According to PFF, Indianapolis Colts center Tanor Bortolini was their most improved player at his position league-wide during the 2025 campaign:
The Colts are the NFL’s offensive lineman factory. Their ability to churn out NFL starters at every position across the offensive line is unparalleled. Lost a key starter? Not a problem, it steps the next man up to play sound football.
The player to fill that role for the Colts in 2025 was Tanor Bortolini (82.6 grade; 3rd), the team’s fourth-round pick in 2024. Bortolini spot-started in place of the oft-injured Ryan Kelly in 2024, generating a 65.1 overall PFF grade while playing steady football. Bortolini didn’t look like a star, but showed he could be serviceable, and a potential option if Kelly moved on.
With Kelly leaving in free agency, the Colts showed faith in Bortolini, and their confidence has been justly rewarded. Bortolini had a breakout season and anchored one of the best offensive lines in football in 2025. The Colts finished the year with the second-best PFF pass-blocking grade and fourth-best PFF run-blocking grade in football. Bortolini allowed just 17 pressures and zero sacks, and ended the campaign as one of the NFL’s rising stars in the trenches.
Additionally, per PFF, he was also among their six ‘breakout’ offensive lineman from this past 2025 regular season:
The Wisconsin product appeared in eight games as a rookie in 2024, logging 351 snaps. He finished that season with a 66.8 PFF overall grade and graded below 66.0 in both pass blocking and run blocking.
In 2025, however, Bortolini took a significant step forward, clearing that threshold in both areas and establishing himself as one of the NFL’s top run-blocking centers. His PFF run-blocking grade of 88.2 ranked third at the position, trailing only Miami’s Aaron Brewer and Kansas City’s Creed Humphrey. He also ranked third among centers in positively graded run-play rate, earning a positive PFF grade on 19.4% of run plays.
Per PFF, the 2nd-year Bortolini, and first-time full-time starting center, earned a +82.6 overall grade, which was the 3rd highest grade at his position—just ahead of the Colts’ longtime veteran Pro Bowl center he replaced, Ryan Kelly (+82.2), who had been Indy’s long-term starter since 2016.
Given that the Minnesota Vikings’ 32-year-old Kelly was limited to 8 starts this past season because of reoccurring concussions (suffering at least two), compared to the 23-year-old Bortolini’s 16 starts in 2025, and the Colts ultimately made the tough, but right move for the franchise going forward.
It was in run blocking where Bortolini particularly shined per PFF, with a +88.2 run blocking grade.
During 566 total pass blocking snaps, Bortolini allowed 0 sacks, 5 QB hits, and 17 total QB pressures this past regular season. If he can continue to make strides as a pass blocker, he could become a top NFL center in time.
While it was another disappointing season in Indianapolis collectively, given the team’s late season collapse, Bort’s emergence was one of the few lasting bright spots—as the Colts appear to have found an interior fixture manning the center of their offensive line for the foreseeable future.
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