With cornerback and safety ‘wide open,’ consistency will determine Colts starters
Coming out of the 2024 NFL draft, the cornerback and safety positions largely remain question marks for the Indianapolis Colts, with those two position groups “wide open,” as defensive coordinator Gus Bradley put it on Wednesday.
The only certainties at those two positions right now are that Kenny Moore will be in the slot and Julian Blackmon will be at strong safety. Everything else is up for grabs.
“It’s really wide open,” said Bradley of the cornerback position. “Now we got Dallo (Dallis Flowers) coming back, and JuJu (Brents) and JJ (Jaylon Jones), so I really like that part of it. I think for us, it’s the skill set, the length, the speed, now it’s just the consistency.
“Who’s going to step up and be that guy that takes the next step as a corner. Kenny we feel real good about and what he brings and trust Kenny and his consistency. But with those other guys it’s play in and play out, who can play at the standard we’re looking for.”
Injuries and inexperience were factors that the Colts secondary had to deal with in 2023. Flowers suffered an Achilles injury in Week 4, while Brents would appear in only nine games.
As was to be expected, to a degree, when relying heavily on young players, this was a very inconsistent group where big plays were surrendered too often, and not enough plays were being made on the football.
The Colts’ defense finished the season ranking in the bottom half of the NFL in explosive pass plays allowed and 22nd in both yards per pass attempt given up and pass breakups.
“Like I said, sometimes the inconsistency,” said Bradley on the root of the issues last season. There was three or four games where we look back and say it just wasn’t us, and what was the culprit of it, explosive passes and things like that, whether it was a bust coverage here and there. But I think in those times, we’ve just got to make sure the young guys play at their highest level.”
On the back end of the Colts’ defense, the deep safety role next to Blackmon is also considered wide-open.
After a strong rookie season from Rodney Thomas in 2022, he took a step back in 2023, allowing 21.2 yards per catch, along with missing twice as many tackles.
Thomas will be competing for that starting free safety spot with Nick Cross and Daniel Scott, a fifth-round pick by the Colts in 2023 who missed the entire season with an injury.
“I think Rodney and Nick and Daniel, all those guys at safety, it’s just which one is going to come to the top,” said Bradley. “I think that a guy like Rodney, his first year a good year, second year struggled at times, but it feels like, just in the short time being back with him now, it’s like, you know what, I’ve learned from that, that’s not happening again. He’s kind of got that mindset. It feels like a pretty competitive group back there.
“And I think Nick, we tried him at strong and he can play strong, but I think even looking back at him at college, when he sees things top down, his comfort level and his speed picks up. He’s in a pretty good mindset now. It’ll just play out and we will see what we come up with.”
During GM Chis Ballard’s pre-draft press conference, he, of course, acknowledged that the play in the secondary had to improve. However, he sounded bullish on that happening.
Ballard would note the importance of getting Flowers back at cornerback, along with the experience gained by young players like Jones and Brents, and how that needs to be a catalyst behind improved play in 2024.
The fact that the Colts didn’t add to the cornerback positions until the fifth and sixth rounds of the draft shows that they feel better about the group that they have than what the general perception outside of the building is.
With that said, after the draft, Ballard did say they would “investigate” the free agent market, adding that there are still some “good players out there.”
Whether the Colts add to the cornerback or safety positions, as the competition among both groups unfolds over the summer, a deciding factor in who will win those starting jobs will be the level of consistency that they are able to play with. It sounds simple, but it’s something that eluded this unit last season.
“It’s pretty cool to see now,” said Bradley, “anytime that you have consistency, with players, coaches, it gives you a chance. Obviously, decisions have to be made, we all understand that part, but I think as players, if they can be in the system a couple of years into it gives them a chance to play faster.
“And now with the older guys starting to understand the system, you’re starting to see the accountability. Hey, this is how it needs to look rather than just the coaches showing them what it looks like, the players have an understanding of what it looks like.”
