![\"LSU](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/17771434725974.jpg\")
Source: James Gilbert \/ Getty<\/p>\nSource: James Gilbert \/ Getty<\/p>\n
INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 The Colts dipped back into the SEC during the middle of Round Five.<\/p>\n
With the 156th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, the Colts took Florida defensive end George Gumbs Jr. in Round Five.<\/p>\n
Here are 3 takeaways on Gumbs Jr.:<\/p>\n
Walk-On Wideout Turned SEC Pass Rusher<\/p>\n
George Gumbs Jr. began his college football career as a walk-on wide receiver at Northern Illinois, before ending it playing as a defensive end at Florida for his final two seasons. Gumbs Jr. stands 6-4 and 245 pounds. He ended up having 7.5 sacks in 22 games for Florida. Unlike the first four picks from the Colts in 2026, this is a pick betting on some traits with Gumbs Jr.\u2019s background indicates some more development could be there, despite him turning 24 years old alter this year. The strength for Gumbs Jr. as a rusher is with his speed get off.<\/p>\n
Fastball Option?<\/p>\n
During the draft process, Chris Ballard hinted at the Colts needing to add more of a \u201cfastball\u201d option to the defensive end position. It appears Gumbs Jr. is more in that speed role, with a lot of rawness around his overall game. He\u2019s not ready to be some 1st or 2nd down defensive end in the NFL. But that\u2019s not a must when you are trying to formulate those ever-important third-down pass rush packages. Based off how the offseason has gone, and assuming the team doesn\u2019t add a veteran edge rusher next week, the Colts will be banking on the likes of Jaylahn Tuimoloau and Arden Key a lot opposite Laiatu Latu this year.<\/p>\n
Massive Needs Finally Gets Attention<\/p>\n
Arguably the team\u2019s biggest need entering the draft, especially when you factor in positional importance, the Colts waited until the middle of Round 5 before addressing it. Yes, the Colts have had a lot of misses there over the years, but the position means too much to not throw another quality dart at it. Granted, this dart comes at pick No. 156, so the quality of it isn\u2019t super high, as the Colts will bank on development here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: James Gilbert \/ Getty INDIANAPOLIS \u2013 The Colts dipped back into the SEC during the middle of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-247112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}