Blackmon and Willis

[carmelcolt]

I have read a lot on this site in different threads about our defense and maybe not living up to standards or not performing as fans think they should. While I agree with some of the logic professed I also think part of the problem is missing our safety duo, who I considered one of the up and coming best safety duos in the NFL. I look back at some of the clips of these 2 and I realize they played at such a high level that the other positions namely corner and Dline benefitted from them being on the field. Willis and his down in the box mentality and short coverage skills are truly missed. Blackmon and his on the field nastiness and he seems to always being around the ball making plays,  are truly missed by this defense. Personally I think these are 2 very important pieces that our defense is missing. The current safeties make me shudder and it shows in their play.

I know Blackmon is gone for the year, not sure what the status of Willis is, but the Colts D could sure benefit from him coming back. 

[IrsaysArmy]

I like Blackmon and Willis a lot. Both

could probably improve a little in coverage and they probably will. 

[jchandler7]

Blackmon being on IR really hurts our defense. He is a special player that is always around the ball. He was a key piece to our secondary. He plays with the same energy as Leonard. I like Willis but he is just an average starter imo.

I really wish the Colts would pick up Tre Boston. He would be the best safety on the team or atleast the best true FS if signed.

Off topic but if/when Olivier Vernon is healthy he would make a great compliment to our pass rush which would help the guys on the back end as well. 

 

[Smonroe]

1 hour ago, carmelcolt said:

I have read a lot on this site in different threads about our defense and maybe not living up to standards or not performing as fans think they should. While I agree with some of the logic professed I also think part of the problem is missing our safety duo, who I considered one of the up and coming best safety duos in the NFL. I look back at some of the clips of these 2 and I realize they played at such a high level that the other positions namely corner and Dline benefitted from them being on the field. Willis and his down in the box mentality and short coverage skills are truly missed. Blackmon and his on the field nastiness and he seems to always being around the ball making plays,  are truly missed by this defense. Personally I think these are 2 very important pieces that our defense is missing. The current safeties make me shudder and it shows in their play.

I know Blackmon is gone for the year, not sure what the status of Willis is, but the Colts D could sure benefit from him coming back. 

 

Yes, Willis is needed but he's not as good in coverage as Blackmon.  I know Ballard is always trying to find guys off the street, but for some reason they never get anyone with a reputation, like Boston.  Of course, since no one else in the league has signed him, there may be something to that.

 

I really hope he addresses the D backfield in the draft.  

[richard pallo]

I really hope we sign Boston but at the very least I hope we promote Dennard from the practice squad to see if he would be an improvement.

[indyagent17]

2 hours ago, carmelcolt said:

I have read a lot on this site in different threads about our defense and maybe not living up to standards or not performing as fans think they should. While I agree with some of the logic professed I also think part of the problem is missing our safety duo, who I considered one of the up and coming best safety duos in the NFL. I look back at some of the clips of these 2 and I realize they played at such a high level that the other positions namely corner and Dline benefitted from them being on the field. Willis and his down in the box mentality and short coverage skills are truly missed. Blackmon and his on the field nastiness and he seems to always being around the ball making plays,  are truly missed by this defense. Personally I think these are 2 very important pieces that our defense is missing. The current safeties make me shudder and it shows in their play.

I know Blackmon is gone for the year, not sure what the status of Willis is, but the Colts D could sure benefit from him coming back. 

So true brother 

[holeymoley99]

4 hours ago, richard pallo said:

I really hope we sign Boston but at the very least I hope we promote Dennard from the practice squad to see if he would be an improvement.

Ive been waiting for Dennard to be promoted myself, starting to think his injury that got him i.r'ed from Arizona may not be fully healed.

[EastStreet]

Both have been poor in coverage, and both with poor passer ratings allowed.

Willis was leading DBs in TDs given up before he went out

Blackmon was leading DBs in missed tackles before he went out.

 

In short, both took steps back from last year.

 

Sendejo has some missed tackles, but he's go the best passer rating allowed over all of our starting DBs.

And has been asked to play out of position. 

[Solon]

I would've loved to see Blackmon at SS and Hooker at FS with Willis playing a hybrid LB role. Willis is better suited in the box. Blackmon lays the wood and punishes WR over the middle.

[shasta519]

12 hours ago, EastStreet said:

Both have been poor in coverage, and both with poor passer ratings allowed.

Willis was leading DBs in TDs given up before he went out

Blackmon was leading DBs in missed tackles before he went out.

 

In short, both took steps back from last year.

 

Sendejo has some missed tackles, but he's go the best passer rating allowed over all of our starting DBs.

And has been asked to play out of position. 

Yep. And people were talking about this group as being one of the best duos in the NFL. That was too much hype, but they haven’t even played up to the most modest of expectations.
 

