Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley is expected to return to his current role for the 2024 season.
Though there was some speculation that the Colts may part ways with Bradley considering the up-and-down season from his defensive unit, general manager Chris Ballard made it pretty clear during his end-of-season press conference that Bradley will remain under contract.
#Colts GM Chris Ballard says he expects DC Gus Bradley to be back next season.
— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) January 11, 2024
The defensive season certainly had its ups and downs. The scheme was pretty straightforward as well. Bradley’s scheme was mostly Cover-3 with some quarters (Cover-4) and Cover-1 mixed in. He also rarely disguised his coverages pre-snap.
According to Cody Alexander, Bradley’s scheme used disguised coverage near the lowest rate in the NFL.
NFL MOF Disguise Rates Heading Into Week 18
Static: Texans, Jets, Giants, Colts
Disguise: Rams, Panthers, Dolphins (Fangio)#ArtofX pic.twitter.com/mgayEoCfmV
— Cody Alexander (@The_Coach_A) January 7, 2024
Essentially, this tells us Bradley was using the same coverages the majority of the time while rarely using any pre-snap disguises to confuse the opposing offenses.
Bradley has never been one to disguise his coverages. That’s simply not a part of his scheme and philosophy. It also was partly due to the fact that the Colts trotted out such a young and inexperienced secondary.
Ballard came to Bradley’s defense a bit during his press conference this week while still acknowledging the failures of the unit.
“Look, it’s an area we have to improve. In a little bit of defense, the year before he comes in and we kind of had – I don’t want to say a veteran team, but we had some veteran players,” Ballard said. “Then I just said look, we’re going to go young in some spots. We went young in the secondary and look, there were some rough moments at times in the secondary and I don’t completely put that on them. I put that more on me, but how do you ever develop any continuity, especially with your own guys if you don’t just play them? So I decided to go young. We took our lumps, took our lumps at times but I think it’s going to pay off down the line for them.”
Ballard also admitted the points-per-game mark is an area that certainly needs to improve.
“The points do need to come down. We’ll continue to have long discussions about where we’re going and how we’ll get that done. But saying that, we had new starters on defense. We did do some good things too. We got after the passer pretty good. I think it’s got to be a little better but 51 sacks is pretty good,” Ballard said. “Took the ball away, we need to be a little better there in that area and we have to take away the explosives. But I would expect us to take another jump here this year on defense.”
The Colts defense allowed 24.4 points per game in 2023, which ranked as the fifth-most in the NFL, just ahead of the Denver Broncos (24.3) and just behind the Carolina Panthers (24.5).
The unit did rank 11th on third-down percentage (37.08%) and eighth in sacks per pass attempt (8.98%). However, the defense also ranked 24th in total yards per game (349.8), 24th in rushing yards per game (123.8), 25th in first downs per game (20.4) and 30th on fourth-down percentage (65.38%).
Bradley’s defense ranked middle of the pack in areas like total yards per play (16th), passing yards per game (16th), red-zone percentage (18th) and goal-to-go percentage (16th).
Going into Year 3 in Bradley’s scheme, the Colts will need to add some depth to the secondary and some competition to the interior defensive tackle positions.
Regardless, it appears the Colts are sticking by Bradley one way or another for the upcoming season.
