Indianapolis Colts: Top 5 Training Camp Position Battles to Watch
By Kyle Nishida
Fourth and Fifth Cornerback Spots
This position battle involves two roster spots. It really is a tossup on who will grab these slots because there is a lot of inexperience with this position group.
The Colts’ top three cornerbacks are Vontae Davis, Patrick Robinson and Darius Butler. After that, it is unclear who the next best cornerbacks are.
The Colts would like it to be their 2015 third round pick D’Joun Smith. However, he was plagued by injuries last year and could not be a big contributor for them as a result. Training camp will be a good opportunity for Smith to show the injuries are a thing of the past and that he deserves playing time.
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Meanwhile, cornerbacks Tay Glover-Wright and Jalil Brown were on and off the roster in 2015. Also, there has been some hype surrounding Tevin Michel, a 2015 rookie the Colts claimed off waivers last preseason but quickly, put on their injured reserve list. All three will get solid looks during training camp.
It is pretty clear the Colts’ cornerback group lacks a lot of experience behind their best three at the position. They need to find a way to fix that quickly.
In today’s NFL, teams are much more pass-happy. As a result, the teams with cornerback depth put themselves in better positions to success than those that do not have depth.
These two roster spots also account for potential injuries. Davis, Butler and Smith all suffered injuries in 2015, and the Colts’ had to sign guys off of the street (like Josh Thomas) as a result. There is a strong likelihood that injuries will happen again, which is why filling these spots is important.
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It is crucial for the Colts to fill these two cornerback spots. Failure to do so will put the Colts’ defense in a disadvantageous situation to start the season.