I think Willis was playing hurt, but I also think that’s only part of the reason for his regression. Just seems pretty clear that he overperformed in pass coverage last season…and this season (and his rookie season) is more likely who he is.

 

Blackmon has basically been the same player since the middle of his rookie season. He’s a downhill player who has some serious pop but misses more tackles than you would like to see. And his pass defense is just not good…bordering on really bad. Makes almost no plays in pass defense and gets beat deep often. That’s a problem at FS. Blackmon seems like a great case of perception vs. reality. 
 

I think the real problem is that they are both SSs. Blackmon as a SS with Willis as that third S who plays near the LOS would be great. Then go find a stud FS who can ballhawk and make plays.

[carmelcolt]

Agree willis needs to step up his game, but for all the comments on Blackmon, some seem to forget he stepped in as a rookie 9 months after achilles injury and played pretty good. this year would have been his first full year(although he didn't make it). 2020 his first year no training camp

 

2020 15games 38 tackles 6pdef 2 ints 1 FF

2021 6 games  34 tackles 1 pref   1 FF

 

you see in 2020 his tackles were already up based on games played. would have loved to see a whole year from him.

All in all think we are much better in the back end when Willis and Blackmon are healthy and playing together.

 

[MikeCurtis]

Sheeze, I HATE to be the negative person here, but IMHO our safeties pre injury were near bottom of the league

(They havent gotten better)

 

Willis is LESS embarrassing than Blackmon, and we could live with him at SS, however......

 

We need some plays from our FS.....  at least some

 

Our biggest problem, on defense ... by far is our lack of pass rush, but safety play (Or lack there of) is a big problem

 

I think we need an upgrade at FS

[MikeCurtis]

4 hours ago, shasta519 said:

And his pass defense is just not good…bordering on really bad. Makes almost no plays in pass defense and gets beat deep often. That’s a problem at FS. Blackmon seems like a great case of perception vs. reality. 

YEP........

 

A FS that makes almost no plays in pass defense is a LIABILITY

 

we need an upgrade

[richard pallo]

49 minutes ago, MikeCurtis said:

YEP........

 

A FS that makes almost no plays in pass defense is a LIABILITY

 

we need an upgrade

Agree. So why aren’t we signing Tre Boston to finish out the season?  He’s looking for work.  He’s that dissed about three years ago that he would rather stay unemployed.  I find that hard to believe.

[NewColtsFan]

2 hours ago, carmelcolt said:

Agree willis needs to step up his game, but for all the comments on Blackmon, some seem to forget he stepped in as a rookie 9 months after achilles injury and played pretty good. this year would have been his first full year(although he didn't make it). 2020 his first year no training camp

 

2020 15games 38 tackles 6pdef 2 ints 1 FF

2021 6 games  34 tackles 1 pref   1 FF

 

you see in 2020 his tackles were already up based on games played. would have loved to see a whole year from him.

All in all think we are much better in the back end when Willis and Blackmon are healthy and playing together.

 

For the record….   Blackmon recently suffered his Achilles injury.    The injury he suffered in college was a knee injury.   That’s what he came from his rookie year.    

[shasta519]

59 minutes ago, MikeCurtis said:

YEP........

 

A FS that makes almost no plays in pass defense is a LIABILITY

 

we need an upgrade

 

In Blackmon's defense, it's only his 3rd season playing FS. He switched in his last year of college and then obviously played there the past 1.5 seasons. I just don't think he's good in coverage.

 

But Blackmon at SS and a guy like Amani Hoooker/Darnell Savage at FS would be really good. 

 

I would imagine Ballard has a post-it note that says "Kyle Hamilton no matter what" on his desk.

[MikeCurtis]

1 minute ago, richard pallo said:

Agree. So why aren’t we signing Tre Boston to finish out the season?  He’s looking for work.  He’s that dissed about three years ago that he would rather stay unemployed.  I find that hard to believe.

Tre Boston would seem to be a great fit, for this year

 

 

[masterlock]

I think both players have more talent than what they showed prior to the injuries. I'm also very skeptical that the Colts would have a different W-L record had they both not gotten injured. I think the biggest problems with the defense, in order of importance, are pass rush, scheme, and playcalling. 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

On 11/10/2021 at 3:19 PM, Smonroe said:

 

I really hope he addresses the D backfield in the draft.  

Well, he is not keeping his job if he doesn’t! 

[throwing BBZ]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:25 AM, carmelcolt said:

I have read a lot on this site in different threads about our defense and maybe not living up to standards or not performing as fans think they should. While I agree with some of the logic professed I also think part of the problem is missing our safety duo, who I considered one of the up and coming best safety duos in the NFL. I look back at some of the clips of these 2 and I realize they played at such a high level that the other positions namely corner and Dline benefitted from them being on the field. Willis and his down in the box mentality and short coverage skills are truly missed. Blackmon and his on the field nastiness and he seems to always being around the ball making plays,  are truly missed by this defense. Personally I think these are 2 very important pieces that our defense is missing. The current safeties make me shudder and it shows in their play.

