In a salary-cap league like the NFL, finding building blocks is essential. As teams churn and burn the roster through the draft and bargain signings in free agency, it helps to find the players who are either a cut above the rest or can perform a task few others can. They relieve the pressure on everyone.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be ranking the 15 most essential players to the Colts‘ success entering the 2025 season. It’s a subjective process, weighing factors such as ability, positional value within a scheme, age, leadership and durability.

To make it simpler, we’re asking the following two questions about these players:

1. How difficult would he be to replace for more than a month?

2. What does the Colts’ ceiling become in 2025 and beyond if this player hits his?

Unlike in recent seasons, the pressure appears to be ramping up on what this year’s Colts team needs to accomplish. Anthony Richardson enters a critical third season with plenty to prove. The team is under new ownership with Jim Irsay’s passing and the transition to his three daughters. And the Colts have now not made the playoffs for four seasons, with no playoff wins in six and no AFC South titles in 10.

Thus, these rankings will skew a little more toward 2025 importance than they have in recent seasons.

Here’s the list so far:

14. Zaire Franklin, linebacker

15. Alec Pierce, wide receiver

Up at No. 13 is Kenny Moore II.

Position: Cornerback

Age: 29

Experience: 9th season

Last year’s rank:No. 9

Why he’s here: Now that he’s eight seasons into his Colts tenure but still not yet 30 years old, the questions for a list like this aren’t about what Kenny Moore II can and can’t be.

Last year, the Colts needed their Pro Bowl nickel cornerback as much as they ever have, which is why he came in at No. 9 on a list that skews offense-heavy. They had the youngest cornerback room in the league, to where Moore served as a communicator, as an off-field leader and as a glue player in coverage to the unpredictable and sometimes chaotic play around him on the outside. If the 2024 secondary was going to hold away from collapsing, it was largely because of Moore.

And he mostly delivered on avoiding that collapse, until Week 16 against the Giants. Moore’s worst game of the season coincided with the secondary’s worst performance in quite some time, and it showed a few truths about his importance to winning as well as how difficult it is for him to keep up his brand of play every single game without hitting the downside of his 5-foot-9 size.

The Colts showed Moore how much they valued him last offseason, when they made him the highest-paid nickel cornerback on a three-year, $30 million extension. They put all kinds of leadership, mentorship, strategic and playmaking responsibilities on his plate last season.

Given the constraints on a single man, Moore delivered. He had his best coverage season yet, allowing a career-low 54.2% completion and an elite, career-low 4.8 yards per target, according to Sports Info Solutions. He spoke up on culture issues at a critical juncture at midseason, and he aided in the developments of Jaylon Jones and Nick Cross into solid starters.

Moore did suffer the worst missed tackle rate of his career at 25.7%, which mostly showcases how much the defense was on the field and the way that can wear down a player in the middle of the field at his size. He missed two games due to injury in the process.

Nothing has changed about Moore himself, but the Colts are putting the opposite kind of secondary around him now. The additions of Charvarius Ward and Camryn Bynum will shift the playmaking and leadership responsibilities, and Jones and Cross are in more capable places, too. Indianapolis also added a better backup to Moore than it’s had in years in third-round Minnesota rookie Justin Walley.

But Moore will have a chance to shoot back into the top 10 if he ends up being as strong of a fit in new defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo’s scheme as he appears to be. In the Mike Hilton role, he should get a chance to blitz and play his nickel spot even in base settings, making him less of a glue player and more of a front man near the ball.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Most essential Colts No. 13: Kenny Moore II has help around him now