WESTFIELD — There have already been a few times in Colts training camp when coordinator Lou Anarumo’s vision for the defense is clear.
Like the practice period where Charvarius Ward and Sauce Gardner each broke up passes in a span of just four plays.
There are other periods where their impact is more felt than seen. Bursts of action where Daniel Jones keeps firing over the middle and checking it down short instead of pushing the ball down the field on the outside.
If the Indianapolis defense is going to take a big step under Anarumo’s direction in his second season, the Colts are likely going to do it from back to front, relying on the cornerbacks to lock up a team’s best receivers, allowing Anarumo to use the rest of his defense to make life difficult on opposing quarterbacks by blitzing, bringing zone pressures and disguising coverages in the middle of the field.
Anarumo only got to see it a couple of times last season. A trio of Ward concussions and a season-ending calf strain to Gardner limited the two cornerbacks to one game together. The Colts were hit so hard by injury at cornerback that Anarumo’s hands were somewhat tied throughout the 2025 season; Indianapolis finished the season ranked 19th in the NFL in yards per dropback, 31st in passing yards overall.
“You lose games where they’re throwing the ball down the field and you don’t make plays,” Anarumo said. “Those guys have proven in their past, and in their history, they can (make plays). We’ve got a lot of capital into that position. Those guys have got to play well.”
Indianapolis came up short in its pursuit of a primetime edge rusher this season, losing out on longtime Anarumo collaborator Trey Hendrickson when the Baltimore Ravens pulled an abrupt about-face, backing out of a Maxx Crosby trade in order to throw big bucks at Hendrickson.
When the Colts missed out on Hendrickson, Indianapolis went back to the plan that convinced general manager Chris Ballard to trade two first-round picks and wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the New York Jets in order to get Gardner.
The theory is simple.
By stocking up on cornerbacks — Indianapolis added former Bengals starter Cam Taylor-Britt in the offseason as insurance — the Colts are trying to give Anarumo the ability to play man-to-man outside.
“It’s a little bit game-plan driven. … But you want to be on-body in this league,” Anarumo said. “These quarterbacks are too good to give a lot of open windows. You want to be as close to people as you can.”
If Gardner and Ward can stay healthy, the Colts believe they have the ability to lock down the outside. An Anarumo-led defense will never simply play one coverage or defense every week but the Colts believe they can leave the two veteran cornerbacks in man-to-man without getting burned. Ward and Gardner are physical, commanding presences who make it difficult to get the ball to receivers on the outside.
“Their length and size, I think, is a huge part of playing against them, and their ability to disrupt receivers at the line or at the top of their break or throughout the route,” Jones said.
When Gardner and Ward played together against Kansas City last season, the Chiefs spent most of the game avoiding the outside of the field, chipping away over the middle until a marathon 90-plus plays of action took the cornerback’s legs at the end.
“That shows you the potential that we’ve got,” Ward said. “Me and him, both All-Pro corners, great corners, but last year we both were hurt, so we weren’t on the field, so we couldn’t show everybody what we could do. … I feel like if we’re healthy, we’re definitely going to be a crazy, crazy tandem.”
If the Indianapolis corners can lock up opposing wide receivers, the theory goes, the Colts pass rush will have more time to get home, instantly improving a unit that produced only 13 sacks in the final nine games.
Anarumo would also have the flexibility to help the pass rush in other ways.
Exotic ways. Indianapolis blitzed 26.6% of the time in 2025, according to Pro Football Reference, a number that ranked ninth in the NFL.
And that’s with Anarumo’s hands tied by a never-ending string of injuries to his cornerbacks, forcing inexperienced cover men to play a starter’s level of snaps.
“A lot of times, it’s just about team defense,” slot cornerback Justin Walley said. “Having two guys who will consistently do their job makes the rest of the team’s job easier.”
In theory. Kansas City showed last season how good quarterbacks will likely attack if Gardner and Ward are playing at the top of their games. The Chiefs took completions over the middle, took advantage of a soft, slow middle of the Indianapolis defense and chewed clock.
Indianapolis spent the offseason trying to fix that soft spot in the middle of the defense. Aging linebackers Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt are no longer Colts, replaced by veteran Akeem Davis-Gaither and a pair of rookies, second-rounder CJ Allen and fourth-rounder Bryce Boettcher, who should be better equipped to cover ground in the passing game. Indianapolis also allowed former starting strong safety Nick Cross to leave in free agency — Cross was better in the box than he was in coverage — and used a third-round pick on LSU’s A.J. Haulcy, a strong safety with excellent ball skills in the passing game.
The Colts also made the toughest call, saying goodbye to franchise cornerstone Kenny Moore II after nine seasons, in large part because Moore is better suited to zone coverage than man-to-man at this point in his career. Walley, a 2025 third-rounder who missed his rookie season due to a torn ACL, has the faith of Anarumo and the rest of the Indianapolis brass.
Indianapolis will be much younger up the middle.
The Colts hope a healthy season from Ward and Gardner allows Anarumo to minimize rookie mistakes by packing the middle.
“As a safety, that frees up a lot of things for me, where I don’t have to worry about the outside as much,” veteran free safety Camryn Bynum said. “I can help more on the inside, whether it’s nickel or a good tight end. … Everybody can have more help when we know certain things are going to be locked down.”
Indianapolis is still going to need the pass rush to take a giant leap forward.
Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner is back, and the Colts have high hopes for another step from 2024 first-rounder Laiatu Latu, but those two are going to need help. No secondary can cover forever, particularly in man-to-man, if the pass rush cannot get home.
The hope is that a healthy Gardner-Ward tandem makes everybody better.
“It just eliminates threats,” Bynum said. “Having two star corners, two No. 1 corners like Mooney and Sauce, being able to play man eliminates threats on the other team, but also opens it up for when you do go into zone. … We can make it look like man, and go play zone, and offenses won’t know.”
The way they’ve played early in camp, it is easy to see what the Colts envision defensively in 2026.
But they still have to turn Anarumo’s vision into reality.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts’ star corners must let loose Lou Anarumo’s blitz-heavy scheme
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