I know Blackmon is gone for the year, not sure what the status of Willis is, but the Colts D could sure benefit from him coming back. 

 

 Willis is football smart it seems, therefore he reacts fairly quickly and is a good tackler. And he should get better with more experience of course, as playing against new players and different coaching schemes wises you up.
 He does appear too slow to ever be but average in coverage. 
 Backmon should follow a similar path, seems to have enough speed to be above average, not sure where his football IQ will take him, but as a unit they might be pretty decent in the years to come.
 We would be a little better wit them both back there, i mean they had their own mental mistakes and ccoverage issues. 
 I was getting a kick out of those excellent aggressive tackles Blackmon had made.

[Hoose]

I think the ongoing theme that “Blackmon is a natural SS and the Colts don’t have a true FS on the squad” is accurate. I’d rather see Willis as Blackmon’s backup and in special package defenses. 
Not sure what will be out there in free agency re free safeties next year but drafting a true FS is hopefully at the top of the team’s priority list. 

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

28 minutes ago, Hoose said:

I think the ongoing theme that “Blackmon is a natural SS and the Colts don’t have a true FS on the squad” is accurate. I’d rather see Willis as Blackmon’s backup and in special package defenses. 
Not sure what will be out there in free agency re free safeties next year but drafting a true FS is hopefully at the top of the team’s priority list. 

I  think he is versatile and can do both which is what the colts want. 

[EastStreet]

9 hours ago, shasta519 said:

Yep. And people were talking about this group as being one of the best duos in the NFL. That was too much hype, but they haven’t even played up to the most modest of expectations.
 

I think Willis was playing hurt, but I also think that’s only part of the reason for his regression. Just seems pretty clear that he overperformed in pass coverage last season…and this season (and his rookie season) is more likely who he is.

 

Blackmon has basically been the same player since the middle of his rookie season. He’s a downhill player who has some serious pop but misses more tackles than you would like to see. And his pass defense is just not good…bordering on really bad. Makes almost no plays in pass defense and gets beat deep often. That’s a problem at FS. Blackmon seems like a great case of perception vs. reality. 
 

I think the real problem is that they are both SSs. Blackmon as a SS with Willis as that third S who plays near the LOS would be great. Then go find a stud FS who can ballhawk and make plays.

On Wilkins, personally I've always said he should be limited to the box, or playing box-safety. He's above average there. Appears he's been in C2 or just outside the box in general when he's gotten in trouble. I don't have figures on coverages this year vs last, but I'd bet a few pennies that we've played him differently this year. 

 

Agreed on Blackmon. He's always lacked in coverage going back to college, and he's always appeared or had tendency to bite up and go downhill for some big hits. I am a little surprised at the missed tackles though. Before he went out, he had 5 in 6 games. Last year, he only had 7 in 15 games. Huge difference.

 

But yep, both are SSs to me. I said that about Blackmon when we drafted him. Said Willis was a box when we drafted him. I understand though why they wanted to try Blackmon out at FS, but just doesn't seem to be working out. I do hope they move him to SS next year, as I think he might be elite there. 

[ruf]

1 hour ago, Hoose said:

I think the ongoing theme that “Blackmon is a natural SS and the Colts don’t have a true FS on the squad” is accurate. I’d rather see Willis as Blackmon’s backup and in special package defenses. 
Not sure what will be out there in free agency re free safeties next year but drafting a true FS is hopefully at the top of the team’s priority list. 

agree with this

[shasta519]

2 hours ago, EastStreet said:

On Wilkins, personally I've always said he should be limited to the box, or playing box-safety. He's above average there. Appears he's been in C2 or just outside the box in general when he's gotten in trouble. I don't have figures on coverages this year vs last, but I'd bet a few pennies that we've played him differently this year. 

 

Agreed on Blackmon. He's always lacked in coverage going back to college, and he's always appeared or had tendency to bite up and go downhill for some big hits. I am a little surprised at the missed tackles though. Before he went out, he had 5 in 6 games. Last year, he only had 7 in 15 games. Huge difference.

 

But yep, both are SSs to me. I said that about Blackmon when we drafted him. Said Willis was a box when we drafted him. I understand though why they wanted to try Blackmon out at FS, but just doesn't seem to be working out. I do hope they move him to SS next year, as I think he might be elite there. 

 

I think this is true and I think other teams scouted it during his rookie season. 

[EastStreet]

13 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

 

I think this is true and I think other teams scouted it during his rookie season. 

 

Yup, I've brought it up a few times. Pretty sure I predicted teams would start testing him deep once they got film. 

