Indianapolis Colts cornerback Juju Brents has spent most of the season on injured reserve. Selected in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Brents had a decent rookie season, only to suffer a knee injury in the season opener. In his NFL career, Brents has only been able to play 10 out of 31 games, and he had just been designated to return from injured reserve in Week 18 - meaning he would play just the first and last games of the 2024 season.
Unfortunately, it took no time for Brents to be injured yet again. He went down in the first quarter with a groin injury, and is questionable to return.
Injury update: CB JuJu Brents (groin) is questionable to return.
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) January 5, 2025
The injury took place during a punt return, and while it's not clear how bad it was, The Athletic's James Boyd indicated that he may be able to return. "The longest stretch of consecutive NFL games JuJu Brents has played in his five," he tweeted. "Brutal for the Colts CB, who is now standing on the sideline with his hands on his hips as he watches his teammates. For what it's worth, Brents still has his helmet on."
Brents returned to practice in Week 16, but had yet to be removed from injured reserve until Week 18. In media interviews, he said he was eager to get more snaps in the Colts-Jaguars game. "Even though we don’t got the hopes of the playoffs right now, it’d still be good for me to go back out there," he said, adding that he had to remain resilient despite his ongoing injury problems. "I'm resilient, man. It's like, you're going to face adversity. We all know that it's football. Things are going to happen. You can't control a lot of it, but just being resilient with the things that get thrown at you. So throughout this process, just trying to stay level-headed, continue to just go about it, like I said, day by day, and just do my best to be still connected with the team, so when that time do come, potentially being able to get back out there, you know I'm ready to go."
It's expected that Samuel Womack and Kenny Moore will fill in for Brents opposite Jaylon Jones.