8/2 indy star

[JAFF]

Insider: Who will emerge as starting cornerbacks out of young Colts group?
Joel A. Erickson
Indianapolis Star

WESTFIELD — The Colts are taking a risk at cornerback this season.

Indianapolis traded Stephon Gilmore to the Cowboys in March, let Brandon Facyson leave for the Raiders in free agency, then shockingly lost third-year cornerback Isaiah Rodgers Sr. to a gambling investigation during the summer. Kenny Moore II is still around to anchor for the position.

But the Colts defense needs to identify at least two more starting-caliber cornerbacks beyond Moore II, and instead of signing a veteran, Indianapolis is relying on starters to emerge from a group of three draft picks and two undrafted free agents in just their second seasons in the NFL.

Indianapolis defensive backs coach Ron Milus has been coaching in the NFL for two decades. He can’t remember ever having a group this young before.


“You know, I was thinking about that,” Milus said. “No. Not this young, where you’re counting on guys who weren’t here a year ago.”

Cornerbacks played 2,904 snaps for the Colts defense last season. Gilmore, Facyson and Rodgers, Sr. played 1,948 of those snaps, or 67.1%. Moore II took 773 of the remaining 956 snaps.


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Faced with that lack of experience on the outside, a lot of teams would have signed at least one proven veteran. Faced with a similar lack of experienced depth at the position last offseason, the Colts signed both Gilmore and Facyson.

This time, Indianapolis decided to stand pat.

More:Here are 6 cornerback options the Colts could sign to replace Isaiah Rodgers Sr. if needed


“I remember, going back in ’19. … Vontae (Davis) was gone, we had claimed Kenny Moore II the year before,” Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard said. “We kind of made that decision after the season: ‘Look, we’re going to go young again.’”

Moore II’s emergence, along with a career year from veteran Pierre Desir and a surprising second half from Quincy Wilson, helped the Colts come roaring back to make the playoffs.

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Now, Indianapolis needs a couple of players to emerge again. The Colts used a second-round pick on Kansas State’s JuJu Brents, a fifth-round pick on South Carolina’s Darius Rush, a seventh-round pick on Texas A&M’s Jaylon Jones and added them to a group that included Dallis Flowers, who played 174 defensive snaps for the Colts in December, and Darrell Baker Jr., an undrafted free agent who spent most of the season on the practice squad, along with veteran special teamer Tony Brown.

“We feel like we have a good, young cornerback group,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “But we need to see.”

Five practices into training camp, the Colts haven’t been able to see enough yet.

Brents, the 6-3, 198-pound Warren Central product expected to compete for a starting role, hasn’t practiced for his hometown team yet. The rookie missed practice in the spring due to offseason wrist surgery, and he’s been held out of training camp so far due to a hamstring injury.

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“It’ll be interesting to see where JuJu is at,” Milus said. “The off-the-field, the classroom stuff has been awesome. Hopefully, when he gets out there, he’ll show exactly what he’s capable of doing.”

Rush, like Brents, hasn’t been on the field much yet.

A shoulder injury knocked the 6-2, 198-pounder out of training camp after the first couple of days, and he missed several weeks of the team’s spring practices due to a hamstring injury.

“When Darius was out there during OTAs, I want to say he had four interceptions in the limited reps,” Milus said. “That’s one thing we’ve been harping on this offseason, we’ve got to up-tempo our interception total, and he flashed at us, as far as that’s concerned.”

Jones, listed at 6-2, 203, has been on the field so far, and in at least one practice, he broke up two passes, including a deep ball from Anthony Richardson to Vyncint Smith, displaying some of the length and leaping ability the Colts liked when they drafted him.

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For the most part, though, the Indianapolis coaches haven’t seen much of the rookies, and the young cornerbacks obviously need to be on the field to earn a starting spot. To Milus’ recollection, he hasn’t opened the season with a rookie starting at cornerback in nearly a decade.

“It’s been a few years,” Milus said. “Jason Verrett, when I was with the Chargers, he started as a rookie.”

Verrett was a rookie in 2014.

Beyond the three rookies, though, are two second-year players with almost as little experience as the three lengthy, prototypical Gus Bradley-style cornerbacks the Colts drafted.

Flowers, a 6-1, 196-pounder who led the NFL by averaging 31.1 yards per kickoff return last season, caught Milus’ eye last offseason. A freakishly gifted athlete, Flowers has all the tools to be a successful cornerback in the NFL, and he’s been playing with the starters at the beginning of training camp.

