Bernhard Raiman
 

I don't get see many colts games a question avid colts followers, have the colts found their left tackle or is he just good enough to get by?

Most experts say he is the guy. Only going to get better, barring catastrophic injury.

This year will be his 5th or 6th year of organized football at any level, and he's already an average-good starter at LT. The trajectory is only pointing upward.

His rookie years he finished as one of the best, if not the best, rookie tackle. I believe he has graded out as top ten since then. I would say they have hit a homerun.

IMO he was borderline great last year. He had his troubles with Trey Hendrickson last season. But that's understandable because almost every LT has that one guy that is their kryptonite.

For Tarik Glenn it was Jason Taylor. For Jonathon Ogden it was Dwight Freeney.
For Anthony Castonzo it was Robert Quinn.

He looks good on tape. Putting a number on OL is tricky in terms of stats or grades, but I typically see him ranked at top 7-10 for LTs. In terms of stats, probably the big one is 34 pressures out of 620 pass pro snaps for 5.8%.

Our OL in general played pretty damn good in '23 and is in a good place going into '24. The aggregate (off the top of my head) for grades was something like top-7/10 at LT, top-3 at LG, top-3/5 at C, and top-5/7 at RT. RG is our low man, but Fries still played pretty damn good, especially for a 7th rounder in his second year starting (competition with Goncalves is very interesting to me).

And I wish I could remember where I read these... but 1.) I saw a chart that showed Minshew was around bottom-5 for QBs being responsible for pressures. And 2.) another chart showed that only like 10 of the Colts 41 sacks last year fell solely on the OL.

I wouldn't overlook Bortolini either. I expect that Fries wins the RG spot, but at least there is now some healthy young competition for backup roles. We will have Bortolini, French, Pinter, Sills, Freeland, Witt and Congalves all competing for backup spots along with some other camp hopefuls. We aren't keeping 11 or even 9 OL...so it should be an interesting competition.

I do, too. Fries is low man on the line, but I think some people underestimate him. That said, Goncalves is huge, fiery dude. At the very least, he should be good depth for his first couple years while forcing Fries to work his ass off that much more to keep his job. If he outright wins it sooner that, great.

I'm looking forward to Bortolini as well... I'm just not in as big a hurry to move on from Kelly as some are. But he's that freak athlete mold like Raimann, Freeland, and Witt only less raw. I think we're in good shape.

Colts OL ranks 3rd in the NFL going into 2024 according to PFF.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2024-of...l-frank-ragnow


"3. INDIANAPOLIS COLTS
The Colts' offensive tackle duo is arguably the best in the league, as left tackle Bernhard Raimann and right tackle Braden Smith each finished among the seven highest-graded offensive tackles in 2023. Veteran Ryan Kelly put together the best season of his career as the highest-graded center in pass protection. Continuity is also on the Colts offensive line’s side, as all five starting offensive linemen return for 2024."

I saw a graphic that had them first.

https://www.stampedeblue.com/2024/7/...of-2024-season

Barring multiple injuries at OC Pinter won't (and shouldn't) make the team. Same probably goes for Witt at OT, although I suppose it's possible that w/ a full offseason he comes in and makes a huge leap.

My guess is we keep 9: current starting 5, Freeland, Congalves, Bortolini, and the last spot coming down to Sills or French. With Congalves, Bortolini, or French being able to play OG being a factor in the 9th OL spot.

Fries played really well last year. I thought not bringing in someone in the last offseason to at least compete w/ him was a big mistake, but Fries proved me wrong.

I thought Fries' meme brother French played well when filling in for Kelly as well. Although unless he can play OG he probably has an uphill battle to make the team.

I think fries was pretty fucking good last year. I don't see that dude getting beat out or getting worse.


raimann was very solid last year. I think he is our guy going forward.

Tony Sparano Jr deserves a lot of credit for turning the offensive line around.

he does but I think steichen and his scheme plays a big role as well