As the Indianapolis Colts walked away from a preseason beatdown courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday, 34-6, plenty of individual performances left the Colts wanting, from Riley Leonard and Anthony Richardson at quarterback to Rob Carter Jr. and Jonathan Edwards at cornerback.
While the Colts will have to figure out the mess with their backup quarterback battle, another glaring issue remains at cornerback. As far as Indianapolis's starters go, Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward are locked in, with Justin Walley right behind them. After that, it's one of the Colts' biggest question marks.
While Edwards and Carter struggled in their opportunities against the Falcons, no Colts cornerback had it worse than Mehki Blackmon, who came up small and was a liability. Blackmon, Carter, Edwards, and Jaylon Jones are all competing for depth roster spots, and so is Cam Taylor-Britt, who may have just pushed himself ahead of the pack.
Cam Taylor-Britt's impressive performances should move him up the Indianapolis Colts CB depth chart
The former Cincinnati Bengals starting cornerback and Colts' defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo's former player with the Bengals is inching closer to securing a spot that should give him more than enough exposure this season, in hopes of a bigger contract next offseason.
Taylor-Britt has likely done enough to secure the Colts' No. 4 cornerback spot behind Gardner, Ward, and Walley. A strong offseason and training camp should earn the veteran that. He's not the star or starter he was in Cincinnati anymore, but Colts fans shouldn't sleep on Taylor-Britt—he has the potential to have a strong year, and he'll need it, even as a rotational player.
What helps Taylor-Britt's role with the Colts is the poor play from those he was competing with during training camp: Edwards, Jones, Carter, and Blackmon. For at least three of those players, their performances against the Falcons left much to be desired. Taylor-Britt, on the other hand, did what he was supposed to do.
Taylor-Britt had four tackles, three of them solo, in the Colts' blowout loss. The cornerback was also excellent in his run support and coverage when he was on the field, which included forcing a key third-down incompletion in the first quarter.
As far as depth is concerned, the Colts are in rough shape, and cuts are expected, so they may also look to the league for replacements. As for Taylor-Britt, he appears to be safe, but he can up his stock even more with another solid showing against the Detroit Lions next weekend as the Colts close out their preseason.
Taylor-Britt likely won't see many starting reps this season, but since this is a one-year deal with the Colts, he's playing for his next contract, which will almost certainly be with another team. The first step was making the team, and Taylor-Britt has all but secured that step. The second step is making the best of the opportunities he gets throughout the season.
That said, given his and Anarumo's connection and relationship, Colts fans could see Taylor-Britt on the field during the regular season more often than not. We'll see what he does with those snaps.
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