Julian Blackmon Returning for 2024

[ProblChld32]

He has Inked a 1year deal and will be coming back. 

[1959Colts]

Cool

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

Glad they came to an agreement. I hope he stays healthy and earns a bigger contract next season. 

[indyagent17]

When he is health he looks solid and getting better but it’s hard to trust his injury prone career. Hoping for a healthy and productive season 

[NewColtsFan]

Good to see this happen.  Hopefully JB stays healthy this year.   If he does he’ll likely have a good year setting himself up for a better deal next year. 
 

This probably ends the talk of signing Simmons, though there might still be a very slight chance….    

[smittywerb]

Nice!  Guess Blackmon saw what his market was and said screw it.

 

assuming this will be a prove it type deal.  Nice that we filled a hole by bringing back one of our own.  
 

I hope Ballard isn’t done and signs a FS.  He does that, then I’m honestly ok with this free agency period.  Tried to make splashes but they fell through, brought back our own.  
 

Now let’s hit the draft, grab some players who can come and contribute and maybe even start, and I’m excited to see what we can do in this competitive division.

[ColtStrong2013]

 

[Shive]

Just now, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

Wow! That's really cheap! Still leaves us some space to make another move if we restructure someone.

[ColtStrong2013]

Just now, Shive said:

Wow! That's really cheap! Still leaves us some space to make another move if we restructure someone.

Seems to be major incentive based. I would assume availability being a big one. Hope he hits the full amount. Maybe it’s a- hey you get an opportunity to hit 7 mil but also a long term deal if we can keep you on the field and continue growing. I thought he played well last year. it’s a weird situation with cross though. I think they like him, but Blackmon is clearly better and they are both better at strong safety. 

[w87r]

12 minutes ago, Shive said:

Wow! That's really cheap! Still leaves us some space to make another move if we restructure someone.

Only $3.2m guaranteed, must be a lot of incentives.

 

Yeah not too much to complain about here.

[ColtStrong2013]

Just now, w87r said:

Only $3.2m guaranteed, must be a lot of incentives.

 

Yeah not too much to complain about here.

I hope he stays healthy, hits them all and helps this defense get on track. I like Julian. He’s just had a lot of unfortunate bad luck with injuries. 

[DougDew]

That completes the cycle of returning with what we had, then adding AR to the mix.  The table is set.

 

And whatever value Davis and Flacco (over Minshew) provides.

[ColtStrong2013]

4 minutes ago, DougDew said:

That completes the cycle of returning with what we had, then adding AR to the mix.  The table is set.

 

And whatever value Davis and Flacco (over Minshew) provides.

Table is set for the draft. I think anyways. I’m not sure there will be any more moves beforehand. 

[richard pallo]

27 minutes ago, Shive said:

Wow! That's really cheap! Still leaves us some space to make another move if we restructure someone.

Maybe we do make a move for Diggs or Simmons after all.

[ProblChld32]

1 hour ago, NewColtsFan said:

Good to see this happen.  Hopefully JB stays healthy this year.   If he does he’ll likely have a good year setting himself up for a better deal next year. 
 

This probably ends the talk of signing Simmons, though there might still be a very slight chance….    

I don’t think it ends the talks entirely. Simmons fits into Gus system well. He can play up top and Blackmon excels in the box. They could decide they aren’t comfortable with the play of Thomas and Cross and decide to bring him in. I will say that I think at this point in Simmons career he probably wants to got to a team that is a contender. But I will hold hope that he ends up being a Colt lol

[AwesomeAustin]

36 minutes ago, Shive said:

Wow! That's really cheap! Still leaves us some space to make another move if we restructure someone.

It appears it slots him in at #15 if he hits all his incentives. Who knows what it takes to get all of them. Of course there are others that could sign and move him down a slot or two. I guess I would consider it fair. Not sure if he is a top 15 safety in the league but close enough when healthy.  

[Orioles22]

So, Blackmon is the strong safety and Cross plays free safety? Daniel Scott would play at which spot if he's healthy?

[GoColts8818]

1 hour ago, w87r said:

Only $3.2m guaranteed, must be a lot of incentives.

 

Yeah not too much to complain about here.

Yeah pretty clear what happen Blackmon realized there was no market for what he wanted and he went back to the Colts who needed a starting safety badly and both sides agreed to do a prove it deal for one year.  Win win for both sides.  Gives the Colts help and gives Blackmon the best chance to perform with a team and system he already knows.  
 

I wasn’t crazy about keeping Blackmon because I figured any deal would be long term and I didn’t like that because of his injury history and the fact I don’t like giving big contracts to guys who have a major career year in a contract year.  However, it’s very hard to argue with this move given how the contract shock out.

[GoColts8818]

3 minutes ago, Orioles22 said:

So, Blackmon is the strong safety and Cross plays free safety? Daniel Scott would play at which spot if he's healthy?

I think in a perfect world Blackmon is the SS with Cross as the third safety and the FS is still TBD.

[RollerColt]

1 year prove it deal. I like it. Glad they were able to come together and get it done. Hope Julian can stay healthy and help the team. 

[Colt Overseas]

5 hours ago, GoColts8818 said:

I think in a perfect world Blackmon is the SS with Cross as the third safety and the FS is still TBD.

 

I hope so too. The only thing is Ballard has history in going into seasons will a callow position group. So it wouldn't surprise me if it is Thomas, Cross or a mid round pick starting there in September.

[cbear]

So when Cross and Blackmon played together last year, who played FS most often? I say that because I recall seeing Cross in the box quite a bit. 

