Though he likely won’t be able to make an impact for the Indianapolis Colts during the early part of the regular season, safety Julian Blackmon is viewed highly both in the eyes of the front office and the coaching staff.
Dealing with recovery from surgery to repair a torn ACL in December, it will be a while until Blackmon has an impact in the secondary. But defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus sees a lot of traits in the Utah product that make him a high-level playmaker.
“The first thing that pops off the tape right there is his ability to take the football away. So when you have that ability, you are what we call a game-changer,” Eberflus told reporters Tuesday on a conference call. “You are a guy that can help us win football games by taking the football away. So that is number one.”
The Colts have valued ball skills since Chris Ballard took over as general manager. The third-round pick certainly moves well on tape and his ball skills give him a high ceiling.
Another intriguing aspect of Blackmon’s game is his versatility. Not only does he have experience lining up at cornerback, safety and even some nickel, but the Colts can also use him in various roles in their secondary.
“Then number two, the thing you are alluding to is his versatility,” Eberflus said. “He can play on a tight end, he can potentially play on a bigger type receiver, he can play in the deep part of the field and he can drop down into the box and play the run. So we are excited to have Julian in there.”
Even though he was a safety for just one year at Utah after converting from cornerback, Eberflus doesn’t think Blackmon has all that far to go in terms of making a consistent impact.
“The way he plays, he is so close to our standard already. He doesn’t have a far way to go in terms of learning how to play,” Eberflus said. “That is why a lot of these guys are drafted for because they already play a certain way in college and we like what we see there in terms of that and we just bring them here and kind of enhance that.”
The Colts won’t get an impact from Blackmon likely until October, but both the front office and coaching staff are exciting to get him going once he’s fully healed from the ACL injury.
