Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Kenny Moore II, JuJu Brents Critical to Defense's Success in 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 The most polarizing position group on the Colts is gonna be fine. True or false? Let's get to it. You are locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen team every day. All right. Thanks for tuning in and making us your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:00:34 your team every day. And today's show is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off of your first purchase. Terms apply. What is up, everybody? This is Jake Arthur of HorseshoeHuddle.com. I'm a member of the Colts Media.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And today, solo, I am continuing our review of each position group on the Colts. Most recently, we did the linebackers talked about how Zyra Franklin and EJ Speed are underrated, but they do still have some things to improve upon. And today is arguably the most polarizing group on the roster, and that's the cornerbacks. It is a group where all offseason, locally, nationally, everybody seemed to say, this is the group that you really need to upgrade and do something with before the season starts. And the Colts stood pat and said, we like our guys. We're counting on this young group to develop and get even better. And hopefully with a little bit of luck, stay healthier than last year.

Starting point is 00:01:42 So last off season, GM Chris Ballard told everybody that it was intentional that they wanted to get younger in the secondary. It's just something they knew they had to do. They traded Stephon Gilmore with a year left on his contract. He kind of wanted to go to greener pastures in the latter portions of his career. So they traded him to the Cowboys. Brandon face on, they let him walk. They drafted three corners that year with Juju Brents, Jalen Jones, and Darius Rush. Rush, just with a numbers game, didn't make the cut for the season, but he is still floating out there in the NFL as well. He's bounced around to a couple couple teams. But Brents pretty much held down the Colts' top outside cornerback spot when he was healthy.

Starting point is 00:02:29 He was only able to play in nine of the 17 games. Unfortunately for him, injuries were really the story of his whole season. When he was on the field, he was pretty good. But, you know, when he drafted, he was recovering from wrist surgery. And then training camp starts, and he's got a hamstring injury. And then about midway through the season, there's a quad injury. And ultimately, again, allowed him to just play nine games. Jalen Jones was a seventh round pick, but he stood out right away.

Starting point is 00:03:00 Like during OTAs and minicamp and everything, he looked really good. Turns out, you know, Dallas Flowers goes down with a season-ending Achilles injury and Brents has his injuries. And lo and behold, here comes Jalen Jones ready to hold down the fort and perform way beyond what a seventh round pick ought to do. The struggles of Daryl Baker Jr. kind of helped lead to that as well. So all of that together, you've got injuries in that cornerback group, especially with Flowers coming off an Achilles injury. That's a season ender, and it's not something that guys always come back from even better. Luckily for Flowers, it was only his second season in the league,

Starting point is 00:03:43 so he's pretty young and resilient at this point. But, you know, you've got one of your starters in Flowers who is coming off the injury. You've got Brents who is only able to play half the season due to his various injuries. Darryl Baker Jr., who was one of your starters going into the season, was benched pretty quickly multiple, because he had that really rough game there at the end of Cleveland as well. So you had guys who were injured and were playing

Starting point is 00:04:14 inconsistently. And so for obvious reasons, everyone was like, all right, maybe you don't need wholesale changes there, but it would be good to have at least one other guy in there who's capable of starting. Again, like I mentioned, the Colts were firm. They said, we like the guys we've got, and they're placing their bets on these guys to develop and stay healthy. And so that leads us into the guys who would pretty much know are the top two at this point just from their roles at the end of the season. And then I've had the benefit of, you know, watching Colts OTA practices, watching the mandatory mini camp. And I can say pretty confidently that Juju Brents and Kenny Moore are the

Starting point is 00:04:56 Colts top two cornerbacks and base defense, which isn't a lot. Those are going to be your two outside guys. Cause although people, I mean, Kenny Moore is your nickel corner, but he's more than that. He's a thousand snap guy. He's someone who plays a hundred percent of your snaps. He never really leaves the field. So he's in the slot when it comes time for those packages. But when it's not, he is on the outside. Juju is going to be the incumbent. The other guy on the outside, second round pick last year, obviously. And like I mentioned, when Brents was on the field, he was pretty good. And like right away too, early in the season, the Colts faced the Ravens. In that very first game, he like had a forced fumble and recovered the same one.

Starting point is 00:05:36 Like the guy was making plays pretty quickly. He finished with 43 tackles, one forced fumble, one recovered, like I mentioned, had a pick as well in six pass breakups. According to Pro Football Focus, he was the Colts' third-best graded corner with a grade of 63.2, and that was behind Kenny and Dallas Flowers. Also only allowed 66.7% of completions thrown toward him. So Brent's a pretty solid year, something that only

Starting point is 00:06:06 is halfway told in the box score and is very, very valuable is his willingness to tackle. I don't think it's much of a coincidence that the Colts' top two corners are probably their two best tacklers as well. Kenny is outstanding and Juju, you know, maybe not always the most accurate tackler, but very willing to come and lay a hit. And for a corner, an outside player to be able to be that physical, I think is very, very valuable. So Juju, obviously, you know, he's got the size, he's aggressive, he's got the ball skills.