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Back in March, before the Colts found out about Rodgers, Sr.’s violations of the NFL’s gambling policy, Flowers and Rodgers were the two returning players Ballard cited as reasons for optimism at the cornerback position. With Rodgers off the roster, Flowers moved into the top returning spot.

“It’s a blessing in disguise,” Flowers said. “Isaiah, that’s our brother, we all wish him well — he’s going to be fine, he’s going to be good. But it’s definitely a blessing to be able to have this opportunity to showcase my skills, my talent.”

Baker Jr., is the wild card, the player who might be taking advantage of all the injuries to the rookies.

Undrafted out of Georgia Southern a year ago, Baker Jr. caught on with the Colts practice squad after spending training camp with the Arizona Cardinals. When he returned for the start of the offseason, the 6-1, 190-pounder made an impression right away.

“He’s come a long way from a guy, I didn’t even really know who he was,” Milus said. “Right now, he’s playing with our 1’s at times.”

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Colts camp observations:Unheralded CB makes plays, LBs hit hard, Richardson sits

Indianapolis needs true starters to emerge from that group.

Cornerback play, particularly Gilmore’s, was key to the defense’s first-half success last season, and if Moore II is going to be recast in his previous role as a dynamite disrupter out of the slot, Indianapolis has to have solid players on the outside.

“Look, we’re going to have some up-and-down play back there,” Ballard said. “We think we’ve got a good core group of talented corners that just have to play and get better.”

Time will tell if the Colts are right.

[JAFF]

I think I missed this one, yesterday, tablet giving me fits today

Meet the Colts running backs stepping up with Jonathan Taylor, Zack Moss out
Nate Atkins
Indianapolis Star







WESTFIELD − Jonathan Taylor stood off to the side as the Colts broke out the pads for the first time in training camp. It was a spotlight day for a backfield getting younger by the practice.

“We’re not running away from any contact," third-year running back Deon Jackson said. "We’re not running away from any smoke.”

The hits came fast and furious and sometimes devastatingly. Zack Moss emerged through a hole in 11-on-11 drills and felt Zaire Franklin's thunderous boom and the hoots and hollers from his fellow defenders.

On a hit a few moments later, Moss didn't get up so well. He felt something in his arm snap, and he took his helmet and spiked it to the turf. Moments later, he'd walk off the grass fields and discover that he'd broken the arm and is now set to miss around six weeks.


That loss, along with Taylor's looming absence on the Physically Unable to Perform List amid a contract standoff and trade demand with the franchise, has opened the door to four less heralded players.

The room now consists of Jackson, sixth-round Northwestern rookie Evan Hull, second-year undrafted player Jake Funk and undrafted Maine rookie Zavier Scott.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew (10) hands off to Indianapolis Colts running back Evan Hull (26) on Monday, July 31, 2023, during training camp at the Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana.
MORE:10 thoughts on Jonathan Taylor's contract standoff with the Colts, where it goes from here

They combine for 81 career carries for 267 yards and two touchdowns in the NFL, all belonging to Jackson. It's a way off from Taylor, who had 1,811 yards, 18 touchdowns and a rushing title all in 2021 alone.


But for as long as Taylor and Moss are out, these are the young men who will make up the committee Shane Steichen will lean on for what was supposed to be one of the most run-heavy offenses in the NFL.

"It’s a solid group – smart, young guys in there that have played some football," Steichen said. "... Whoever’s got the hot hand rolls.”


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This is bittersweet opportunity, which is the genesis of training camp. Players compete against their teammates for a limited number of roster spots. Injuries happen, playing time disappears and reappears somewhere else. Someone wins and someone loses sometimes.

Taylor watches the group every day, often with his hood up and in silence. But he's not sulking in the moments outside of practice when it's him and his guys again.

“Even though he’s not out there on the field, he’s still in meetings every day. He’s in the locker room with us. He’s preparing everyone else to step up," Jackson said. "He understands that at the end of the day, it’s a business.”

Indianapolis Colts running back Deon Jackson has a chance to secure another steady role with the team for a second straight season.
It's a business, and these practices are the time to carve out a line of work. That's getting harder and harder in the NFL at the running back position, where Pro Bowlers like Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott remain free agents and where the past two rushing champions, Taylor and Las Vegas' Josh Jacobs, are sitting out without extensions.

But that's not the attitude resting in the Colts' young hodgepodge. They don't come in with the expectations of the above names. Only the dreams.

Hull has known since his first year playing youth football that he was destined to be a running back. A coach dropped a football into his belly and sent him through a hole, and in a way he's been running ever since.


