Colts defensive lineman DeForest Buckner wasn’t shy about sharing his feelings about the team’s defense at the end of the 2024 season.
Buckner said that “everybody needs to check their egos at the door” because the unit played as a “bunch of individuals” rather than a cohesive group. Buckner didn’t call for a change to the coaching staff, but the Colts made one by firing Gus Bradley and hiring Lou Anarumo as the team’s new defensive coordinator.
On Wednesday, Buckner said there’s “been good stuff” to learn as Anarumo installs the defense and that the off-field work on fixing his previous complaints has been a step in the right direction.
“We had some great conversations just about the mindset and how we are going to move forward as a defense and wanting to be one of the top defenses in the league,’’ Buckner said, via Mike Chappell of Fox 59.
The Colts’ quarterback competition has dominated conversation around the team this offseason, but revisiting Buckner’s January comments is a reminder that any positives on offense will be worth a lot less if the defense can’t turn the page from last year.
One of the Colts’ key defenders is set to make his return.
Via multiple reporters, edge rusher Samson Ebukam said on Wednesday that he will be cleared for training camp after suffering a torn Achilles last year.
Ebukam, 29, signed with Indianapolis in 2023 and registered a team-leading 9.5 sacks in his first year with the club. He also finished with 10 tackles for loss and 17 quarterback hits.
But last July, Ebukam suffered a torn Achilles that kept him sidelined for the entire 2024 season.
A Rams fourth-round pick in 2017, Ebukam has posted 33.0 sacks with 38 tackles for loss and 69 quarterback hits in 113 games for Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Indianapolis.
The Colts have added a linebacker who has experience playing under their new defensive coordinator.
Indianapolis announced on Wednesday that the club has signed free agent Joe Bachie.
Bachie, 27, spent the last four seasons with Cincinnati with now-Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo.
He was primarily a special teams contributor for the Bengals, on the field for about 66 percent of the unit’s snaps in games played over the past two years. But back in 2021, Bachie did start two games for Cincinnati.
Bachie has played a total of 51 games with two starts for Philadelphia and Cincinnati since 2020.
Before edge rusher Abdul Carter got a real call from the Giants that would make him the third overall pick in the 2025 draft, he got a fake call telling him the Jaguars were taking him at No. 2.
Carter’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com about the phony phone call.
“It’s unfortunate that these private numbers are getting to the people making the prank calls,” Rosenhaus told Schefter. “Abdul and I knew it was BS and didn’t even tell his family about the call.”
Not every prank call necessarily traces to an NFL team. It’s unclear whether the NFL will be able to prove that any of the other prank calls started with someone from one of the teams disclosing confidential information.
Schefter reports that the league continues to investigate other prank calls. At least two other first-round picks — Colts tight end Tyler Warren and Commanders offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. — received them. Another player got a call after being drafted; the caller said he had been traded.
It happened last year, too. Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean was pranked.
By next year, it likely won’t be happening. The league will (or should) tighten up its procedures. And the players will be more leery about the possibility that the call isn’t real.
To those who ask, “wHy aREn’T yOu TaLKinG aBoUt oThER pLaYeRs wHo wERe pRaNk CaLleD?” We have, and we will.
Commanders first-round tackle Josh Conerly Jr., the 29th overall pick in round one, told 106.7 the Fan on Tuesday that he was on the wrong end of a Jerky Boys skit during the first night of the draft,
“I got one prank call,” Conerly said. “It was somebody in Colorado acting like they were the Broncos. Mine wasn’t as bad and as cruel as some of the other ones.”
The Shedeur Sanders prank call has gotten the most attention, because Sanders has gotten more attention than any other player in the draft — and because the prank call happened when Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich allowed his son to see Sanders’s number on an “open iPad.”
Colts tight end Tyler Warren also received a prank call, as did another player who was called roughly 30 minutes after he was drafted. He was told he’d been traded.
While the Sanders prank traced to a team, other players could be pranked by folks who already have their numbers. That’s why the best alternative could be to ditch phone calls and use FaceTime.
Like his two uncles before him, Arch Manning may be a first overall pick in the NFL draft.
Manning is currently the betting favorite to go first overall in 2026, with +200 odds at DraftKings.
If he does go first overall, he’ll follow in the footsteps of Uncle Peyton (first overall pick in 1998) and Uncle Eli (first overall pick in 2004). Arch’s grandfather Archie Manning was the second overall pick in the 1971 NFL draft.
