Safety Nick Cross leads the NFL in tackles. Here's why that's more about him than the Colts' run defense. 

It's not always a good thing if a safety leads your team in tackles.

That can be a sign running backs are breaking through the first and second levels of a defense, forcing a team's last line of defense to either make a play – or give up a touchdown.

But in the case of Colts safety Nick Cross, he's not just tied with linebacker E.J. Speed for his team's lead with 47 tackles. Cross, the third-year safety from Maryland, is tied with Speed for the most tackles in the NFL entering Week 5.

And he's on a historic pace for a player at his position.

Cross' tackle total, though, is not necessarily a marker of weakness for the Colts' defense, which did struggle against the run through the first six quarters of the 2024 season. It's moreso a marker of strength for Cross, who's seized his opportunity this year after two uneven seasons to begin his NFL career.

Cross, who turned 23 in September, is younger than 152 of the 257 players selected in 2024 NFL Draft (59 percent). That's notable here because Cross was selected by the Colts in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

"I feel like the more you do something, the more comfortable you get, the more your ability shows and you're able to go out there – less thinking, more just being able to go out there and do it," Cross said. "At the end of the day, I have a great skillset, great ability. Reps bring comfortability, and comfortability brings confidence. That's what has been going so far."

Let's start here by putting Cross' 47 tackles into some context. No safety has had more tackles over the first four games of a season than Cross:

It's early, so don't read too much into this, but Cross is on pace for 200 tackles – which would shatter Hall of Famer Steve Atwater's record for a safety of 173 tackles (and teammate Zaire Franklin's franchise record of 179 tackles set last year). No safety has had over 150 tackles in a season since the late Pat Tillman had 155 in 2000; the most recent high water mark is 147 tackles, set by the Arizona Cardinals' Budda Baker (2019) and the Houston Texans' Jalen Pitre (2022).

Some of these numbers are skewed by who the Colts have played early in the season – the Green Bay Packers ran the ball 53 times against the Colts in Week 2, becoming just the fifth team in the last five seasons to have 50 or more rushing attempts in a single game. That'll lead to plenty of tackles to go around.

Still, that doesn't wipe away what Cross has done through the first quarter of the season.

Twenty-seven of Cross' 47 tackles have been against the run, most among safeties by a wide margin (Baker, a six-time Pro Bowler, is second with 21). Within those run tackles, nine have resulted in a gain of three or fewer yards, tied for the second-most in the NFL among safeties (behind only Baker).

Cross has always possessed a certain blend of speed and physicality, but he's playing with the kind of instincts and discipline the Colts need from the strong safety position in Gus Bradley's defense.

"He's a great athlete, and when he comes to hit, he takes pride in it," Speed said. "I'm proud of Nick. ... He's striving and he's making jumps and he's being the person we knew he could be."

Bradley's defense asks a lot of its strong safety, from communication to coverage to run fits. That's why Cross, as a rookie, was benched in Week 2 for veteran Rodney McLeod Jr., who finished that season with a career high 96 tackles. Last year, the Colts moved Julian Blackmon from free safety to strong safety, where he racked up a career high 88 tackles (with Blackmon at strong safety, when Cross played last year it was primarily at free safety, which is more the traditional last-line-of-defense position).

There's a trend here. In 2021, Bradley's lone season as the Las Vegas Raiders' defensive coordinator, safety Jonathan Abram had 116 tackles, 30 more than his previous career high. In his four years as the Los Angeles Chargers' defensive coordinator (2017-2020), Bradley had four safeties total at least 80 tackles in a season.

Cross, though, is taking Bradley's charge to commit to defending the run to another level so far in 2024.

"The strong safety position, just like with E.J., he's going to be around the ball a lot," Bradley said. "I give Nick a lot of credit now. He's been a guy like the last three games or so that you're really starting to see him get comfortable in what is asked of him and he's playing fast. Here's the guy that played free safety and was just getting into the feel of it, and then we moved into strong safety and there was really no hitch.

"He's a bigger, physical-type player, so he can hold up in the box. He does a good job with his keys and using his hands and things like that. So he's playing pretty well for us right now.

"The strong safety, whether it's in split safety or down in the box, he's going to be around the ball a lot and going to have opportunities to make a lot of plays and we like his physical nature that he's playing with right now."

Cross' impressive stats square with impressive tape, too. Among Cross' notable plays against the run this year: With the Pittsburgh Steelers facing a second-and-three on their own 37-yard line in the first quarter in Week 4, Cross lined up as a de facto linebacker around the same depth as Speed and Franklin. At the snap, he patiently waited for an opening in the B-gap (between the right guard and right tackle), then accelerated through it to tackle running back Najee Harris, holding him to a gain of just one yard. The Steelers, two plays later, turned the ball over on downs when Franklin blew up quarterback Justin Fields on a fourth-and-one run.

Among safeties with at least 50 run defense snaps this season, Cross has the third-highest Pro Football Focus run defense grade:

The Colts' run defense, as a whole, has rebounded after a rough start to the season. From the Packers' fourth drive of Week 2 through the end of Week 4, the Colts allowed 254 rushing yards on 87 attempts (2.9 yards/carry). And Cross, while finishing tackle after tackle, has been a key part of that turnaround.

"I've always felt like I had a knack for the football," Cross said. "I had a knack for just making plays – timely plays when they need to be made. God gave me a great skillset, great ability. Couple that with good work ethic and great coaching and great teammates around, it allows you to go out there and play free and go out there. They give you the confidence to go out there and take chances and make plays when you need to make plays. At the end of the day, it's been something I've done since I started playing in high school – just going out there trying to make plays, trying to help the team win."