It's catch 52. He's good coming downhill because he often bites too early. And that sometimes results in great hits in front of him, but gets him in trouble if it turns into a pass and he's now out of position. If he becomes more disciplined and stays back longer, he'll have less big hits forward, but will have less whiffs in coverage. The missed tackle thing though perplexes me a bit.

[Moosejawcolt]

On 11/10/2021 at 1:59 PM, EastStreet said:

Both have been poor in coverage, and both with poor passer ratings allowed.

Willis was leading DBs in TDs given up before he went out

Blackmon was leading DBs in missed tackles before he went out.

 

In short, both took steps back from last year.

 

Sendejo has some missed tackles, but he's go the best passer rating allowed over all of our starting DBs.

And has been asked to play out of position. 

They suck in coverage. Sin and Roades are not good. The linebackers can't cover. The D line cannot get pressure and u want to blame Flus. This falls on Ballard. Paye and Dayo better pan out or Ballard can't take his transparent butt out of Indy,!!!

[EastStreet]

11 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

They suck in coverage. Sin and Roades are not good. The linebackers can't cover. The D line cannot get pressure and u want to blame Flus. This falls on Ballard. Paye and Dayo better pan out or Ballard can't take his transparent butt out of Indy,!!!

RYS has played just fine this year. If you think he's been bad, then either you haven't watched, don't know stats, or you're just incredibly biased. Rhodes has been gimpy all year. 

 

Leonard hasn't played bad this year. He's actually close to his best completion % allowed ever. His PR allowed is also under 100. All while playing on a bad ankle. Not saying he's great in coverage, but he's not bad this year at all. 

 

Yes, I'll blame Flus or his scheme for a lot. When you give up 10 yards of cushion, doesn't matter if you can cover or not. You're begging for, or just plain allowing a ton of easy completions and just banking on them getting tackled.

 

 

[NewColtsFan]

23 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

They suck in coverage. Sin and Roades are not good. The linebackers can't cover. The D line cannot get pressure and u want to blame Flus. This falls on Ballard. Paye and Dayo better pan out or Ballard can't take his transparent butt out of Indy,!!!

I see you remain completely divorced from reality.    Just pitiful….        

[2006Coltsbestever]

28 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

They suck in coverage. Sin and Roades are not good. The linebackers can't cover. The D line cannot get pressure and u want to blame Flus. This falls on Ballard. Paye and Dayo better pan out or Ballard can't take his transparent butt out of Indy,!!!

[Moosejawcolt]

15 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

I see you remain completely divorced from reality.    Just pitiful….        

Oh so u think Ballard has done a good job of drafting defensive players? He is 5 years and this defence show no signs of improvement. He better hit on Paye and  Dayo.

[Moosejawcolt]

16 hours ago, EastStreet said:

RYS has played just fine this year. If you think he's been bad, then either you haven't watched, don't know stats, or you're just incredibly biased. Rhodes has been gimpy all year. 

 

Leonard hasn't played bad this year. He's actually close to his best completion % allowed ever. His PR allowed is also under 100. All while playing on a bad ankle. Not saying he's great in coverage, but he's not bad this year at all. 

 

Yes, I'll blame Flus or his scheme for a lot. When you give up 10 yards of cushion, doesn't matter if you can cover or not. You're begging for, or just plain allowing a ton of easy completions and just banking on them getting tackled.

 

 

I get it. I get frustrated when we play 10 yard cushions. I think that tells u a lot avout the confidence or lack of that Flus has in his corners. I am not absolving  Flus. I just don't think he has the talent. Sin. I don't think he offers much. Leonard. Yes.  he is playing on a bad ankle, however he has never been great in coverage. 

[EastStreet]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

I get it. I get frustrated when we play 10 yard cushions. I think that tells u a lot avout the confidence or lack of that Flus has in his corners. I am not absolving  Flus. I just don't think he has the talent. Sin. I don't think he offers much. Leonard. Yes.  he is playing on a bad ankle, however he has never been great in coverage. 

Playing with cushion IS Flus's scheme. It's classic bend don't break. 

 

Leonard was very good in coverage in 2019, actually elite, buy just about every measure/stat. 

[Moosejawcolt]

4 hours ago, EastStreet said:

Playing with cushion IS Flus's scheme. It's classic bend don't break. 

 

Leonard was very good in coverage in 2019, actually elite, buy just about every measure/stat. 

It's 2021 going on 2022. 

[EastStreet]

2 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

It's 2021 going on 2022. 

 

Dude, 2019 was only 2 seasons ago.

 

In 2019 he was elite

in 2020 he was average / mediocre

in 2021, he's 15ish % points better than his 2020 in passer rating allowed.

in 2021, he's allowing 10ish % points better than his 2020 completion rate allowed.

 

Are you simply a hater, or do you just fail to recognize obvious improvement?