While it might be a little surprising to see them go real high for this, the Colts could use some depth at linebacker. Clint Sessions and Gary Brackett are definitely established at their respective positions. Phillip Wheeler played well overall last season and will likely not lose his job unless the Colts bring in a big name. However, the team has let go their depth at the position in Tyjuan Hagler and Freddy Keiaho leaving them with three guys (Ramon Humber, Cody Glenn and Brandon Renkart) that contributed a total of 41 tackles to the club last year (with one not notching any).

 The following are who the Colts may take/ have available if they decide to go with a linebacker in any particular round:

First: Daryl Washington, TCU or Sergio Kindle, Texas- both are projected to be late first round/ early second round picks. Both would be ready to contribute early as well coming from high profile college teams like TCU and Texas; Kindle may be the more pro ready of the two.

However, it would be surprising to see the Colts take a linebacker this early with all the attention that has been given to their offensive line needs.

Second: Brandon Spikes, Florida or Navorro Bowman, Penn State; two players from quality schools that have been very competitive of late; could translate into being more NFL ready than most prospects.

The Colts may also have a hard time passing up on a defensive line player like Terrence Cody out of Alabama. With the chances of Robert Mathis re-signing with the Colts not looking so good they will need to give Dwight Freeney a little help.

 Prospects in other rounds will include: Third- Donald Butler, Washington, Eric Norwood, South Carolina; Fourth- Dekoda Watson, Florida State, Roddrick Muckelroy, Texas; Fifth- Phillip Dillard, Nebraska; Seventh- Rico McCoy, Tennessee.

Saint fans think they may have dodged a bullet with the annoncement of a ligament tear in the ankle of pass rush specialist Dwight Freeney. Think again Saint fans.

Yes, Dwight is a force when it comes to the pass rush.To not be aware of where he is lining up is a huge mistake; even when you do it is still no easy task to slow this man down when he feels like smacking a QB around. His 13.5 sacks (in 14 games) led the team on the season and tied for third in the NFL behind Jared Allen and Elvis Dumervil. However, there is so much more to playing good defense then just a player’s sack count.

Sacks get the most attention since they are the more dramatic plays and are harder to come by, but to give one player so much credit for the success of a team’s defense due to one statistic is ridiculous. Eighteen other Colt defenders tallied more tackles on the season than Freeney; seventeen had more solo tackles than Freeney’s 19 and 18 more assists than his 5. Now its not to say that that stat makes him a non-factor either. If a defensive linemen is doing his job right he will not be making too many tackles, but his linebackers will. Sure enough the top two tacklers for the Colts were Clint Session and Gary Brackett.

Now the defense will suffer withouth the serivces of Freeney, but the defense does not revolve around one man. Sessions and Brackett may have to battle off a few more blockers than normal if Freeney does not play. The other leading tacklers for the team may have to get more active in defending the run game (Bethea, Lacey, Bullit, and Powers- aka the secondary), something which the Saints have done well with this season.

Officially listed as questionable, Freeney will likely come down to a game time decision. Knowing how intense a competitor he is it is unlikely that one of the most feared pass rushers will miss out on playing on the biggest stage in professional football.

Beware Saints fans because Freeney or no Freeney, the Colts are coming!