It may be premature to hype Arch Manning up as a future first overall pick, given that he has started only two games at Texas. Manning’s name recognition is a big reason he’s a favorite a year before the next draft.
But he’s at least an intriguing prospect, and next year could be a draft in which several teams are hoping for a first-round quarterback. It could also be a year when teams are looking to package picks to move up to take a quarterback first overall, and that could be an advantage for the Browns, who perpetually need a quarterback, and for the Rams, who may need to move on from Matthew Stafford next year. Both the Browns and Rams have two first-round picks in 2026.
The Colts, Giants and Saints, three teams closely tied to the Manning family, all could be in the quarterback market next year as well.
Other potential No. 1 overall picks in 2026 include Penn State quarterback Drew Allar (+250 odds), LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (+500), South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers (+900) and Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik (+1800).
The Commanders are swapping out one kicker for another.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Washington is signing Matt Gay to a one-year deal and releasing Zane Gonzalez.
Gay, 31, was recently released by the Colts. He played the last two seasons for Indianapolis, connecting on 82.1 percent of his field goals for the club over that span. In 2024, Gonzalez was 31-of-37 on his field goal attempts, with all six of his misses coming from at least 50 yards out. He made all 33 of his extra points.
Gonzalez joined Washington midway through the 2024 season after not kicking in a regular-season game since 2021. He connected on 5-of-7 field goals and 19-of-19 extra points in the regular season, plus 7-of-8 field goals and 8-of-8 extra points in three postseason games.
Pelissero notes Gay’s contract is worth over $4.25 million, with the most fully guaranteed money for a kicker on a one-year deal in league history. Gay has made 85.5 percent of his career field goals for the Buccaneers, Rams, and Colts in 90 games.
The first round of the draft unfolded ideally for the Colts, who had tight end Tyler Warren fall into their lap at No. 14 overall.
Warren excelled at Penn State, playing a variety of roles on the team’s offense. He won the John Mackey award as the nation’s best tight end in 2024, also helping the program reach the College Football Playoff.
On Sunday, Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen called Warren “a guy who can do it all.”
“He can catch. He can run. He can throw. I mean … we might play him on defense. I don’t know,” Steichen said in his press conference, via transcript from the team. “The thing that is crazy, they talk about [John] Riggins, him growing up watching him — I mean, that’s how he freaking plays. When he’s got the ball in his hands, this guy is physical, run after catch, he’ll lay the wood on you, hurdle you. It’s going to bring a lot to our football team for sure.”
Steichen added that Warren’s presence will have a “huge” impact on the quarterback.
“You’ve got a target that big with that size. He plays above the rim, you know what I mean? Sometimes, when guys are on him, he’s still open,” Steichen said. “I know with the Chargers — just an example, I’m not saying we’re here yet — we had an [Antonio] Gates rule. Like, ‘Hey, you’ve got him 1-on-1? You throw him the dang ball.’
“Obviously, it will be exciting to see when he gets in here and see him compete. It will be fun.”
The Colts envision Warren being someone they can move all over formations.
“If he’s in-line, he can block,” Steichen said. “Like I said, he can do it all. You can split him out wide. They threw him middle screens, you know? Just get the ball in his hands however you can.”
In 2024 at Penn State, Warren caught 104 passes for 1,233 yards with eight touchdowns and rushed 26 times for 218 yards with four TDs.
And then there were three.
Per a league source, a third prospect received a prank call during the 2025 draft.
Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Colts tight end Tyler Warren received fake calls telling them they were being drafted before they were. Another player received a phony call 30 minutes after being drafted. The caller said the player was being traded.
It’s unclear whether others were pranked. The NFL is investigating. There’s plenty of stuff on social media about who may have done it. The NFL surely will use that as the starting point for getting to the bottom of it.
As we understand it, and without naming names (at this point), it’s believed that someone got access to the email account of someone who had the phone numbers for the draft prospects. Whether and to what extent that creates an employment problem for whoever failed to secure the information remains to be seen.
Shedeur Sanders apparently isn’t the only prospect who got punked during the draft.
Via Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports, tight end Tyler Warren received a prank call when the Jets were on the clock with the seventh overall pick, on Thursday night. (Warren was eventually picked by the Colts, at No. 14.)
Per the report, Warren’s camp believes that the call came from the same area code or number that was used to prank-call Sanders the next day.
As PFT first reported earlier today, the NFL is looking into the prank call made to Shedeur Sanders. If these phones are sent straight to the players by the league and if only the league and the teams have the numbers, someone is doing something that makes the NFL look very bad.
