Owens has been a spot starter for a while. The 30-year-old safety has made 35 career starts, including 17 for the Texans in 2022 and 16 for the Packers and Bears over the ensuing two seasons. Thomas, 25, has made four career starts. Dallas nontendered him as an RFA in March.
It would stand to reason the Colts would prefer Wohler, drafted to develop in Lou Anarumo‘s scheme last year, to commandeer the starting role. But this year’s draft will obviously be a place to monitor with regards to a Cross replacement as well.