Starting point is 00:06:41 You want that guy as a starter. Kenny, obviously, for the second time, the Colts made him the highest paid slot defender in the NFL this offseason. Three years, $30 million contract. They get $16 million guaranteed. Although there was a season there where it was rocky. First year under Gus Bradley, Moore has settled in. He's gotten very comfortable. Actually, last year, kind of when he was reborn into this defense, he was rededicated to it. According to Pro Football Focus, it was his best season of his career with a grade of 77.4. I think he's very comfortably the Colts cornerback

Starting point is 00:07:21 one, especially when you consider their grades with that 77-4. He also had a career-high eight tackles for loss, like I mentioned. That's a guy that's only like 5'9", but for him to be so willing to tackle and make plays and affect the game in that way, like if you throw a screen pass over towards Kenny Moore, it's probably going to be a problem for you. And then Bryce Young, if you're even just a little bit late looking for something on the outside, you have those two pick sixes against the Panthers against, you know, a young quarterback who is for Bryce

Starting point is 00:07:55 Young playing uncharacteristically, but for a lot of young quarterbacks, you know, they're, they're going to be making mistakes like that. and the Colts face a lot of them this year. So good news for the Colts is that these two are their starters. Coming up here in a minute, it really gets interesting in the cornerback room behind these two, because there is a battle for that third cornerback spot, the second boundary corner spot. And then there's really battles all throughout this depth chart. This is one of the deeper groups on the roster when it comes to spots that are actually open. So we'll go ahead and talk about those here in a moment. All right, the NBA is over. And so MLB is kind of king right now. And GameTime is an authorized

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Starting point is 00:10:34 And of course, it's part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, so let's talk about this. One of the more intriguing battles that we're going to see in camp this year. That is for outside cornerback to overall cornerback three. And that's Dallas Flowers versus Jalen Jones. So Flowers had that job entering last season. He suffered an Achilles injury in week five that ended his season. Jalen Jones, like I mentioned, seventh rounder that came in and played really, really well. He played and he was in all 17 games, made 10 starts, had 44 tackles, including one for loss and five pass breakups.

Starting point is 00:11:13 His 54.4 percent completion percentage against him was the best on the Colts and it was the 10th best in the NFL. So flat out, that guy just did not allow a lot of receptions. Now, he obviously doesn't come with interception numbers. I do think he had like one that was called back by penalty, but that's not a guy with the greatest ball skills, at least not if last season is an indicator, but a guy who's a decent coverage cornerback nonetheless. Now, when you look at Flowers, that is someone with probably better ball skills, better athleticism. He did finish second on the Colts in pro football focus grade with a 66.4 behind only Kenny Moore. Again, only played in four games, started all four of them, 15 tackles,

Starting point is 00:11:59 one for loss and three pass breakups. This one's really interesting for me because Jones, you got to imagine he's going to get a little better. I don't know how much better, but he's, he was starting very early on in his career at Texas A&M. And then, you know, he, he's already given you solid play and has exceeded expectations, but is that what you're shooting for? Or are you going for someone with perhaps a little more potential in Dallas Flowers? Again, we've seen what Flowers can do athletically. That's why they also had him as the kickoff returner formerly two years ago.

Starting point is 00:12:36 He is someone who you watch him, and in spurts, he can make some really acrobatic, spectacular plays, whether it's in the preseason or in some short glimpses in the like six regular season games that he's had. You know, he is someone who I really like his mentality. He may not win every rep, you know, he's going to give up some catches occasionally. But again, that athleticism and the tenacity, aggressiveness against the ball, I really, really like. And he has something you really want in a cornerback, which is like, it's not cocky, but he's very, very confident with that short memory. He always thinks he's going to, you know, be the better player on the rep every time.

Starting point is 00:13:18 He wants to be the guy considered the starter. He does not shy away from wanting that title of being a really, really good player. A lot of guys are really humble. You know, I'm just here to help my team, you know, this and that. Flowers is a team player, of course, but he's got that, you know, I'm the man mentality of a corner. And again, with the short memory, when he does lose some of those reps, just flush it behind him and move on to the next and have that confidence that he's gonna um he's gonna dominate the rest of the game so i do really like what

Starting point is 00:13:51 flowers brings to the table jones has proven himself as well and i think that's what makes this honestly a really good even battle from what i've seen in the practices so far this offseason i do think jones has has the slightest edge on Flowers. He seems to be getting – they're splitting first-team reps, but it's usually Jones who's up first. Obviously, Jones is not coming off of an Achilles injury. So I do think the Colts will give these guys even opportunities to win this thing and see who's going to do it.

Starting point is 00:14:23 But regardless, I think they're both going to play. I think the Colts easily have four corners locked into this room. I'd be shocked if any of those top four that we've talked about so far didn't make it. And as we've seen in the past, health is far from a guarantee, especially in this cornerback room. So all four of these guys are going to play at some point. Hopefully it's not because some other guy has had some lengthy injury, but the Colts do have four decent options at the top. I just think from the outside looking in, why it's such an area of need for the Colts to address is because,

Starting point is 00:15:08 I mean, injuries and youth and inconsistency. I mean, so they had, again, they had solid players that were banged up. You know, Juju Branson, Dallas Fires, we talked about them being solid when they were on the field, but they dealt with injuries. And then the guys who had come in to replace them, you played probably above their level at times. But when you look at Daryl Baker Jr., who was benched more than once, you know, Tony Brown is not even on the team anymore. You have to have depth. Like, you have to know guys are going to get hurt sometimes and that the next guys who step up are going to be capable of playing.

