Experience Pairs Safety Dwight Lowery with Colts

When free agency started, the Indianapolis Colts found themselves with a distinct lack of starting safeties on the active roster.

Mike Adams had been on a one year deal, LaRon Landry wasn’t very talented (and a cheater, also cut), and Sergio Brown decided to head south and join the Jaguars. The Colts acted quickly to get Adams on a long term deal, one that he had clearly earned.

The Colts dipped their toes into the safety free agent market, but were unable to come away with (or unwilling to pay for) one of the top tier players available. This left the Colts with two options: draft a safety or sign one of the remaining players.

GM Ryan Grigson opted to do both as the team not only signed seven-year veteran Dwight Lowery but also selecting Clayton Geathers in the fourth round of the draft.

Geathers will likely have to make his way on special teams (unless he has an unreal preseason and camp) but the experience of Lowery will propel him into a starting role.

In an interview with Mike Wells at ESPN, coach Chuck Pagano praised the various aspect of what Lowery brings to the Colts.

"“He’s got athleticism,” Pagano said. “He’s played a lot of snaps of football. He’s smart. He is in a real similar situation to picking up Mike when we got Mike a year ago. He’s a veteran guy who has played and understands the game and it’s not going to be too big for him.”"

Lowery spent last season with the Atlanta Falcons, after three years in Jacksonville. He started his career in New York with the Jets.

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Lowery was one of the few bright points on the Falcons defense, earning a +1.1 overall and a +2.3 in run defense from PFF in 2014.

Lowery was happy to find a team that fit with him as well:

"“It was a good fit,” Lowery said. “When you get older, I think you look at more of that type of stuff than chasing the dollar or whatever you want to call it. It was just a good fit between myself and the team. That’s how it ended up working.”"

Lowery might be a liability due to his health. He’s had a number of concussions over the past few seasons and it has cost him quite a few games.

"“If I felt like it was an issue, I probably wouldn’t have played anymore,” Lowery said. “To be honest with you, that’s not something that you really want to play with. I’ve talked to a lot of doctors. I’ve done a lot of research myself to understand the concussion situation. We play a violent game. We’re not the only sport where there’s contact. There are a lot of other contact sports out there that you can suffer head injuries from. That’s part of the risk.“But if you start playing slow and you start thinking about things that don’t have to do with the football game, then that’s when bad stuff is going to happen. That’s when you get injured. When you start worrying about your health and not doing things that’s going to help your health, then you’re not going to be a healthy person.”"

Lowery likely isn’t a longterm option at safety, but we said the same thing about Adams last season and he played his way into a multi-year contract.

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