The injury problems in the Colts’ secondary have become a crisis. With rookie cornerback Justin Walley already done for the year with a torn ACL, Nick Cross not practicing with a hip flexor injury and both JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones being held out of practice for over a week with hamstring issues, the situation couldn’t have gotten much worse.
But on Sunday at practice, it did.
Per ESPN’s Stephen Holder, nickel cornerback Kenny Moore II had an “apparent issue” with his right knee and was in “intense pain.”
With Moore II now potentially down, four of Indy’s top five cornerbacks have picked up some sort of knock, and the season is still a month away.
Only Charvarius Ward, one of the team’s two big additions to the back end, remains amongst what looked to be perhaps the deepest cornerback group of general manager Chris Ballard’s tenure.
Some of the healthy names remaining on the depth chart include Samuel Womack III, Duke Shelley, Alex Johnson and Chris Lammons.
Womack made eight starts for the Colts in 2024 while Lammons made just one. Johnson was one of the bright spots on defense in the preseason opener against Baltimore and Shelley has over 53 games of NFL experience with four different teams.
While Indy still has some guys who can fill in, none should be trusted to be a long-term starter. Getting their top options back healthy must be a top priority as training camp enters the second half.
