Following a career year in 2023, Colts’ safety Julian Blackmon seems to be picking up where he left off through the first two weeks of training camp.
Through what has been nine practices open to the Colts’ media, Blackmon has made multiple interceptions during that span and, in general, is making plays up and down the football field on what seems like a daily basis.
“It’s been phenomenal so far,” said Shane Steichen recently about Blackmon’s play. “I mean he’s making plays left and right. He’s all over the field. The communication on the backend with him and the other guys has been tremendous. We’ve just got to keep that going.”
Last season, Blackmon would make the move from playing free safety to strong safety, closer to the line of scrimmage, and he thrived in that role.
“It just fits my role better, it fits my personality better,” Blackmon said earlier this offseason via Colts.com. “I’m more of a talkative person, I like to be around the ball and I like the take the ball away, and so that strong safety position in this defense, specifically, is more of that role. For me, it was kind of easy to move over there and start making those plays.”
As a coverage defender, Blackmon forced four interceptions, two pass breakups, and held opposing quarterbacks to a passer rating of just 57.5. In the run game, Blackmon was a reliable tackler and ranked among the best in PFF’s run-stop rate metric.
In addition to the playmaking that we saw from Blackmon last season and again into training camp, the strong safety in Gus Bradley’s defense is one of the key communicators as well.
“Well, schematically, I mean, they ask a lot of the strong (safety) in this scheme,” said Assistant GM Ed Dodds. “It’s a lot of communication, a lot of checks, they do different things.”
Although Blackmon would have his best season to date playing strong safety, the Colts have experimented with him at free safety during training camp. In fact, one of his interceptions came while playing deep.
This doesn’t mean that the Colts are committed to moving Blackmon back to that role, but with there being a void at free safety, they’re exploring all options. The ultimate goal is to put the best two players on the field.
That, of course, includes Blackmon, but who his running mate will be or who will be lined up deep is still a work in progress.