The Indianapolis Colts believe in the talent and upside of safety Julian Blackmon so much that they felt the need to use a third-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to select him despite the fact that he suffered a torn ACL in December.
The Colts felt Blackmon wouldn’t be available the next time the Colts were on the clock in the fourth round of the draft. Now, after months of rehab, Blackmon is back on the active roster and at practice ahead of the start of the regular season.
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It will still be a while before Blackmon will be making a consistent impact and even longer before he will feel 100% recovered from the ACL tear.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I would say it’s kind of up to my knee and whenever – one day I wake up and I’m not sore and I feel 100 percent, which will probably be later on within the year,” Blackmon told reporters Tuesday. “Most people say it takes about nine months, but really to feel 100 percent from a knee injury like this, it takes about a year. Right now, I feel really good but I have to progress in the right way in order to keep on feeling good.”
The Utah product has intriguing upside to be a versatile piece of the defense. He has the strength and tackling ability to make plays near the line of scrimmage but also the instincts and fluidity to play as a deep safety.
Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus also told reporters that the team has a plan in place to figure out where Blackmon is best suited to line up.
“Typically what we’ll do is, we’ll get him solidified in a spot so he feels comfortable and then as we do that, we’ll look at his abilities in terms of his one-on-one abilities, in terms of his range and blitzing ability and different things he can do for us – play different spots,” Eberflus said. “We kind of get a feel for that as we go and we already kind of know that with him based on the evaluation we had with Chris (Ballard) and the scouting staff. We’re trying to accelerate that as fast as we can.”
It has been a long road for Blackmon, who missed the entirety of training camp as he worked his way back from surgery. But the rookie is simply taking it one step at a time.
“It’s been a process. It’s one that I’ve always trusted, and to be honest, I never had any negative thoughts,” Blackmon said. “As soon as I got hurt – I’m a firm believer in God and I kind of just believed that I am here for a reason because one, I could handle it and two, I needed it for something bigger. I was blessed enough to be put in this situation. The journey has been long, but it’s been worth it. There’s been a lot of progressing and learning on the way.”
It will be interesting to see what kind of role Blackmon has when he does begin making an impact, but the rookie is focusing on getting back to the playing field now that he’s finally on the active roster.