WESTFIELD, Ind. – E.J. Speed has been challenged quite a bit in his football career.
He's succeeded every time.
Convert from high school quarterback to wide receiver to defensive end to linebacker while at an off-the-radar Division II school? Check. Still manage to become just the sixth Tarleton State player ever to be drafted? Done. Quickly find your footing in NFL's cutthroat landscape by being a special teams ace? Got it.
Step in at the last minute in a critical late-season game against a playoff-bound opponent when the starter ahead of you got COVID? No problem. Force the issue with coaches to earn more and more playing time on defense? Cross that off. Earn a second contract, then carve out an even bigger role as the season goes on? Did that too.
So as Speed faces his next football challenge – being a full-time starting linebacker from Week 1 for the first time in his career – why would this go any different?
"You ever meet somebody who, it doesn't matter what it is, they think they can do it, they can win?" Colts assistant linebackers coach Cato June said. "He has the confidence to get it done."
Speed, like his linebacking and podcasting counterpart Zaire Franklin, navigated an against-the-odds path to get to this point. As a fifth-round pick from a small Texas school, failing to rise to one of those challenges could've jettisoned Speed into the ruthless and uncertain world of NFL roster churn. The margin for error for players like E.J. Speed is almost non-existent.
But Speed in 2023 was one of two players in the NFL – the other being ex-teammate Bobby Okereke – to total at least 100 tackles, 10 tackles for a loss and three forced fumbles. He put up those numbers, by the way, playing mostly on third down until after the Colts' Week 11 bye.
"Look, I love E.J. Speed," general manager Chris Ballard said. "He cares, he freaking is great teammate, plays his (butt) off. I'm expecting big things out of E.J. It's fun to watch him.
"I mean you're talking about a guy that was a wideout at Tarleton State. Think about this now. He was a wideout at Tarleton and they moved him to linebacker I think the last five or six games of his college career, then we take him, we draft him in the fifth and it's been fun to watch him develop and turn into the player he is. He loves playing, that's noticeable. He loves to practice. He loves everything about the process."
***
Speed's circumstances have changed quite a bit since the Colts drafted him in 2019. But what's important to him hasn't changed, and it starts with the example his father, Elbert, set for him.
"He'd give the world for his children," Speed said. "Growing up, he was all about us, never missed a game, never missed a high school game or practice. He was always there motivating whether it was time to be hard or time to coddle and be a listener, he was always there growing up. And that was a beautiful thing for me, and that's why I'm the man who I am today."
Family is Speed's center. Whenever he can steal some time for dinner, game nights or quality time with his family, he takes advantage of it. And he sees a connection between being dedicated to family and being a good player and teammate.
"Football is a family-oriented sport," Speed said. "If you don't know how to interact with your own family, you come out here and you won't look at these guys like family. And you need to be looked at like family to lean on each other.
"It's a long season, a lot of practices, a lot of aches, a lot of pains, and you have to lean on your brother for those things. Communication on the field, understanding every conflict ain't a big conflict and just knowing it's all love. The best family-oriented guys are the best football players for sure."
Fast-forward to now, and there's no better way to describe Speed and Franklin's rapport on and off the field as familial.
"When you got that bond with somebody — that's not to say that me and EJ don't get on each other's nerves at all — but we understand each other," Franklin said, We know each other, we know where each other's from."
June knows what that sort of relationship looks like. He had it with fellow Colts linebacker Gary Brackett, which helped the Colts win Super Bowl XLI.
"You just start to have this feeling with the guy – (you) can just look at each other and then, bam," June said. "It's just what it is. I can't really explain, put it into words, but that connection comes from spending time with one another and really getting to know the individual and what they're about."
Speed and Franklin's ability to play off each other on the field forms a heartbeat of the Colts' defense. Both players are instinctual and physical; they'll fly downhill through a hole to thump a running back while not backing down when asked to cover a pass-catcher. Their own tight communication benefits the entire defense.
"We just understand each other," Speed said. "We know how to talk to each other, we know how to not cross this line, it's just us being us, you know what I mean? You can't even explain it, just being us. And from Day 1, we went through a whole bunch of stuff being special teams guys to gaining a starting role, so our careers are kind of similar. I understand everything he's going through, and he understands everything I'm going through, and we just feed off each other knowing that we gotta keep going to that next step."
Franklin is the Colts' vocal leader, the guy who delivers an impassioned speech in the huddle before each game. Speed, next to him, is an important presence in the Colts' locker room, too.
"The best football players understand the team concept," June said. "Football is the greatest team sport in the world. When you think of EJ, you think of a guy that's contagious. And contagious individuals are great for the team when they're a positive influence, when they work hard, when they're good players, when they have great spirit.
"... So when you think about EJ and all those (qualities), those are qualities of someone who understands people and been around people and has the ability to connect people. Everybody's attracted to his energy and that's the beautiful thing about him."
***
It's the fourth quarter in Week 3 of the 2023 season. The Colts are losing, 17-16, to the Baltimore Ravens with just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens' offense has the ball on their own 47-yard line with an opportunity to smother the clock and earn a hard-fought victory.
Jackson hands off to running back Melvin Gordon. Guard Kevin Zeitler immediately climbs to the second level and looks to wipe Speed out of the play. Speed slips by Zeitler, wraps up Gordon and stops him for a two-yard gain. Franklin sacks Jackson on the next play to force a punt; all hell then broke loose and the Colts won in overtime.
Later in the season, Speed's three tackles for a loss against Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans helped earn the Colts another overtime victory.
When Speed stops the run, he stops the run.
"That dude plays fast, man," safety Julian Blackmon said. "He plays fast, fast, fast. He just trusts his instincts and that's what I love about E.J. When he sees the ball, he'll go get it."
As Speed has carved out more and more playing time, he's figured out how to best use his length, physicality and athleticism against the run and the pass. He's never lacked for confidence, but now his instincts are matching his confidence.
"He's a very instinctive football player and a guy, once again you take that fearlessness, take that confidence, it doesn't matter, like 'Oh, I can make that play,' and the instincts of it – boom," June said. "Now he shoots his gap, now you have the speed that goes with it, now you have the length that goes with it, all of these things, your compound interest – big play.
"He's a compound interest big play waiting to happen. He's fearless. He's confident. He's fast. He has length. And then, he has great instinct. That says splash play all over it."
The Colts got an extended look at how Speed's game came together in 2023. They'll get it again in 2024, with Speed playing WILL linebacker next to Franklin at the MIKE.
Speed isn't chasing any personal benchmarks, though, as he embarks on his first full season as an every-down linebacker in the NFL.
"I don't really pay attention to stats," Speed said. "I just look at the scoreboard — I promise that's, like, an answer that all athletes give — I do not look at stats. I just go in, get my grade sheet from coach, watch the film and let the stats fall where they may at the end of the season.
"... I feel like if the Colts are division champions at the end of the year, I definitely played a part. So I don't care what the stats are."
As Speed's circumstances have changed, though, he's stayed consistent with how he approaches football. Another challenge awaits. And there's nobody with the Colts who think Speed will do anything but rise to it.
"The way that he comes in every day, with a great energy, with a great curiosity, with a great confidence, I don't think that's changed," June said. "Because in his mind, he should have been doing it the whole time anyway."
