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INDIANAPOLIS – When talking about 2017 draftees for the Colts, Quincy Wilson has been the most frequent answer to projecting a new full-time defensive starter in season No. 2.
Well, Tarell Basham made quite the strong case for himself this spring.
Despite playing in one of the most crowded position groups on the roster, Basham has really entrenched himself as the favorite to start at defensive end, opposite Jabaal Sheard, in 2018.
Week-after-week this spring there was Basham running with the starting unit, as he enters his second NFL season.
“It’s a great feeling being out there with the 1s and getting good, quality reps every day,” Basham said at the close of OTAs earlier this month.
There’s no doubt that the change in defensive systems has really benefited a guy like Basham.
While the Colts parted ways with Johnathan Hankins and Henry Anderson because of the change in scheme, Basham is at the other end of the spectrum.
Basham is now back in the system he thrived in at Ohio University.
Down 15 pounds in his second NFL season, Basham is in a far better state than he was this time last year.
“Way more comfortable than where I was after the draft,” Basham says. “After the draft last year, things were just like going every which way, trying to get settled, trying to establish a role on the team, trying to learn this whole new position that I’ve never played before in my career ever, really, besides high school – which doesn’t count. It was hectic for me last year right around this time, trying to find where I fit into the team and on the defense.
“The 4-3 is the system that I was raised in, an attack and react type of defense. It’s definitely got me feeling more at home, I would say.”
In his rookie season, Basham played in 15 games (0 starts) and finished the year with just 2 sacks, while logging around 20 percent of defensive snaps.
Chris Ballard was not happy with Basham’s development a month into last season.
Some flashes came later in the year. That, coupled with a new mindset from Basham, and a more comfortable system, adds up to why Ballard is much more optimistic about the pass rusher he took in the third round of his first draft.
Even Sheard has said he’s noticed a “more focused, more driven” Basham in 2018.
“He’s stayed in town and worked on the things that he knows he need to do to get his body better,” Ballard said of Basham earlier this offseason.
“Putting his hand in the dirt is what he did in college. Let him get off the football and disrupt—is what he was really good at in college.”
Going into Training Camp, that’s going to come in a starting role.
