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:
4. Braden Smith, right tackle
5. DeForest Buckner, defensive tackle
6. Michael Pittman Jr., wide receiver
7. Charvarius Ward, cornerback
8. Camryn Bynum, safety
9. Quenton Nelson, guard
10. Tyler Warren, tight end
11. Laiatu Latu, defensive end
12. Daniel Jones, quarterback
13. Kenny Moore II, cornerback
14. Zaire Franklin, linebacker
15. Alec Pierce, wide receiver
Up at No. 3 is Bernhard Raimann.
Age: 27
Experience: 4th season
Last year’s rank:No. 4
Why he’s here: In just three seasons, Bernhard Raimann has climbed as far as any player on the roster.
He’s gone from the developmental third-round pick thrown into the fire and consumed by rookie struggles into the type of premium player in an evolving offense who must pave the way for everyone else. It’s gotten overlooked with the ongoing struggles at quarterback and tight end, but that evolution holds a mix of floor and ceiling that makes him tailor-made for a list like this one.
Indianapolis went through all kinds of bad left tackles following Anthony Castonzo’s retirement after the 2020 season. Raimann was a rare bet on development at such a position of natural traits, as he was transitioning from an upbringing in Austria and a career in the Mid-American Conference at Central Michigan and then was thrust into a position where confidence can wane quickly and did in a difficult 2022 rookie season.
But ever since he showed up to the 2023 offseason program noticeably stronger, more confident and better trained, he’s become a rock on the blindside. He’s one of the biggest reasons the Colts have managed to go .500 overall in those two seasons despite starting three different quarterbacks interchangeably, as well as some injuries to Jonathan Taylor.
Last year, Raimann took another step forward, cutting his blown block rate from 4.2% to 2.4%, according to Sports Info Solutions. He was called for only one penalty all season. And he gave up just four sacks in 444 pass blocking reps, meaning he allows the quarterback to go to the ground on less than 1% of all of his drop-backs.
He isn’t quite a star yet, but he’s evolving into one, or at least something closer to the 10-year rock that Castonzo was at the position. And back when that was the case while playing next to Quenton Nelson, the Colts were the closest they’ve come to being the trenches-built team that general manager Chris Ballard dreams of.
Now, Raimann’s facing a critical fourth season for setting his market value as well as impacting the areas where the Colts must nail.
One of those is in the run game, where Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones must pair with Taylor to become one of the forces of the league. It’s less of Raimann’s strength than the pass game is, but in tandem with Nelson in a zone-heavy blocking scheme, it’s where he can still provide a significant boost.
The other is the drop-back passing game, where Richardson has to take a Year 3 leap in so many different areas. So much of that development goes beyond Raimann, of course, but what the Colts can’t afford is instability on a young quarterback’s blindside. His presence became more important when Indianapolis moved swing tackle Matt Goncalves to right guard, leaving fourth-round rookie Jalen Travis as the backup in case of a tackle injury.
Raimann slides in just ahead of another tackle on this list, Braden Smith, because of his more durable track record, his upside at age 27 and the fact that he plays the blindside.
If this year features another step forward, he’ll see the kind of multi-year extension that makes those dreams from the days in Austria come true.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts most essential No. 3: Bernhard Raimann must remain a rock