The Colts opted to allow 2005 first-round selection Marlin Jackson to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles as a free agent, and allowed 2006 second-round selection Tim Jennings to sign with the Chicago Bears. Each move made sense, with Jackson having sustained mid-season, season-ending knee injuries each of the last two seasons and with Jennings – while not as much of a liability as a fourth corner as many fans and analysts believed – never emerging as a solid front-line pass defender.
The Colts' approach in such situations for the last decade has been not to sign veterans to replace players such as Jackson and Jennings, but to address the area in the draft. At cornerback, the typical approach has been to draft players, allow them to develop for a year and then move them into the starting lineup. An exception to this was Powers, but it was an approach they used effectively with Jackson and Hayden in the middle of the decade.
Toward that end, they selected Thomas in the third round from Southern California, a player who – despite a history of injuries early in his collegiate career – played 13 games as a senior and was widely considered a player that aside from the injury issues had a real chance to make an impact professionally. And while the selection has been questioned because of the injury history, Thomas' injury early this off-season appeared to have little do to with the shoulder, ankle and foot injuries that cost him time in college. Knee injuries in the NFL can't be predicted, and it's tough to cast blame for teams not knowing a player will become injured.
Thus far, the Colts have not signed a veteran cornerback, and while such a move wouldn't come as a shock, it wouldn't be out of character for the Colts to eschew that option.
While fans and media may be more comfortable with a familiar name entering training camp, Colts officials generally believe that such players are typically available for a reason and their history is to have success developing drafted players and collegiate free agents for depth, particularly on defense.
The Colts' recent history is littered with collegiate free agents who have made an impact defensively, and as recently as last season, Lacey emerged as a solid player after being signed as a collegiate free agent.
Polian spoke highly on draft weekend of the potential of Ray Fisher, a seventh-round draft selection from Indiana, as a cornerback, and another in-state player – Brandon King of Purdue – fits the prototype Colts undrafted free agent, a solid player from a big conference. King ran a slow 40-time for professional scouts, and that may have hurt his draft status, but the Colts liked his on-field ability coming out of college, and he or Fisher could play a role at fourth and fifth corner.
“Those guys, they’re attentive and that’s the start,” Hayden said last week. “You see these guys paying attention, taking notes well. It just gives you the observation that these guys want to be here and want to make an impact.
“It’s just like when Jerraud and Lacey came in, those guys were attentive too. You can see everybody trying to help each other. It’s not a competition thing where guys feel like they don’t need to help each other, but we have good core guys, that have great personalities and just want to be good as a team. That’s one thing we all preach on that every guy in the room that will be here, will be needed at some point in the season. Guys just want to prepare themselves.”
That's true every season at every position on the Colts, a team that perennially plays as many rookies as any team in the NFL. It's particularly true this season at corner, and how Fisher, King and the other young corners perform will not only continue to be a major off-season storyline at a position that suddenly isn't quite as deep as it was a month ago.
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