Caden Curry didn’t need to scramble for any Colts apparel after being selected by Indianapolis in Round 6 of the 2026 NFL draft. Ample options were hanging in his closet.
He wore a select piece of merchandise to his first press conference, in fact, a Peyton Manning Super Bowl jersey from when Indianapolis took home the Lombardi Trophy in 2007. Curry hadn’t yet started kindergarten (he obviously got the jersey later), but even then, he was a Colts fan.
That’s what happens when you’re born and raised 20 minutes from their home field, Lucas Oil Stadium. Curry’s parents and entire family are Colts fans, in fact.
“Getting drafted was the goal, and obviously, we were very happy about that,” Curry said. “And then the icing on the cake is definitely being back home in Indianapolis. It was honestly (my parents’) favorite team growing up. So seeing their son go there was definitely a very special moment for them, and I'm glad that I can make that happen for them. And I'm glad that I can do it for myself to be able to come back here in the city of Indianapolis.”
Curry is getting to live out a lifelong dream by suiting up for Indianapolis. And the Colts feel they might have gotten a steal selecting a first-team All-Big Ten defensive end with proven production at Ohio State with the No. 214 overall pick in the draft.
“Larry Johnson texted me today and said, ‘He’s one of the better football players I’ve been around,’” Colts GM Chris Ballard said on Saturday. “And he is. I mean, he had 11 sacks in the Big Ten. ... Sometimes, the physical measurements, people will knock you down. But we’ll see how he does. I think he’ll do well. I do.”
Curry staked a claim to a starting role in his senior year with the Buckeyes and lived up to the level expected by one of Johnson’s defensive linemen. He collected 66 tackles, 16.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks in 2025, playing as the lead edge defender for Ohio State’s No. 1 defense.
The first dreams of playing defensive end at the top levels of football came to Curry while watching the great Indianapolis edge rushers of the late aughts and early 2010s. Especially Pro Football Hall of Famer Dwight Freeney, who picked up 125.5 sacks over his 16-year career, and five-time Pro Bowler Robert Mathis, the NFL’s career forced fumbles recordholder with 52, who also grabbed 123 sacks.
“All the way from being a little kid going to the combines, and just being able to watch all these great players before me,” Curry said. “I was a Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis fan growing up. That's the two defensive ends that got me to want to play this position. So it's really not one (memory). It's really just everything that I've grown up seeing and grown up watching. It's been honestly a surreal moment to be able to learn from those guys, and watch those guys growing up, and now be able to go play in the same shoes that they were in.”
Speaking of defensive ends he learned from, Curry spent three seasons learning and growing behind a current Colts defensive end, JT Tuimoloau. Indianapolis drafted him No. 45 overall in the second round of the 2025 draft.
“It's from learning from guys like JT and all my other great defensive ends from Ohio State,” Curry said. “I knew what it took to be a great guy at Ohio State, and what it took to be a great athlete, and a great defensive end to go there. And I knew that if I could just make the most of it and not let my opportunity slip, that I'd be the best version of myself.”
Curry enters a deep defensive end room between Tuimoloau, featured pass rusher Laiatu Latu and free agent acquisition Arden Key. Curry will even have to contend with another rookie, fifth-round pick George Gumbs Jr., for reps at defensive end. But he didn’t reach this echelon without a healthy dose of confidence.
“I'm somebody that you can put anywhere out there, and it's going to be productive,” Curry said. “I'm the type of guy that's going to work his tail off in practice, and he's going to do whatever opportunity he gets and make the most of it. And I feel like I'm going to bring this edge to the defensive end room, and just the whole D-line room, and that we're going to compete together.”
Either way, Curry will get a shot to live out his childhood dream. Perhaps one day a child will wear his Colts Super Bowl jersey.
“I feel like this is just the next step in my career, and I can't wait to do the most with it,” Curry said. “And I just can't wait to be able to do it in the city that I grew up in, and to be able to do it for all the people around me that always believed in me.”
