Julian Blackmon's rookie season

[CR91]

 

 

[OhioColt]

Respectable stats for his first year and only see Blackmon getting better.  Julian is a young man with a bright future ahead of him for sure.  However, would love to see the Colts go after Saints FA Marcus Williams and pair him up with Blackmon.  

[AwesomeAustin]

Blackmon has the potential to be a great player. He sure does know how to hit but I feel sometimes he got exploited over the top looking underneath. Nothing glaring and most of it is probably inexperience at the position. Overall, good job with high hopes.   Hopefully he can build upon this past season. I’m hoping these rookies avoid the sophomore slump by getting their first OTA’s and a real training camp.  

[csmopar]

He was solid which is a very good thing for a rookie. Hopefully he builds on it and doesn’t have a sophomore slump like RYS. 

[r a y s k i]

Blackmon and Willis are making a fine safety pair. 

[EastStreet]

IIRC, he had a pretty big 4Q (season slide) once teams got tape on him.

 

He was 66ish for the 1Q, 70ish 2Q, 63ish 3Q, and 45ish 4Q... Year end his AVG was 60.8

 

Those numbers are reverse engineered from his totals, but directionally correct. Bottom line, ended the season taking a big step back once teams started to test him the second half of the season.

[NewColtsFan]

16 minutes ago, EastStreet said:

IIRC, he had a pretty big 4Q (season slide) once teams got tape on him.

 

He was 66ish for the 1Q, 70ish 2Q, 63ish 3Q, and 45ish 4Q... Year end his AVG was 60.8

 

Those numbers are reverse engineered from his totals, but directionally correct. Bottom line, ended the season taking a big step back once teams started to test him the second half of the season.

What happened to Blackmon is not uncommon.   In fact it’s closer to the rule for rookies and not the exception.

 

Is there a reason JB shouldn’t be better in his 2nd year?   Or his 3rd year?   Young players get better. 

[EastStreet]

1 minute ago, NewColtsFan said:

What happened to Blackmon is not uncommon.   In fact it’s closer to the rule for rookies and not the exception.

 

Is there a reason JB shouldn’t be better in his 2nd year?   Or his 3rd year?   Young players get better. 

I truly hope he gets better. I'd love it his his high/deep game was as good as his front game.

 

I do think he'll improve, simply because he's learning a new system (he comes from a heavy man system to our heavy zone) and perhaps getting better coaching. I'd be a lot more optimistic however if he wasn't making the same mistakes he made in college, which are really independent of scheme. That doesn't mean he can't learn and improve, just means his issues aren't likely caused by scheme change. In short, still needs to work on discipline (not biting) and range/coverage (which is why they moved him from CB to S in the first place.

 

I still stand by my original assessment. His most natural position is likely SS (maybe NB or Dime). Willis is doing a great job in the box, so there's no pull though. 

[NewColtsFan]

2 minutes ago, EastStreet said:

I truly hope he gets better. I'd love it his his high/deep game was as good as his front game.

 

I do think he'll improve, simply because he's learning a new system (he comes from a heavy man system to our heavy zone) and perhaps getting better coaching. I'd be a lot more optimistic however if he wasn't making the same mistakes he made in college, which are really independent of scheme. That doesn't mean he can't learn and improve, just means his issues aren't likely caused by scheme change. In short, still needs to work on discipline (not biting) and range/coverage (which is why they moved him from CB to S in the first place.

 

I still stand by my original assessment. His most natural position is likely SS (maybe NB or Dime). Willis is doing a great job in the box, so there's no pull though. 

I don’t see many 190 pound strong safeties in the NFL.   I wouldn’t say zero, just very few. 
 

JB is 20-25 pound lighter than Willis who the team likes.   Hard to see JB taking snaps away from Willis at SS. 

[EastStreet]

3 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

I don’t see many 190 pound strong safeties in the NFL.   I wouldn’t say zero, just very few. 
 

JB is 20-25 pound lighter than Willis who the team likes.   Hard to see JB taking snaps away from Willis at SS. 

Per PFF, he's now at 204. So if true, only 9lbs difference between he and Willis.

 

In one of his early year interviews, he mentioned the need to work on his body. We'll likely see what his finished body looks like to start the 2021 season.

 

Honestly though, I'm not really concerned with his weight. He's a big hitter, so obviously whatever he is (190 or 204), his weight doesn't matter. Tyrann Mathieu and Jordan Poyer are two of the better SSs and are 190ish.

 

And like I said, there's no pull at SS right now, so I don't expect him to take snaps from Willis. Now if we for some reason draft another FS, or re-sign Hooker, I could definitely see Blackmon getting SS snaps in C2 or Dime snaps.