The Colts' words about their cornerbacks this year have been backed up by their actions – or, maybe, lack of actions.
From January through the spring, general manager Chris Ballard and Colts coaches have highlighted the collective upside they see in a trio of young cornerbacks: JuJu Brents, Dallis Flowers and Jaylon Jones. And as training camp begins next week, it'll be those three players competing to earn two starting roles in the Colts' defense.
"They're long, rangy guys that are physical when they get up and press, they've got good vision," head coach Shane Steichen said. "I love those guys. It's a good room – good competition there."
The Colts in free agency retained Kenny Moore II, who's proven to be one of the league's top slot cornerbacks over the last half-decade. And cornerbacks Jaylin Simpson and Micah Abraham were added in the fifth and sixth rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft, respectively.
So the Colts didn't do nothing at cornerback. But the lack of a major addition, either via free agency or a Day 1 or 2 NFL Draft pick, speaks to the confidence the team has in Brents, Flowers and Jones.
Ballard, back in April, compared his view of the Colts' cornerback room to how he evaluated the team's then-maligned offensive line after the 2022 season (no changes were made to the starting personnel; the Colts had one of the league's best O-line units in 2023).
"I think they've grown up. It's been fun to watch them," Ballard said. "Once you play 16, 17 games in this league you've grown up to the fact where you are no longer a rookie. I think we will see better play out of them. It's kind of like the (butt) whipping you all gave the O-line two years ago. 'The O-line sucks. They can't play.' I kept going, 'Man, the second half of the season I didn't think it was that bad.' There were some individual moments of course, but I think they got better as they played. I think they got better as they played, and I think they will continue to get better."
A couple of stats to know about Brents, Flowers and Jones:
- Brents had a 90.8 PFF man coverage grade, the second-highest among cornerbacks in 2023 (Seattle's Tariq Woolen was at 91.0).
- Flowers allowed an explosive play (15+ yards) on 0.6 percent of his snaps, the fifth-lowest rate among cornerbacks with at least 150 coverage snaps in 2023.
- Jones ranked seventh in yards per coverage snap allowed (0.72) and ninth in yards allowed per target (5.8).
What these show is what you saw on tape last year – Brents is a menace in man coverage (think about his three-PBU game against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 17), while Flowers and Jones largely limited explosive plays when they were targeted in coverage.
Simpson and Abraham will push this trio during training camp, too. And whichever two from this group become starters (the Colts primarily play nickel personnel, with three cornerbacks on the field: Moore in the slot and two outside corners), they'll have to earn it through training camp and preseason games.
"I think it's really wide open," defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said in May. "You have (Dallis Flowers) coming back and JuJu and JJ (Jaylon Jones). We really like that part of it. I think for us it's the skillset, the length, the speed. Now it's just the consistency. Who is going to step up and be that guy that takes the next step there as a corner? Kenny we feel really good about and what he brings. We trust Kenny and his consistency. With those other guys it's play in and play out, who can play at the standard we're looking to play at?"
