Julian Blackmon Colts Free Agent Watch

Source: Stephen Maturen / Getty

INDIANAPOLIS – Julian Blackmon, meet free agency again.

And we know last year’s open market treatment wasn’t what Blackmon was hoping for.

Yes, the Colts brought Blackmon back on a one-year deal last offseason, but he was on the open market for 3 weeks, before realizing it wasn’t as fruitful as he thought it would be.

In general, the entire 2024 safety market in was pretty dry.

For Blackmon though, he has a big question, too, even though he’s proven to be a pretty quality NFL player.

Blackmon entered last year’s free agency off a career season at strong safety.

The only real question around his value came from his availability, having missed 17 games in 4 years.

In 2024, Blackmon played in every game but one, but his production dipped, as the Colts asked him to move back to free safety.

The former third-round pick out of Utah injured his labrum in the ’24 season opener, missed the Week 2 loss to the Packers and then went on to play every game the rest of the year. He missed just 3 snaps in the final 16 games of the season.

So now another free agency awaits Blackmon with his value a tad different.

While he missed just one game last season, he did suffer a notable injury that he decided to play through. Should that factor into his market value? Did that limit his ability this past season?

And now Blackmon is about to be evaluated by a different defensive coordinator.

Lou Anarumo arrives with an affinity for the safety position, calling Pro Bowler Jesse Bates a “problem solver” when the Bengals defense was at its height.

That sort of intellectual compliment is something the Colts staff has used for Blackmon before.

It’s part of why they felt the need they could trust him in moving back to free safety, after training camp answers there left continued questions.

Of the half dozen Colts starters bound for free agency in 2025, Blackmon’s status might be the hardest to gauge.

Julian Blackmon Colts Free Agent Watch was originally published on 1075thefan.com