The Indianapolis Colts made an aggressive push to land star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson in free agency because his market value was not where he had hoped. Sadly, things changed once the Baltimore Ravens trade for Maxx Crosby fell apart, and they swooped in and stole the NFL’s 2024 sack leader.

Now the Colts have to go back to the drawing board to figure out who they will add to upgrade the biggest weakness on the team’s roster: their pass rush. In this two-part series, I will share my top three options the team should consider, both in free agency and via trade.

First up is free agency, so here are the top three available free agents I believe the Colts should target.

They are still endeavoring to add an impact edge rusher. Time will tell whether they can still pull that off.

— Stephen Holder (@HolderStephen) March 11, 2026

Bills EDGE A.J. Epenesa

The Bills selected A.J. Epenesa out of Iowa in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. During the last six seasons, he has recorded 24 sacks, with his best stretch of play coming from 2022 to 2024. He had at least six sacks in each of those seasons, with his career high of 6.5 in both 2022 and 2023.

It also seems important to note that he started 16 games during that stretch, which is 84% of his total career NFL starts (19). After a career-high 13 starts in 2024, the Bills opted to bring in Joey Bosa in free agency, and as a result, he started only 2 games in 2025.

The Colts’ first couple of edge signings this offseason seem to have a very specific purpose: replacing players leaving free agency by finding better scheme fits for those roles. Arden Key is coming in to replace Samson Ebukam, and Michael Clemons is expected to replace Tyquan Lewis. If their next goal is to replace Kwity Paye, I think Epenesa would be a good fit. He’s a strong run defender like Kwity, but I think he has more potential as a pass rusher due to his lack of starts with Buffalo.

Falcons EDGE Arnold Ebiketie

As I said above, Epenesa would be an option if the Colts are looking to replace Paye’s role this past year, Arnold Ebiketie from the Atlanta Falcons would be a different approach. This would be the Colts looking at a player they think could take a giant step if given the largest role of his career to date.

In his four years with the Falcons, he’s only started 12 of his 67 games, a mere 18% of his NFL games. He had back-to-back years with six sacks in 2023 and 2024, despite starting only eight total games in that stretch. His sack production dropped to a career low in 2025 with only two, but one look at the rest of his production, and you’ll see that there’s reason to bet on the 27-year-old’s upside.

Ebiketie had a 21.4% win rate on true pass downs with Atlanta this past season, which was the highest of any player on the team who played at least 50 snaps. That includes the team’s talented young trio of Jalon Walker, James Pearce Jr., and Brandon Dorlus. Ebiketie’s 21.4% win rate on true pass downs would have been the highest on the Colts last season, with Laiatu Latu, the team’s leader, finishing with 19.4%, and Deforest Buckner in second at 17.1%.

49ers EDGE Yetur Gross-Matos

Last up, I have San Francisco 49ers edge rusher Yetur Gross-Matos. Gross-Matos is another player I think the Colts could target if their goal is to replace Paye’s exact role. Gross-Matos was a productive rotational player for the Carolina Panthers for the first four years of his career, which included one season as a full-time starter in 2022.

If this is the route the Colts took, I think their plan would be to draft an edge on day two of the 2026 NFL Draft with the hope that they develop into the team’s long-term starter. Gross-Matos has a high floor as a run defender, and there are reasons to believe he could be a better pass rusher at this stage of his career than many may think.

Last season, he had a 21.7 win rate during true pass downs and a 16.3% win rate on all snaps. Both of these were second to only Nick Bosa on the 49ers, who only played three games before suffering a season-ending injury. Gross-Matos played only 8 games last season and didn’t record a sack, but he is now a full year removed from his season-ending 2024 injury, where he was on pace for a career year with four sacks through 11 games, so maybe he’s ready to have the best year of his NFL career.

Yetur Gross-Matos helped secure the @49ers win with his pressure on the last play of the game ? @Cisco pic.twitter.com/sMJAW3EJYO

— NFL (@NFL) December 31, 2025

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