Veterans and rookies for the Indianapolis Colts will report for training camp on July 24th, with the first practice taking place on July 25th.
Between now and then I will be previewing the Colts’ 91-man roster with a look back at each player’s 2023 season, along with what’s ahead for 2024.
I’ll be going through the Colts’ roster alphabetically, so up next is interior offensive lineman Tanor Bortolini. To stay up to date with our other previews, be sure to head over to Colts Wire.
2023 Season Review
A fourth-round selection by the Colts this past April, Bortolini spent the entire 2023 season at center for the Wisconsin Badgers. On the season, he would surrender just one sack and 11 pressures, ranking 28th out of 200 eligible centers in pass-blocking efficiency and was 70th by PFF’s run-blocking grade.
“Learning center was a really big thing for me,” said Bortolini. “If I learned center, I’m able to know what everyone has to do on every play. So that put me in a position to swing around like that.”
Two aspects of Bortolini’s game that the Colts really like are his versatility and athleticism. In addition to playing center in 2023, Bortolini played over 600 snaps at both guard spots and is someone the Colts believe can play all three interior positions at the NFL level.
At the NFL combine, Bortolini put together one of the more impressive performances of any prospect in attendance, posting an elite RAS of 9.79, including a 4.94-second 40-yard dash.
“You’re dressing 48 guys, eight linemen,” said GM Chris Ballard. “If you draft an offensive lineman, to just play one position, unless you’re the starter makes it very difficult. You need to have a guy that can play both tackle spots, a guy that can play both guard spots and swing. And really, two more guys that can snap the football.
“I think it’s the same thing in any position – you’ve got to have some versatility to be able to play multiple spots. We kind of try to do that as much as we can every year, but this year is a little unusual in that.”
2024 Season Preview
The Colts are returning all five starters from an offensive line unit that ranked tied for fifth in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric and 10th in yards per carry. So, in that regard, the offensive line is pretty well set, which would put Bortolini as a backup at either guard spot or center.
Now, in the name of generating competition, if there is one spot on the starting five that could be pushed for, perhaps it’s at right guard with Will Fries.
However, with Fries’ experience, he will certainly have a leg up in any sort of battle that may or may not take place, and he’s coming off a season where he ranked in the top half of all guards in pass-blocking efficiency and run-blocking grade. I would certainly expect Fries to be the starter.
As long as the offensive line is healthy, the addition of Bortolini was likely more of a long-term play for the Colts, with both Fries and Ryan Kelly set to be free agents in 2025.
“To me, with Wisconsin, you know you’re getting, smart, tough, reliable offensive lineman,” said Colts’ area scout Tyler Hughes. “He’s a guy that started at four different positions for them. (He) He played guard last year, then once (Joe) Tippman left, he bumped inside to center.
“The best thing about him, I’m sure you guys saw his personality, he’s outgoing, a jokester, but his nickname is ‘Badger,’ and that’s kind of the staple of their program. So when you get the nickname Badger, he represents the program extremely well and what we want in our locker room.”
