The message was clear from the Colts’ ownership, front office and coaching staff in the aftermath of a season that began with so much promise and ended with non-stop disappointment: The core of the roster that started the year 8-2 is capable of sustaining success throughout an entire season.
Attempting to do so in 2026, though, won’t come without change, and executing that change won’t come without sacrifice.
Just how deep might that sacrifice run in Indianapolis? Look no further than veteran linebacker Zaire Franklin.
Franklin, the former seventh-round product out of Syracuse and one of the longest-tenured Colts, represents one of the most notable successes in longtime general manager Chris Ballard’s draft board. The Day 3 pick has missed a single game during his eight-year career, and it’s that reliability, along with a famous tenacity, that has pushed Franklin to lead the Colts in tackles each of the past four seasons – the 29-year-old’s entire stint as an every-game starter.
Franklin played as many defensive snaps as any teammate last season, however his production took a notable drop.
Among linebackers who were targeted at least 50 times in the passing game, only 14 finished with a higher completion rate by opposing quarterbacks (70.3%, allowing 45 catches on 64 targets) than Franklin when he was the nearest defender, according to Next Gen Stats. The Colts veteran faced a significant volume – seeing the third-most pass coverage snaps in the league among linebackers and the fourth-most targets – but he also surrendered the eighth-most catches and seventh-most yards.
In short, quarterbacks and opposing offensive coordinators recognized Franklin’s struggles defending in the passing game and attacked it often. As a defensive unit, the Colts surrendered the second-most yards to tight ends. The team’s linebacker unit – including midseason pick-up Germaine Pratt – was among the most vulnerable on those plays.
New defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said last offseason he'd play more dime packages in the passing game and rely on situational matchups to take weight off the linebackers in passing situations, but strayed widely from those plans. It culminated in a Week 16 shellacking at the hands of 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle, running back Christian McCaffery and the San Francisco offense.
“We couldn’t stop a nosebleed today,” Buckner said after that game. “That’s a simple fact.”
Added Franklin, who like Pratt, was targeted heavily over the middle of the field against McCaffery and Kittle: “We got dominated today. There’s really nothing else to talk about. I feel like they came in and they did what they wanted.”
That 21-point blowout loss on Monday Night Football – one that effectively ended the Colts’ playoff hopes – was admittedly one of the team’s few end-of-season games where they were clearly out-matched. Lost in that season-ending seven-game skid was the fact a depleted roster went round-for-round against six consecutive playoff teams. Five of those games ended in one-score losses, and the Colts led in the closing minute of regulation in three of them.
As incapable as Indianapolis may have been to close out games, you can’t argue they laid down. It’s there, Franklin said the day after the team’s season ended, that he counted his biggest impact in 2025.
“Coming into this year, my focus was really on being a better leader, trying to help the team as a whole and trying to be that guy that the team could lean on,” Franklin said. “There were a lot of things I did throughout the season that I tried to do to make sure that the guys were close and we were a team that believed and played for each other.
“I was really inspired by the Fever and Pacers – some of those teams who I don’t want to say weren’t overly talented, because I don’t want to disrespect those guys, but you could tell it was their bond that drove them through moments of adversity.”
Though he declined to go into specifics, Franklin hinted at some moments being far more trying than was known publicly, and he felt he’d been the glue that kept the Colts fighting until the final whistle Jan. 4 in Houston.
“There’s things that ain’t ever going to make it to y’all, but from training camp and into the season, to different things in the locker room, there’s a bunch of different things I felt I was trying to go out of my way to do to make sure we were really building and growing,” he said. “I looked at myself in the mirror last year and decided I needed to grow as a leader, and when I look back, I feel like I really did.”
The soul of the Colts’ defense has one year left on his current deal, but one that would leave the team with just $2.5 million in dead money if he were cut this offseason, providing $5.755 million in cap savings. The team needs to hold onto starting quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce, while finding a way to sign a new impact presence on the defensive end.
Franklin, receiver Michael Pittman Jr. ($24 million in potential cap savings) and Kenny Moore II ($7.06 million) appear to be potential cap casualties.
Pittman admitted as much in the postgame locker room in Houston, telling reporters that his season “didn’t cut it” and that he wasn’t under any illusions that his future in Indianapolis was safe. Franklin wasn’t nearly as introspective the day after.
“The thing I can control is the impact I have in the locker room and my play on the field," Franklin said on locker clean-out day when asked if he was worried about his future with the only team he’s ever known. “I can’t necessarily control decisions that are above me, but honestly, you put those things in God’s hands and understand that you continue to work hard and grow as a person, a player and as a leader. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, but what I will say is I love the guys I’ve been here with. We’ve played some great ball and made some great plays at times, but we’ve come up short the last few years. We’re judged by wins and losses and getting into the playoffs, and we haven’t done that, so that’s the nature of the business.”
When asked days later to assess the team’s struggles on defense and, particularly, it’s passing games struggles, Ballard multiple times in his press conference that the team “has to get faster – unequivocally – on defense.”
“I do agree we need to add some youth on defense,” Ballard said. “We’ve got to add some fuel to the front, and we’ve got to get younger.”
The Colts GM, too, agreed with Franklin’s sentiment that the locker room, struggled as it may have late in the year, never gave up, and when asked specifically about his pair of starting linebackers, Ballard said Franklin and Pratt “ended up having pretty good years.”
But in what very well may have been his most poignant point about the unit’s struggles was this: “Our history here has shown that at one point, we almost had an excess of riches at the position. … We’ve done a pretty good job drafting there, but I thought those two guys played pretty good.”
With that in mind, and with young, promising up-and-comers in Hunter Wohler and Jaylon Carlies eyeing bounce-back returns from injury-hampered seasons, the Colts will already be with significantly more youth and speed at the position when players return to the facility in the coming months.
Whether that crew will include Franklin’s fire and veteran leadership – immeasurable traits that come with physical holes the team, at times, struggled to overcome – or not will say a lot about the direction Indianapolis takes heading into 2026. Ballard’s tenure has rarely seen the Colts GM part ways with veterans before their contracts have ended.
Are continuity and a fiery veteran presence, or fresh blood and cap flexibility more important for this team to clear its seasons worth of postseason hurdles? Franklin’s future in Indianapolis may serve as the guiding light.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Zaire Franklin: Will Colts keep the veteran linebacker or $5.755 million?