If the Indianapolis Colts need a reason to be optimistic about their young secondary, they need to look no further than last year’s Super Bowl Champions.
Recent circumstances have given the Indianapolis Colts a really young secondary. This offseason, Indy lost Brandon Facyson in free agency, traded Stephon Gilmore, and Isaiah Rodgers Sr. is away from the team as he awaits a suspension from the NFL. That leaves the Colts with a cornerback room mostly made up of first and second year players, and a safety unit that’s pretty young as well.
Although Indianapolis may ultimately add a veteran cornerback, being that young in the secondary can be a pretty scary thing. However, there are reasons to be optimistic about this inexperienced group of defensive backs. The biggest sign of encouragement should be last season’s Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs team.
While the Chiefs have a pretty good roster of established veterans, they were really young in the secondary last year. However, those young defensive backs grew up fast and helped Kansas City win a Super Bowl.
Chiefs are proof that Colts can thrive with young defensive backs
Last offseason, Kansas City lost several veteran defensive backs. Instead of replacing them with other veterans, the Chiefs drafted cornerback Trent McDuffie in the first round of the 2022 Draft, safety Bryan Cook in the second round, corner Joshua Williams in the fourth round, and corner Jaylen Watson in the seventh round.
They weren’t drafted as long-term options either; they were thrown immediately into the mix and ultimately became a big reason why the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
Much like Kansas City did in 2022, the Indianapolis Colts drafted three corners and a safety in the 2023 NFL Draft. Indy selected Julius Brents in the second round, Darius Rush and Daniel Scott in the fifth round, and Jaylon Jones in the seventh. The three corners, Brents, Rush, and Jones, will be thrown into the fire, and two of them could end up being Indy’s Week 1 starters.
However, the Chiefs showed that this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. This doesn’t mean the Colts are going to win next year’s Super Bowl, just that these young corners can get on the field and immediately thrive. In recent years, that’s exactly what corners have been doing in the NFL. It’ll be interesting to see if this trend will continue for Indy. The Colts certainly need it to.