The Indianapolis Colts offensive line will be down their starting center, as C Ryan Kelly popped up on the injury report on Thursday with a neck injury, and per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, Kelly won’t be able to go today. The Colts will start fourth-round pick Tanor Bortolini in his place. It will be Bortolini’s first NFL start.
Kelly, the Colts’ first-round pick in 2016, has been one of the better centers in football throughout his career, and this season he has a 71.1 overall grade, per PFF. He’s a big loss for the Colts, who enter Sunday’s game with the top-ranked offensive line in the league, but now will have to rely on a rookie against Pittsburgh’s defensive interior, and Bortolini will likely see a lot of Keeanu Benton.
Bortolini played 63 snaps at center in the preseason but struggled a little bit as he had a 49.9 total grade per PFF, with just a 36.7 pass-blocking grade. If Bortolini continues to struggle with pass protection, the Steelers are going to be able to get Anthony Richardson under pressure, and it could shape up to be a big day for Benton or Cameron Heyward.
The loss of Kelly will also affect the Colts ground game with RB Jonathan Taylor, and the Colts may be forced to run more to the outside in the direction of T.J. Watt or Nick Herbig. Bortolini doesn’t have an easy test in his first career start against the best defense in football right now, and look for the Steelers to try to bring some pressure up the middle to make things difficult for the rookie center.
Alex Kozora had a late Day 3 grade on Bortolini, and he wrote that quicker interior linemen can give him trouble. That could be good news for Benton, who is looking for his first sack of the season and first since Week 3 last season. If Pittsburgh can get a big game out of Benton and continue to play defense the way they have through three weeks, they should be able to move to 4-0.
