Insider: Can we take a moment to appreciate Colts DT DeForest Buckner's greatness?

CHARLOTTE — Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner has been doing this, wrecking games like this, for a long time.

First in San Francisco. Now for Indianapolis.

For four years, Buckner has been the tip of the spear, simultaneously the team’s best pass rusher and a sideline-to-sideline presence in the running game, striking fear into offenses like he did Sunday, torturing Bryce Young and the Panthers into a feverish, fearful performance in a 27-13 win for the Colts that snapped a three-game losing streak.

Buckner sets the tone.

And he doesn’t get enough credit.

“He’s got to be, top three, the most underrated players in the league,” Colts teammate Dayo Odeyingbo said.

None of that is Buckner’s fault.

The very nature of the position he plays makes it difficult to stay in the spotlight. Defensive tackles operate in a place where it’s easy to get a double team, to gum up the works, make it difficult for a supreme talent like Buckner — impossibly long and athletic, powerful at the same time — to take over the way he might on the outside.

Especially on a Colts defensive line that’s still looking for the type of edge rusher who might be able to take attention away from him. For four years now, Buckner has spent every Sunday facing a steady diet of double teams, the object of every opposing protection scheme, even if he doesn’t spend his days complaining about all the extra attention.

“It’s a burden that he takes on, humbly,” Colts middle linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “And it’s not easy. But I tell you what, every time they give him a one-on-one, he wins.”

Wins the way he did Sunday.

Forced to play without an injured Franklin and a suspended Grover Stewart, an embattled Colts defense needed somebody to set the tone against a Carolina offense that was ripe for the taking.

Buckner rose to the challenge.

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The big defensive tackle blew up Carolina’s second drive with a tackle for a 4-yard loss, erased Isaiah McKenzie’s critical fumble of a punt return by blowing through the Panthers offensive line for a 10-yard sack on the next series, batted a pass down at the line the series after that.

From that point on, every time Young dropped back to pass, he was looking for Buckner, whether the Panthers were double-teaming him or not.

“It makes the rest of the game hard for you,” Odeyingbo said. “When you see a guy who’s 6-7, 300 pounds running down the barrel at you, it’s hard to keep your eyes downfield. I think that rattled the quarterback early.”

The rest of the Indianapolis defense felt the protection shift toward Buckner.

The way it always does.

This time the rest of the defensive line took advantage. Indianapolis recorded four sacks Sunday, all four coming from the interior: first Eric Johnson teaming with defensive end Kwity Paye, then Odeyingbo at the end of the half, then rookie Adetomiwa Adebawore late in the game.

A clearly rattled Young threw three interceptions, misfired a handful of other times, missed reads the rest of the game while looking for the rush.

“When you can condense the pocket from inside — the edge rushers are huge, too — but for a quarterback to try to step up vertically into the pocket with guys right there, it’s hard to throw,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. “It really is.”

Buckner’s been creating that kind of pressure since the day he arrived.

Four years into his time in Indianapolis, Buckner has played 57 of a possible 58 games, playing through a torn UCL in his elbow, a dislocated MCP joint and a badly sprained ankle, through back and hip and foot injuries.

He always shows up. He almost always plays like one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.

Buckner had 58 tackles, 9.5 sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss in his first season as a Colt; 68 tackles, seven sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss in his second season; 74 tackles, eight sacks and 11 tackles-for-loss in his third season.

After dismantling the Panthers on Sunday, Buckner now has 36 tackles, five sacks and six tackles-for-loss halfway through his fourth season. He leads defensive tackles in tackles, is third in sacks and tackles for loss since joining the Colts.

He just keeps showing up, keeps producing.

And he’s never said the truth. That the Colts’ lack of overall success in his four seasons in Indianapolis has probably hurt his profile nationally; he’s somehow made only two Pro Bowls and two All-Pro teams.

Los Angeles superstar Aaron Donald has been far and away the NFL’s best defensive tackle for years, but he’s also played for a Rams franchise that won a Super Bowl. Kansas City’s Chris Jones has been given countless chances to thrive on the big stage. Same with Tennessee’s Jeffrey Simmons. Quinnen Williams plays in New York.

The Colts haven’t put Buckner on those stages.

But Buckner keeps giving them his all. As a player, as a leader, as a man.

When the Colts traded a first-round pick to get Buckner in 2020 and made him their highest-paid defensive player at the time with a four-year, $84 million extension, Buckner took it as a challenge.

He tries to live up to that challenge every day.

“I don’t waver from any pressure,” Buckner said. “I just attack it head on, the expectations that they have for me, why they brought me here. I want to be able to earn every penny that they give me.”

On the field.

In the locker room.

When reporters walked into a celebratory Colts locker room on Sunday, there was Buckner, loudly cheering. Not for his incredible personal performance, but for Johnson, for Adebawore, for linebacker Segun Olubi, who all made the first big plays of their young careers against Carolina.

That’s who Buckner’s been.

“He sets the tone,” Franklin said. “Who he is as a leader, who he is as a man, it’s just felt.”

The Colts are counting on Buckner to set the tone for a long time.

Frustrated by the losing, by the desire he has to win, Buckner sat down with general manager Chris Ballard for a long talk last offseason. He wanted to know where the franchise was headed.

Buckner’s a premier player, in his eighth season in the league. If he wanted to be dealt to an immediate contender, it would have been justified.

Ballard convinced Buckner that he’d have a chance to play for something real again soon.

“I trust Chris. … He bet a first-round pick on me, and I appreciate that for him believing in me, what I can bring to this team, and I see what he’s building,” Buckner said. “Obviously, we have some injuries this year, with (rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson) and things like that, but there’s finally some stability at the quarterback position. Seeing the little things, the culture that Shane’s brought in, the juice that he’s brought in, preaching every day about competing, about competing in every single game that we play.”

Buckner’s been competing like that for four years now.

Even when the Colts didn’t have much of a chance, he’s always been there to set the tone.

When people are talking about the NFL’s best defensive tackles, Buckner should always be mentioned in the first two or three names.

And by the time he’s done in Indianapolis — shoot, probably right now — Buckner should be recognized as one of the best Colts defenders in franchise history.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts: Can we appreciate DeForest Buckner's greatness for once?