Go get Justin Simmons

The Colts' safety situation is shaky and the secondary in general needs some help. The Broncos' Pro Bowl safety is the perfect addition. Time for Ballard to pull the trigger.

Every couple of years, Chris Ballard comes clean with his post-season mea culpa. Most recently, in 2022, he tried to make a go of it with Matt Pryor and Danny Pinter as starting offensive linemen. Again, the fans and media screamed. Again, Ballard didn’t budge. The result was not good. At season’s end, he acknowledged he messed up.

Now, it seems, he’s doing it again.

At safety, to be specific. And at cornerback, to a slightly lesser extent.

They’ve got one established safety in Julian Blackmon, although I’m hard pressed to understand why they’ve recently moved him from strong safety, where he played so well last season, to free safety, where he’ll have less of an impact on the game. Meanwhile, the strong safety spot is a competition between Rodney Thomas II, Nick Cross and Ronnie Harrison Jr., and if none of those names resonate, there’s a good reason: None of them has stepped up in this training camp and established themselves as the guy at that position.

Here we are, two weeks into camp, and the Colts have no solid idea who their guy is going to be. Nor do they know if Blackmon will play free or strong.

Asked when he might find some answers at safety, defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said the following after Monday’s practice when, in fairness, it should be mentioned that both Cross and Thomas had interceptions:

“I think as soon as someone consistently steps up,” he said.

Oh, boy.

“I will say this, the last about seven, eight days, we’ve seen that position elevate,” Bradley added. “That’s what we were kind of hoping – create a lot of competition there and then just see the cream come to the top. So I think once we feel good about it, `All right, this is the direction we’re going to go,’ then we’ll go. But I don’t think we’re any time close right now.”

Gulp.

If only Khari Willis hadn’t retired to pursue life in the ministry.