After the 2025 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts appeared set at cornerback. General manager Chris Ballard had opened the checkbook to acquire Charvarius Ward, one year removed from an All-Pro season in 2023. He would pair on the perimeter with Jaylon Jones.
Veteran Kenny Moore was in the slot, while third-round draft pick Justin Walley would immediately challenge the older players for a spot.
Things were a bit murkier after the top four, but there certainly was talent. Hopefully, 2023 second-round pick JuJu Brents would be healthy enough to contribute on the perimeter. Samuel Womack had shown some promise as an emergency fill-in in 2024, and Corey Ballentine was also on board. Chris Lamons’ standout special teams play made him a strong contender for the final spot.
Colts turning to two unheralded cornerbacks as injury woes deepen
There was also an undrafted free agent out of Tulane – Johnathan Edwards – in the mix. It appeared that one or two of those contenders could claim a backup spot.
Then came the injuries.
Walley was lost for the season in early August. Jones and Ward also dealt with lingering injuries throughout the preseason. Ballentine had been released just before the latest carnage, and suddenly, a position of strength was becoming a major problem.
Ballard began collecting replacements. He lured veteran Xavien Howard out of retirement and swapped a sixth-round pick for a 26-year-old Vikings’ reserve, Mekhi Blackmon.
Ballard felt comfortable enough with the health statuses of Ward and Jones to keep them on his initial 53-man roster. Joining them were Moore, Blackmon, Howard, and Johnathan Edwards. Edwards had beaten out Brents and Womack, among others – the only 2025 UDFA to make the final roster.
As the season progressed, Indianapolis could never seem to get all of its pieces healthy and playing well at the same time. Jones re-aggravated his problematic hamstring. Ward was in and out of the lineup. The Howard experiment fell flat, and he retired for good after the first month.
Then came the blockbuster trade deadline deal that brought Sauce Gardner to town. Paired with a healthy Ward and the steady Kenny Moore, the Colts would have – on paper – as good a starting group of cornerbacks as anyone in the NFL. Of course, we all know how those plans turned out. Injuries continued to wreak havoc on the best laid plans of coaches and GMs.
The net result was that by the time the season hit the home stretch, the Indianapolis Colts were starting two perimeter corners – Blackmon and Edwards – who were not often projected to even make the roster midway through the preseason.
So how have they done?
Blackmon has started a good part of the season opposite whichever other perimeter corner was healthy enough to play. Overall, he has performed better than might have been expected. Blackmon’s talents and deficiencies are fairly obvious.
He has excellent press corner skills but lacks the frame and functional strength to mix it up with bigger receivers. If he could improve his tackling, he might be a logical successor to Moore in the slot, but that has been a problem this year.
However, he has continued to flash elite cover skills, and last week against Seattle, he demonstrated an increasing aggressiveness in challenges running plays to his side of the field.
As for Edwards, the rookie got a taste of action in the middle of the season when he was called on to start several games. And he looked like a rookie. Edwards has good length and strong coverage skills, but, as expected, he seemed overwhelmed at times.
With Gardner’s arrival and the return of a few other injured players, Edwards had been on the shelf for the past month. But he was again pressed into service against Seattle last week, playing 45 snaps, mostly opposite Blackmon on the outside. And though he still looked pretty green, he did appear to be playing at a faster, more confident pace.
Johnathan Edwards was never supposed to be playing meaningful snaps during his rookie season as the Colts desperately tried to hold onto a playoff spot. But there he was, and he didn’t acquit himself too badly.
On paper, neither Blackmon nor Edwards was a world-beater against the Seahawks. They missed some tackles and ceded receptions. But they never got beaten badly. Never gave up a crushing reception.
They went up against the savvy Cooper Kupp, the speedy Rashid Shaheed, and the lethal Jaxon Smith-Njigba and kept them out of the end zone. Those receivers did catch a lot of passes and piled up yards, but when Seattle moved into scoring position, Indy’s young corners came up big.
The Colts’ defense held the high-scoring Seahawks ten points below their season average and did not surrender a touchdown. Their young, untested cornerbacks helped Indy very nearly pull off one of the biggest upsets of the season.
Every significant Colts' cornerback is signed through at least next year. Gardner and Walley should be starting on the perimeter in 2026. Ward’s injury history calls his future into question, but should he return, the Colts would again, in theory, have a loaded secondary, with Moore and Jones still under contract as well.
But 2025 has reminded everyone that you can never have enough cornerbacks. They are usually the smallest players on the field. They are required to have sprinters’ legs while also occasionally taking on players who outweigh them by more than 100 pounds. Cornerbacks get hurt, and successful teams need depth.
If nothing else, Mekhi Blackmon and Johnathan Edwards are showing that they can be trusted to play important snaps when they are needed.