Indianapolis Colts rookie starting linebacker CJ Allen, who was originally a top candidate to don the infamous green dot during training camp, will assume such duties for the first time in his NFL career on Sunday at home against the Dallas Cowboys.

As starting veteran linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither (knee) was already ruled out, the green dot duties at the 2nd level of the Indy defense will now transition to Allen, who at MIKE, will be making his 2nd career NFL start.

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With Davis-Gaither unlikely to be re-signed as a veteran free agent at year-end, it’s quite possible that the Colts will let Allen don the defense’s lone built-in radio speaker and handle communicating the defensive play-calling to his on-the-field Indianapolis teammates the rest of the way.

There’d be no real reason not to, unless it goes poorly.

Allen was one of the few silver linings during last Sunday’s blowout road loss the Jacksonville Jaguars, recording a team-high 10 tackles to go along with a sack. He projects to be a potential key piece to the Colts defensive core if he can continue to improve and develop after such an encouraging debut start last weekend.

That being said, he’ll be handling an important job duty, and one that was already the center of an unnecessarily self-inflicted controversy to start the Colts’ disappointing 2026 season—as veteran safety Cam Bynum initially handled green dot duties in the Colts Week 1 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

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There was a number of breakdowns and Colts defensive players being out of position, as Bynum was forced to run from down the field and the backend of the Indy secondary to relay the defensive play-calling to his teammates, which didn’t provide them as much opportunity to communicate and get set pre-snap. At that time, the Colts were the only team not to use a linebacker for handling green dot duties, and it cost them in Week 1.

Here’s hoping Allen’s green dot debut goes a lot smoother!