Pro Football Focus put together its ranking of the top 32 cornerbacks ahead of the 2024 NFL season, and no member of the Indianapolis Colts’ roster made the list.
Among PFF’s top-five were Sauce Gardner at No. 1, followed by Trent McDuffie, Charvarius Ward, Pat Surtain, and Jaylon Johnson. The final five to make the list were Darius Slay at No. 28, Tyson Campbell, Jaycee Horn, Daron Bland, and Joey Porter Jr.
For the most part, the cornerback position for the Colts is unproven and one with its share of question marks coming into the upcoming season. However, at the nickel position is Kenny Moore, one of the better slot cornerbacks in the game, and he was left off PFF’s rankings.
Moore has provided a consistent presence in the secondary during his tenure with the Colts, being both reliable in coverage and as a tackler. He’s held opponents to fewer than 10.0 yards per catch in his career and has four seasons with three-plus interceptions and three seasons with six-plus pass breakups.
Moore has also routinely been one of PFF’s better-graded run defenders at the cornerback position, as well as durable, playing over 1,000 defensive snaps in three of the last four seasons.
“The best players in the league have great instincts,’’ Shane Steichen said last season following Moore’s two-interception performance against Carolina. “You coach ‘em as hard as you want, but the guys who are really good with ball skills and good instincts, sometimes that takes over.
“He’s got a great feel for that position inside there at the nickel position and he just continues to show up and make plays.’’
The boundary cornerback positions are “wide open,” as defensive coordinator Gus Bradley put it earlier this offseason, but it would appear that JuJu Brents has a firm grasp on one of those starting roles, while Jaylon Jones has been starting over Dallis Flowers during OTAs and minicamp.
Inconsistency was all too common at the cornerback position last season, with too many big plays being surrendered and not enough plays on the football being made.
However, the only outside additions made to the cornerback position this offseason were on Day 3 of the draft, which gives the impression that the Colts are bullish on this group, and so far, through the completion of offseason programs, Steichen is happy with where this competition is at.
“I think all those guys, obviously, we drafted two young guys, but I think with Jaylon Jones, Dallis, and JuJu, they’re long, rangy guys that are physical when they get up and press,” said Steichen during minicamp.
“They got good vision. I love those guys. It’s a good room. A good competition there. It’s going to be a good competition, obviously, in minicamp and OTAs, but going into training camp is going to be big for all those guys.”
The skill sets are there within the room, but now it’s time for that to translate to production on the field. Two key factors behind what hopefully becomes improved play are having a healthy unit, with both Brents and Flowers on the practice field, and a more seasoned group as well with the experience that was gained from last season.
Ultimately, as Bradley said, it is going to be day-to-day consistency that determines who will be starting on the boundary.