In a salary-cap league like the NFL, finding building blocks is essential. As teams churn and burn the roster through the draft and bargain signings in free agency, it helps to find the players who are either a cut above the rest or can perform a task few others can. They relieve the pressure on everyone.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be ranking the 15 most essential players to the Colts' success in 2024. It's a subjective process, weighing factors such as ability, positional value within a scheme, age, leadership and durability.

To make it simpler, we're asking the following two questions about these players:

1. How difficult would he be to replace for more than a month?

2. What does the Colts' 2024 ceiling become if this player hits his?

With the return of Anthony Richardson from shoulder surgery, the Colts’ outlook is on the future but also on the present after a 9-8 season fell a fourth-down conversion short of winning the AFC South. This list will primarily look at 2024 value, but certain players' development for the long-term can help to break ties along the way.

Up first is No. 15, Kwity Paye.

Position: Defensive end

Age: 25

Experience: 4th season

2023 stats: 52 tackles, 8.5 sacks, 8 tackles-for-loss, 2 forced fumbles and 2 fumble recoveries with 16 starts in 16 games

Last year's rank: Did not make list

Why he's here: The Colts once drafted Paye with the 21st overall pick with hopes that he could develop into a three-down player who sets a ferocious edge and can be the team's top rusher on passing downs. Three years into the experiment, they've gotten somewhat of the way there.

Paye is, indeed, a dominant edge setter. On a career-high 282 run snaps last season, Paye delivered career bests with 53 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, a 2.2-yard average depth of tackle and zero missed tackles, according to Sports Info Solutions. It was his best year but just an evolution of the dominant run defender he came into the league as, one who allowed Shaquille Leonard to roam free behind him and for slender edge rushers to rip off at least nine sacks opposite him, the way that Yannick Ngakoue and Samson Ebukam have the past two seasons.

But as a pass rusher, Paye's somewhere in a range that feels slightly above average. He had a career-high 8.5 sacks last season, but that also came in a career-high 16 games. His pressure rate has slipped in three straight seasons, leveling off at 8.3% last season, which ranked outside the top 70 among high-volume rushers, according to SIS.

Paye's balanced skill set mostly fit in nicely with a Colts defensive line that combined for 51 sacks, good for fourth in the league, but did not boast a single player in the double-digits. But late in the season, when teams slid into max protection to combat it, he was one of the players who couldn't beat those double teams to close out victories.

And that's what led the Colts to spend the No. 15 pick on another edge rusher in Laiatu Latu. But they also picked up Paye's fifth-year option for 2025, locking in a $13.4 million salary. It all goes to show the middle ground he's living in.

In an ideal world, Paye can take a step forward this year with new defensive line coach in Charlie Partridge, who has a track record of maximizing the rush plans for high-end college rushers in a way Paye needed at Michigan and never received. If he can return to the double-digit pressure rate he had as a rookie in 2021, he'll give the Colts a three-down "big end" to play opposite Latu. He can still become a very good No. 2 rusher.

But given his durability and opportunity last season, it feels like the ceiling for Paye might have already flashed. It's superb in the run game but more complementary in the pass game, which makes him a key piece at a premium position but not one holding the keys at the Colts' deepest position.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Most essential Colts No. 15: Does Kwity Paye have another level?