INDIANAPOLIS – The Colts are suddenly missing one of their regular players at the cornerback position, which is thin on the ground.
JuJu Brents will be placed on the injured list after suffering a serious knee injury that will require surgery, a league source told IndyStar on Tuesday. However, the team is leaving open the possibility that Brents could return in the final month of the season.
Brents, an Indianapolis native who played at Warren Central, dislocated his knee during a seven-tackle performance in Sunday’s season-opening loss to Houston, a game in which he made 62 defensive tackles and four special teams appearances.
The Colts thought the injury was minor — Brents was available for interviews in the locker room after the game — until a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed a more serious problem, the latest and most serious in the list of physical hazards Brents has struggled with since Indianapolis drafted him with a 2023 second-round pick from Kansas State.
JuJu Brent’s injuries
Brents underwent wrist surgery before the 2023 draft and missed the team’s spring practices. He then suffered a hamstring injury in training camp that forced him onto the inactive list for the first two games of his rookie season. When he returned to the lineup, Brents started four games, then suffered a quadriceps injury that sidelined him for the next six games, and left the season finale after just 30 snaps due to another hamstring issue.
Frustrated by injury issues that limited him to nine games and 496 snaps as a rookie, Brents tried to focus on injury prevention in the offseason, but the knee surgery will be his third surgery in 2024. Brents underwent ankle surgery in June, needed a procedure to repair a broken nose sustained when a player’s cleat somehow slipped under his face mask during the preseason, and is now dealing with a significant knee injury.
Indianapolis will place Brents on the injured list and hope he can somehow return at the end of the season.
His loss puts the Colts secondary in a precarious position.
News from the Colts: Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley on his difficult situation
Who will replace JuJu Brents as cornerback for the Colts?
Indianapolis initially promoted veteran special-teamer Chris Lammons to the 53-man roster and signed former Cowboys cornerback Kelvin Joseph to the practice squad to fill out the position. Lammons isn’t likely a potential replacement at the outside position; the veteran played 22 snaps on special teams as a practice squad extension on Sunday, but he has only played one game on defense in a Colts uniform, moving into the slot against the Raiders when both Kenny Moore II and Julian Blackmon were injured late last season.
Colts general manager Chris Ballard did not sign a veteran cornerback in the offseason to bolster a young position that struggled at times during the 2023 season. He was banking that the improved Brents, fellow starter Jaylon Jones and third-year cornerback Dallis Flowers would be enough to fill the position without the experienced Kenny Moore II.
“They’re young and they’re getting better,” Ballard said at the end of training camp. “Everything doesn’t always work out, even when you’re trying to sign a player. I’m not saying we haven’t tried to do some things, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. But we believe we have good, young talent back there.”
Flowers seems like the obvious replacement for the role Brent played against Houston.
The third-year cornerback began the 2023 season as one of the team’s starters at the outside position, then suffered a torn Achilles tendon at the end of the fourth game, ending his season early. Flowers fought his way back to the field in the spring, but his continued attempt to regain the strength and momentum of his Achilles tendon put him well out of the starting three early in training camp.
Flowers was not available for Sunday’s game against the Texans.
“We talked about what’s best,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “Sometimes it’s decisions when you get to the third or fourth corner, sometimes it’s what the special teams value and where he is there (plays a role). … We just felt like for this particular game it would be best to play with Sam (Womack III).”
Womack, a third-year cornerback who was claimed off waivers by San Francisco at the end of training camp, is one of the other possible replacements for Brents. Womack is built more like Moore at 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds and was expected to play most of his snaps at nickel, but team needs could force him or Moore to move to the outside.
Indianapolis’ depth beyond those two players is uncertain. Former Colts cornerback Darrell Baker Jr., who started eight games in 2023, was claimed off waivers from Tennessee following the Womack trade. Indianapolis signed veteran cornerback David Long Jr. to the practice squad ahead of the season opener; the Colts also have rookie fifth-round pick Jaylin Simpson and second-year player Ameer Speed, who has the build Bradley likes in cornerbacks but spent most of his career with the Colts on special teams.
At this point in the season, it might be difficult to add another experienced option, although Indianapolis has worked out several experienced cornerbacks in recent weeks.
JuJu Brents High School
JuJu Brents attended Warren Central High School in Indianapolis.
JuJu Brent’s contract
According to Spotrac.com, Brents signed a four-year contract worth $8,196,927 as a second-round pick in 2023. He received a signing bonus of $2,961,408. $5,975,996 of the contract is guaranteed.