Doyel:Spat between Colts, Jonathan Taylor is the biggest, dumbest story of training camp

“I think it just creates more grit within you knowing that everything you do, it means something," Hull said of the team's state of running backs. "I take a lot of pride in being a running back. I’m going to continue to do that and continue to show my skill set in the passing game. The NFL is a passing league.”

That's the point Hull and Jackson hammered home after Monday's practice, as they try to orient themselves to a sport that isn't like the highlight tapes they idolized growing up. They are running backs, and teams still employ them and need them, like a Colts team that wants a stable in order to run many Run-Pass-Option concepts with No. 4 overall pick Anthony Richardson.

Third downs are what make players money, and Hull seemed keenly aware of it as he grew up studying Christian McCaffrey and Alvin Kamara, the two backs who currently earn more than $15 million per season. Though it took some time to see it in himself.

“In high school, I couldn’t really catch the ball for real," Hull said. "That’s something I had to hone into. That was one of my weaknesses, and I wanted to turn my weakness into my strength.”


It took off at Northwestern, where he asked his coaches to help develop his routes and work on his hands until it felt more natural. It paid off in his final two seasons, when he caught 88 passes for 810 yards and four touchdowns total.

That helped him get drafted in the sixth round by the Colts, who at the time were planning to roll with Taylor but needed another third-down option after trading Nyheim Hines to the Bills.

Hull was set up to battle for the third running back spot this camp with Jackson, who flashed last year with 30 catches for 209 yards and a score. But now, thanks to the injuries and Taylor's contract situation, the two could have a chance to secure roster spots with their play.

It would bring Jackson full-circle, back to his senior year of high school, when he was playing wide receiver and his team's starting running back broke his leg. His coach asked him to make the move, and his parents disagreed at first, until they saw what he could do. He landed a scholarship to Duke and eventually a ticket to the NFL.

As an undrafted free agent, he first found his footing on special teams, which are always a focus for the Colts' No. 3 running back role. But last year featured 98 touches, a bright spot amid Taylor's six-game absence for a high-ankle sprain. The coaches asked him to develop as a pass protector to see action on the field and then rewarded the growth.

This camp is a strangely motivating time now that the pathway for playing time is clear but the rewards that await are not. It's hard to know what any running back's career arc will look like from here one out, but these young men are eager to find out.

“I made it to where I wanted to make it to. I’m in the NFL," Jackson said. "I’m taking what was given to me and I’m running with it.”

[JAFF]

'Tough deal': Tony Dungy discusses why Colts let Edgerrin James enter free agency in 2006
Scott Horner
Indianapolis Star







One of the prevailing themes of this NFL offseason and training camp has been running back value. The Indianapolis Colts know that all too well as they deal with a contentious situation involving Jonathan Taylor.

Tony Dungy is familiar with this issue. The Super Bowl-winning Colts coach joined the "Dan Patrick Show" on Wednesday, and discussed how the Colts handled Edgerrin James after the 2005 season.

"That was a tough deal," Dungy said. "Edgerrin was the heart and soul of our team."

Dungy said that personnel boss Bill Polian said that the Colts either had to lock up James at a salary lower than he could get in free agency, or they should let him go.


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The reasons were twofold: The 2006 NFL Draft included running backs Maurice Jones-Drew, Joseph Addai and Laurence Maroney, who − while not matching James' skill − could ably play the spot at a much lower cost. Also, the money not paid to James could be applied to others in free agency down the road. Dungy cited Dwight Freeney, Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne.

"(We) stayed as a Super Bowl contender for a number of years, just because you used your money wisely," Dungy said.


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The Colts selected Addai 30th in 2006, and he rushed for 1,081 yards as a rookie as the Colts beat the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl. He played six seasons for the Colts, including another Super Bowl appearance.

James, who played seven years for the Colts, signed with the Arizona Cardinals for four years and $30 million. He played three years in Arizona and one more in Seattle. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"Best running back I've been around," Dungy said of James, citing his running, catching and pass protection skills.

Jones-Drew was selected in the second round in 2006 by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and played eight years for them and one for the Raiders. Maroney was taken 21st overall by New England, where he played for four years, before one more in Denver.

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The specific question to Dungy was in regard to Las Vegas' Josh Jacobs, who is holding out of training camp.

Dungy said Jacobs should return to the Raiders, play, then get as much money as he can as a free agent.

"It's not fair, but that's life," Dungy said.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by JAFF

I think I missed this one, yesterday, tablet giving me fits today

It is encouraging that Taylor is helping the other RBs.