Dwight Freeney is 30 and Robert Mathis is 29. They are still Pro Bowl caliber players, but there was no next generation behind them. A limited Freeney had a big sack in the Super Bowl, but he didn’t last at full speed the whole game because of an ankle injury, and the Colts ultimately suffered.
With the selection of TCU’s Jerry Hughes 31st overall in the first round, there is now new depth.
Hughes is a speed, edge rusher in the mold of Freeney and Mathis, a player who got in the backfield and disrupted offenses in college and projects to do the same for the Colts.
He’s not going to bounce inside and eat up snaps all over the line as Raheem Brock, let go after the season, did. But the Colts look to be three deep at end and have an eventual successor to one of their stalwarts in hand.
In his last 26 games at TCU, Hughes recorded 26.5 sacks. Those numbers are as impressive as any I’ve read about any of the first-round choices in the AFC South.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