 

[lollygagger8]

Good incentive deal. He's good when he is actually on the field. 

 

We still need another safety not named Thomas out there. 

[throwing BBZ]

8 hours ago, GoColts8818 said:

Yeah pretty clear what happen Blackmon realized there was no market for what he wanted and he went back to the Colts who needed a starting safety badly and both sides agreed to do a prove it deal for one year.  Win win for both sides.  Gives the Colts help and gives Blackmon the best chance to perform with a team and system he already knows.  
 

I wasn’t crazy about keeping Blackmon because I figured any deal would be long term and I didn’t like that because of his injury history and the fact I don’t like giving big contracts to guys who have a major career year in a contract year.  However, it’s very hard to argue with this move given how the contract shock out.

 

 If he had a "major career year" he would have gotten a 3 year deal for $21M.

He made a number of aggressive splash plays near the line of scrimmage, but for anyone watching, he got washed out defending the outside too frequently. And for those PFF numbers, he got a big boost from 4 int.'s. 3 balls overthrown right to him standing back in his cushiony zone.

 My estimation would be that the Colts grading system was closer to a PFF equivalent in the lower 60's.

 The good thing is the cheap "backup level" deal. He already "proved" his abilities. Let's hope Cross keeps him mostly on the bench.

 

[Colts1324]

1 hour ago, lollygagger8 said:

Good incentive deal. He's good when he is actually on the field. 

 

We still need another safety not named Thomas out there. 

I would agree. It’s crazy how things can turn. If we managed to land Diggs or Simmons, we’d go from one of the worst to the best safety groups in the league. 
 

Two solid starters. & Cross + Thomas would be a great backup duo. Not necessarily starters at this point, but they can fill in well when needed. 

[wig]

Great news, now there's no massive holes coming into the draft

[PRnum1]

I'm glad he's back, I've always been a fan.

 

I think his market plummeted because he's seen around the league as a SS.

 

Good for him and looking forward to see what Ballard does at the FS position. 

 

Hopefully it's a vet as playing FS can be rough on rookies as they have to master the defense.

 

It's almost like being captain of the secondary

[DougDew]

11 hours ago, Orioles22 said:

So, Blackmon is the strong safety and Cross plays free safety? Daniel Scott would play at which spot if he's healthy?

And that question illustrates the problem with our safeties.  Blackmon fills an immediate need to play either spot reasonably well, but there are still multi-year issues.

[FanFromtheWasteland]

14 hours ago, DougDew said:

That completes the cycle of returning with what we had, then adding AR to the mix.  The table is set.

 

And whatever value Davis and Flacco (over Minshew) provides.

I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we don't need Flacco

[Yoshinator]

Good re-sign. That should set us up for the draft at S now. Can take someone in rounds 3-5 range and probably be good at the position. Glad to get Blackmon back.

[coltsfeva]

15 hours ago, DougDew said:

That completes the cycle of returning with what we had, then adding AR to the mix.  The table is set.

 

And whatever value Davis and Flacco (over Minshew) provides.

Don’t forget the draft! 

[bluephantom87]

15 hours ago, richard pallo said:

Maybe we do make a move for Diggs or Simmons after all.

 

Diggs just went to the Texans....

[Jason_]

12 minutes ago, bluephantom87 said:

 

Diggs just went to the Texans....

 

wrong Diggs. He's talking about Quandre, the safety, not Stefon.

[DattMavis]

22 minutes ago, Jason_ said:

 

wrong Diggs. He's talking about Quandre, the safety, not Stefon.

I leave the country and the Texans decide to do this?! If they remain healthy, they might have the best WR group in the NFL.

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

Glad hes back, hes better every year last year was his best and when healthy he is pretty good. 1 year deal is great considering his health & and lack of safeties on the roster

[throwing BBZ]

1 hour ago, Horse Shoe Heaven said:

Glad hes back, hes better every year last year was his best and when healthy he is pretty good. 1 year deal is great considering his health & and lack of safeties on the roster

 

 We have suffered with painful miscommunication on the back end so playing another year together as a unit should us help us improve on it.

 And I am also a BIG believer in having a slew of your best players in their prime. I consider that in years 4-8.

 This is another big year for our young players to get prepared for us to challenge the best in 2025 and beyond.

[ChuggaBeer]

On 4/2/2024 at 10:15 PM, w87r said:

Only $3.2m guaranteed, must be a lot of incentives.

 

Yeah not too much to complain about here.

Do the incentives count against the cap?  Since there is a possibility he won't get all of that?

[w87r]

4 minutes ago, ChuggaBeer said:

Do the incentives count against the cap?  Since there is a possibility he won't get all of that?

Just depends what they are.

 

Playing time

INTs

Etc.

 

Whatever they are it will depend if he hit those numbers last year or not. If not, they would count against next year's cap instead.(If they hit them.

 

I'm anticipating $4.5m-$5m cap hit this year

[wig]

On 4/3/2024 at 8:07 AM, DougDew said:

And that question illustrates the problem with our safeties.  Blackmon fills an immediate need to play either spot reasonably well, but there are still multi-year issues.

 

The goal of every off season pre draft is to not HAVE to go after any 1 position. Ballard has done that. If your complaint is we aren't set for years at a position, then you know things aren't bad

[Moosejawcolt]

On 4/2/2024 at 4:04 PM, ProblChld32 said:

He has Inked a 1year deal and will be coming back. 

Now we need a FS!!