Colts preseason finale should resolve key position battle

Cody Manning

Colts preseason finale should resolve key position battle image

The Indianapolis Colts have a major position battle brewing in the secondary entering the preseason finale Thursday night.

With just over two weeks until the season opener, the starting safety position opposite Julian Blackmon has yet to be named.

After Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Shane Steichen stated that the coaching staff is still working on the decision. 

“We’ve got another week and a half before we start this thing off,” Steichen said. “We’ll make that decision when it needs to be made.”

During Tuesday’s joint practice, it was Nick Cross who worked as the strong safety and Blackmon as the free safety. They also moved Blackmon to strong safety with Rodney Thomas II getting free safety reps with the starters. 

The coaching staff must have liked what they saw from Cross in last week’s preseason matchup with the Arizona Cardinals as the strong safety.

He looked comfortable in the role with him making two key tackles during his time on the field.

Based on the practice report, we will likely see Cross and Blackmon on the field on the defense’s first series. It will be interesting to see if Gus Bradley switches his safeties around until they are pulled in the second quarter. 

If Cross can continue to stack one more strong preseason performance, then it should lead to him being named as a starter for the season opener. 

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Cody Manning

Cody Manning Photo

Cody Manning is a graduate of the University of Tampa’s Sport Management program. He spent time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Guest and Member Relations Game Day staff where he was a Team Leader and earned Difference Maker of the Year in 2017. During his time with the Bucs, he helped start Blitzalytics, a scouting and analytics media company. After that came to an end, he joined USA Today’s Colts Wire as a contributor in 2021. Outside of football, he is an avid WWE and Batman fan. You can find him on Twitter/X @CodyTalksNFL.