Starting point is 00:15:42 So I think that's where the biggest concern is. I'm okay on this group. I think they probably could have done a little more. They didn't really address the defensive backroom until day three of the draft. A lot of people thought Cooper DeGene or Conyon Mitchell or someone made a lot of sense for them early in the draft. I wouldn't have been opposed to them moving up for Dijon since he was available in round two. But obviously having Laatu Laatu added to that pass rush room, I think the Colts pass rush is going to be very, very effective and a lot more consistent this year, which will help the time that these corners have to survive in coverage. So we all know that pass rush and coverage work hand in hand and they help each other out.

Starting point is 00:16:29 So with how good, hopefully the pass rush will be maybe even improving on their 51 sacks from last year. That will give a boost to these younger guys in the secondary. So coming up, that's not where the battles end and it's not where the battles end between guys who are probably going to play this year. So we will talk about some of the guys who maybe aren't discussed as much, but they're going to have roles whether we like it or not, some of us. Summertime means baseball. The WNBA is cranking before the Olympic break, and you can bet it all on FanDuel. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

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Starting point is 00:17:29 So get your bets in over there on FanDuel. Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on and add a big win to your summer bucket list. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. All right, let's talk about the rest. So I mentioned Daryl Baker Jr. but Zach and I recently discussed this as well. You know, Baker, if he's your fifth cornerback or, you know, that's issue. And coverage, I don't think he's the worst player. But if you're a liability when it comes to actually tackling the ball carrier, even if it's a receiver, it shouldn't be a big task for a corner to be able to tackle a receiver who's got the ball. That can become a concern.

Starting point is 00:18:18 So when you look at the rest of the cornerback depth chart, you've got a couple battles here I can see. I think Darryl Baker versus Jalen Simpson, the rookie. I think that's one to keep an eye on. And then one that's very important and maybe even could have been in the group ahead of this, the segment ahead of this, is Chris Lamans versus Micah Abraham. Abraham is a rookie as well. Lamans is kind of the incumbent,

Starting point is 00:18:46 was that backup nickel to Kenny Moore later in the season. So Lamont has had an injury this offseason. I don't know what, but earlier in the offseason, he was wearing a boot on his left foot and had crutches. During minicamp, he shed the crutches and I think just had the boot, might have even shed the boot. So he had an injury he was dealing with in the off season. I don't know what his status is going to be coming into camp. He might be fine by then. It will have been like six weeks from the last time we saw him out there. But backup nickel is going to be important. Now you do have guys like Julian Blackman, who is your strong safety that you can use there at nickel. You'd prefer to not have to do that if anything happens to Kenny.

Starting point is 00:19:31 But I do think Lamont's versus Micah Abraham. Micah Abraham is very interesting. Abraham has a similar athletic profile to Kenny, you know, about 5'9", under 200 pounds. Very good ball skills, though. So that certainly works in Abraham's favor. Played a ton of games. I think it was Marshall, and was just very productive there in college. Just the size and lack of elite athleticism is going to be a ding, but the guy has ball skills.

Starting point is 00:20:02 It's really the first thing that jumped out when you looked at his collegiate profile. So you got Baker versus Simpson. I'd love to be able to tell you more about Simpson. I thought when the Colts drafted him that his quickest path to success was going to be maybe competing for free safety, but he's very slight. I think he's like 170 pounds or something. Very light guy. Now I'm sure he's working on getting bulkier, but when you're a safety and you're that skinny and you're going to be relied upon to tackle, that could be a problem. So we'll see how that works out when the more physical parts of camp kind of heat up a little bit. But Baker versus Simpson is a battle I'm looking at. I think it might be, you know, to those two guys competing for that spot.

Starting point is 00:20:53 And then Lamont versus Abraham. Again, I think it's very important to have a direct backup to Kenny Moore and it not necessarily having to be Julian Blackman. So Lamont's versus Abraham will keep an eye on that one. There are two other guys that factor into this as well. Amir Speed, he did get a little bit of action there at the very end of the season. And then Clayfield's the third is a rookie undrafted for agent. The Colts just picked up like a week or two ago. He's a smaller guy as well. Again, kind of that Kenny Moore frame, 5'9", 189. We'll see how he factors into this too. But cornerbacks, they haven't added anybody yet.

Starting point is 00:21:35 I don't know that they will over these next few weeks until camp starts, but certainly something to keep an eye on. Remember that Locked On has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on the Amazon Fire TV in the free Fire TV channels app. And that's Locked On Sports Today, lost if you will. They're here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked On, plus our national shows that cover every league. So find Locked On Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app.

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Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Kenny Moore II, JuJu Brents Critical to Defense's Success in 2024

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