Horseshoe Huddle

Colts Make Massive Hire That Could Unleash Defensive Line Group

Pittsburgh's Charlie Partridge could be the key to unlocking players such as Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo in Indy.

Zach Hicks

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The Indianapolis Colts made their first big move of the 2024 offseason today as they hired Pittsburgh Panthers Co-Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach Charlie Partridge to be the new defensive line coach in Indy.

Partridge, 50, spent the past 27 years at the college level before making this jump up to the NFL. He has coached defensive line nearly every season since 2002, with his only break coming when he took a head coach job with Florida Atlantic from 2014 to 2016. He spent the past seven years with Pittsburgh, where he achieved immense levels of success under famed defensive coach Pat Narduzzi.

Partridge's defensive front has finished top three in sacks in each of the past four seasons. Pitt has also been fantastic in run defense over the past five seasons, finishing top 10 in the country in average yards per carry in three of those years.

Partridge has also had a heavy hand in defensive line development in his college career. He has coached 12 players in his career that have gone on to be drafted by the NFL, which is even more impressive considering he's never had a five star recruit play under him. Some of the more notable players he has coached include J.J. Watt (2008-2010), Trey Hendrickson (2014-2016), and Calijah Kancey (2019-2022).

So today, let's dive into what the Colts are getting with their new defensive line coach and how he could impact the Colts' defense this upcoming season.

Defensive Line Coach's Role

Before we get too in detail on the impact that Partridge will have on the Colts' defense, we have to discuss exactly what role a defensive line coach has on a team. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about the role of positional coaches, so let's clear some things up right off the bat.

Positional coaches in the NFL are, typically, not used as personal trainers. They are responsible for minor tweaks in a players' game but typically they aren't the ones responsible for outright development of each individual player. That simply comes down to what kind of work a player does in the offseason and what the players takeaway from their exit meetings going into that offseason work.

A positional coach comes into play with areas such as gameday rotations, practice reps/minor tweaks, and placing players into prime positions to make plays. A great positional coach isn't going to take a raw player and magically turn them into an All-Pro, but they will give that player the tools needed to make that jump in their game.

Partridge isn't a miracle worker, so he can't simply turn every player he touches into gold. He can, however, give each player the tools needed to succeed through film work, alignment, and opportunity. Those are the reasons why this is a strong hire for the Colts.

Partridge's Style of Defense

Philosophically, the way that Partridge uses his defensive line aligns perfectly with Gus Bradley. Partridge is a strong believer in stopping the run en route to getting the quarterback, which is something that has been preached in Indy since Bradley's hire in 2022.

Partridge teaches an aggressive, gap-shooting style in the trenches but it is somewhat different from what we are used to with the Colts. The Colts, under former DL Coach Nate Ollie, believed in initial penetration to disrupt run lanes up front. Partridge utilizes a lot of zone blitzes to disrupt opposing offensive lines.

This run attempt against Tennessee in 2022 is a good example. Pittsburgh is one of college football's leaders in blitz percentage every season, so their pass blitzes and run blitzes mesh together quite well. Pittsburgh is coming after the quarterback on every single snap, it just means bonus points if they happen to crush the running back on that path to the backfield.

On this particular play Pittsburgh is slanting their defensive line and looping their linebackers back around the backside. This slant action with the defensive line disrupts Tennessee's zone blocking call from the gun, leading to an unblocked defender on the backside getting a tackle for a loss.

I don't expect Partridge to come into Indy with entirely new fronts or alignments but he should have a heavy hand in designing run blitzes to counter what we are seeing from NFL teams in the run game. These run blitzes should lead to more run stuffs and tackles for a loss for the Colts' defense in 2024 (if all goes according to plan).

More Blitzes Coming?

Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh's Head Coach, runs one of the more aggressive defensive schemes in football. He likes to come after teams with a barrage of six man rushes to speed up opposing quarterbacks and generate pressure.

While Partridge was technically Co-Defensive Coordinator at Pitt, I would be shocked to see Bradley fully incorporate this style of defense with the Colts. The change from match cover three to blitz-heavy press quarters is a bit too vast for Bradley to fully adopt it in one offseason. However, I do believe there are elements of Narduzzi's system that could be making their way to Indy.

MatchQuarters.com wrote this about Gus Bradley back in November of this past season:

When the Colts blitz against the pass, 44.4% of the time, they will send six defenders. That number is only surprised by the Vikings, who run six-man blitzes on 47% of their calls. Facing a backup QB against Cleveland (PJ Walker), Bradley decided to juice up the pressures even more. Against the Browns, the Colts’ PBR rose to ~25%, but their six-man blitz usage jumped to ~81% of their blitzes (9 of 11)! Gus Bradley woke up and chose violence.

Bradley rarely blitzes, but when he does blitz, he likes to send six man pressure packages. He brought six pass rushers at the second-highest rate in the NFL last year, only behind Brian Flores with the Vikings. Interestingly enough, Flores' style of defense is greatly inspired by Narduzzi at Pittsburgh.

The Colts may not drastically uptick their blitz percentage in 2024, but it does appear as though they are trying to add more diversity and window dressing to this package by hiring Partridge. A source close to the Pittsburgh program did confirm to me that Partridge was responsible for how the Panthers blitzed and how they attacked up front over the past few seasons, so my assumption does have some factual backing. 

The main reason why the Colts hired Partridge was for his expertise and experience in working with defensive linemen, but I believe an auxiliary reason for this hire was to add more diversity and depth to their six man pressure package.

Here are a few beautiful examples of Pittsburgh's pressure packages over the years. Some really fascinating work with sim rushers and creepers to create free rushers:

The Bottom Line

Charlie Partridge is a massive hire for the Colts for multiple reasons. He is an experienced defensive line coach that should be able to find ways to maximize the Colts' young pass rushers but he also brings an aggressive style of coaching that should pair well with Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley.

If Partridge can also bring over some of Pittsburgh's blitz designs to Indy, that would make this hire even better. This hire is an absolute homerun for the Colts and Partridge should have a ton of fun with a pass rush group that consists of Dayo Odeyingbo, Samson Ebukam, DeForest Buckner, and Kwity Paye.

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Zach Hicks
ZACH HICKS

Zach Hicks is the Lead Analyst for HorseshoeHuddle.com. Zach has been on the NFL beat since 2017. His works have appeared on SBNation.com, the Locked On Podcast Network, BleacherReport.com, MSN.com, & Yardbarker.com. 

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