What A Rush, Colts' Dwight Freeney Made Heads Spin

The sack machine who delighted Indianapolis Colts fans for 11 seasons will be inducted into the Colts Ring of Honor on Sunday.

When the Indianapolis Colts broke into groups for drills in the humid August heat of training camp at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind., a towel would be placed on the grass where the quarterback would be in the pocket.

The “towel drill” was a one-on-one contest between a pass rusher and offensive lineman. Inevitably, whomever failed got chewed out by salty assistant coaches Howard Mudd and John Teerlinck.

On this particular morning in 2002, a promising first-round pick with exceptional speed lined up against the Colts’ best offensive lineman. On back-to-back drills, rookie defensive end Dwight Freeney sped around mammoth left tackle Tarik Glenn to grab that towel.

Yeah, Freeney was going to be good.

Motivated initially by the assertion that Colts president Bill Polian reached to select Freeney with the 11th overall pick, the pass rusher quickly became a nightmare for opposing linemen and quarterbacks.

No. 93 had that rare blend of speed and strength, he typically drew double teams because one man couldn’t stop his outside speed rush or when he flawlessly changed up his attack with a trademark inside spin move.

Freeney would celebrate his sacks with a salute. On Sunday, he will be saluted when he becomes the 16th induction into the Colts Ring of Honor during halftime of the Miami Dolphins game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Freeney set a franchise record with 107.5 sacks, a mark eventually eclipsed by his partner in crime on the other side, Robert Mathis. He left the Colts after 2012, playing for six other teams and adding 18 more sacks to finish at 125.5, which ranks 17th in NFL history. His 47 forced fumbles rank fifth.

Colts left tackle Anthony Castonzo, who arrived as a first-round pick in 2011, recalls facing Freeney in those first two years. Castonzo still regards his old teammate as the best pass rusher he’s ever faced. What did he learn from those one-on-one drills against a three-time All-Pro first-team selection and seven-time Pro Bowl honoree?

“I got to pick up how not to spiral into a hole when you get beat,” Castonzo said on Wednesday. “I got used to getting beat a lot in practice unfortunately. Dwight, I’m not going to sit here and pretend like we had used to battle because he used to pretty much have his way with me in practice. That’s what I remember.

“I was only with him for like the first year and a half of my career. I thank God I didn’t have to play him in a game one of those two years. That would have been bad. It really made me realize how you much you have to be completely dialed in on every play because the good guys in this league can take advantage of bad technique. Nobody could do that quite like Dwight could.”

After Freeney had destroyed the Cleveland Browns for more than a quarter in one home game, he couldn’t help but laugh to see three blockers assigned to him before that blowout had reached halftime.

“Free,” as he was known back in the day, was as smooth a talker as he was at getting that outside leverage and low angle to penetrate blockers. He liked to remind how other pass rushers with similar sack totals didn’t have to face double teams as much as him.

“He basically had three moves,” Castonzo said. “He would either go speed outside, power right down your middle or spin inside. And the fact that he could do all of those, he was probably the best that I went against at that time at any one of those three things. That’s what made him really good, because you couldn’t play one of them because he had something else when you tried to take one of them away.

“He’s in rarefied air in terms of athletic ability and his ability to rush a passer. … When I think about lining up to go against pass rushers, Dwight is the most impressive guy that I’ve gone against.”

Freeney visited the Colts at training camp this year and spoke to the team. Head coach Frank Reich, who started out as an intern with the Colts in 2006, shared film of Freeney’s preseason message on Wednesday.

“Freakish athletic ability,” Reich said. “A combination of speed and power.”

A former Buffalo Bills teammate of Hall of Fame pass rusher Bruce Smith, Reich makes the inevitable comparison.

“What those two guys are very similar in besides the edge speed and power that they have, they both had that rare elite combination of speed and power, but the other thing Dwight had and Bruce was the same way, just a student of the game,” Reich said. “Elite football smarts about how to play the position. Elite football smarts about how to beat your man. Every little intricacy of a pass rush, and his film room, you guys know he’s got this legendary of his pass rushes and how he’s going to attack.”

No pass rusher was more of a nightmare for the opposition back then. And no Colts player was more fun to watch.