Most essential Colts, No. 4: DeForest Buckner is ready to dominate in a scheme he loves

In a salary-cap league like the NFL, finding building blocks is essential. As teams churn and burn the roster through the draft and bargain signings in free agency, it helps to find the players who are either a cut above the rest or can perform a task few others can. They bring security and relieve the pressure on everyone.

Over the next two weeks, we'll be ranking the 10 most essential players to the Colts' success in 2022. It's a subjective process, weighing factors such as ability, positional value within a scheme, age, leadership and durability.

To make it simpler, we're asking the following two questions about these players:

1. How difficult would he be to replace for more than a month?2. What does the Colts' 2022 ceiling become if this player hits his?

Today, we're on to No. 4, DeForest Buckner.

Here's the list so far:

10. Braden Smith, right tackle

9. Kenny Moore II, cornerback

8. Quenton Nelson, left guard

7. Stephon Gilmore, cornerback

6. Darius Leonard, linebacker

5. Yannick Ngakoue, defensive end

4. DeForest Buckner, defensive tackle

Position: Defensive tackle

Age: 28

Experience: 7th NFL season, 3rd with Colts

Accolades: 93 starts in 95 games, 45 sacks, 2 Pro Bowls, 1 First-Team All-Pro selection

2021 stats: 17 games, 7 sacks, Pro Bowl

Why he's here: With some players, a list like this makes it hard to pin down and rank a specific value. Then there are players like DeForest Buckner.

The Colts valued Buckner so much -- who he is, how he plays, what he represents -- that they traded a first-round pick for him in 2019 and then offered him a four-year, $84 million contract extension. In the two years since, nobody has shouldered more of a load than he has. Last season, he played all 17 games, 77% of the defensive snaps and saw double teams on nearly half of them, a rate higher than any player in the NFL not named Aaron Donald.

Last season, Buckner had to be the Colts' pass rush. They let Denico Autry walk in free agency and pinned their edge hopes on raw and recovering rookies in Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo. Buckner finished with seven sacks, as any man is limited when double teamed half the time in this league, but he created pressures for Paye and affected passes with his length in ways the stats will never show.

Buckner arrived in Indianapolis because his three-technique position was that critical to Matt Eberflus' scheme. The Colts are embracing change this offseason with Gus Bradley at defensive coordinator, but Buckner's importance shouldn't diminish much at all.

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Buckner is fired up to play in the scheme he was drafted into in San Francisco, the one where he made a push for Super Bowl MVP in 2019 before Patrick Mahomes stole the show in the fourth quarter. The scheme is built around a four-man pass rush with the LEO rushing from a wide-nine stance to the wide side of the field. He can only afford to do that if the three-technique can consume double teams and defend the run, and Buckner has shown he's as capable of those roles as any defensive tackle in the game.

Buckner has only missed one game in his career. He's 28 years old. He's one of the leaders of the team, a pillar in the community, and he engineers the pass rush and the run defense. At 6-foot-7 and 295 pounds, he brings dimensions that are literally irreplaceable on this roster if he goes down. And yet, in San Francisco, he's also shown what the ceiling can be: a Super Bowl MVP-worthy performance for the best defense in football.

A few more impact plays is all that's separating Buckner from a higher spot on this list. That 12-sack season from 2018 with the 49ers could still be in him, and if it returns, so could some of the postseason success.

Contact Colts insider Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Why DeForest Buckner is No. 4 among most essential players