Pro Football Network selected the most underrated player from each NFL team heading into the 2024 season. For the Indianapolis Colts, the site selected defensive end Samson Ebukam.
Ebukam joined the Colts during the 2023 offseason, signing a three-year, $24 million deal after spending the previous two seasons with San Francisco. He would go on to make an immediate impact in Indianapolis.
Ebukam set a career-high with 9.5 sacks, which also happened to be the most on the Colts team. His 48 pressures were the second-most among Colts, trailing only DeForest Buckner, while Ebukam also had the second-best run defense grade on the team and was the ninth-best in that category among all edge rushers.
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“I mean, just the way he gets off the ball and his physicality both in the run and the pass [defense] has been great to watch,” Dayo Odeyingbo said last season via the team site.
“I mean, we saw a lot of his play last year just through watching [his] film with San Fran because we run a similar scheme. So, watching him in San Fran and seeing him come here and do a lot of the same things and even improve has been really cool to see. So yeah, just learning from his physicality and his explosion off the ball.”
In addition to Ebukam’s overall production, he was consistently disruptive, ranking 21st among all members of his position group in pass-rush win rate and 17th in run-stop rate. Although it was one of Ebukam’s more productive years, where there is consistency, there is the ability to replicate such performances.
Along with Ebukam, the GM Chris Ballard has built a very deep group along the defensive line, giving them a hockey-like line rotation with eight or nine players they can rely on.
This will keep pass rushers fresh, wear down the defensive front over the course of a game, and allow defensive coordinator Gus Bradley to really mix and match as he plays matchups and puts each play in a position to be successful.
“We’re a D line that rotates,” said Dayo Odeyingbo via ESPN. “You look around the league and you look at the good D lines, they pretty much all rotate a lot. They have a lot of depth. So, that’s something that helps you be fresh and be ready to play a full 17-game season.
“As far as the sharing goes, I feel like we’re kind of used to it and it’s not really about counting reps. It’s more about making the reps count.”