Indianapolis Colts cornerback JuJu Brents is headed to injured reserve, the team announced Tuesday. Brents suffered an MCL injury in the Colts’ season-opening loss to Houston, a league source told The Athletic.
Brents will miss at least the next four games and possibly the rest of his second NFL campaign. The team will determine if Brents can return this season after he undergoes surgery, per a league source. The hope is that he can come back in December.
Brents’ injury was believed to be minor until he reported discomfort in his knee and underwent an MRI that revealed an issue with his meniscus, per a league source. Brents started at outside cornerback against the Texans on Sunday, played 62 snaps (78 percent of Indianapolis’ defensive plays) and made seven tackles. He spoke to reporters after the game about his performance, which included a near-interception in the third quarter, and gave no indication that he would miss an extended period of time.
Brents’ absence is a huge loss for the Colts, who went into the 2024 season with an extremely young and inexperienced defensive secondary. Backup cornerback Chris Lammons was signed off the practice squad and will join the active 53-man roster in a corresponding roster move, but he plays more in the slot than outside. In theory, the next man up is Dallis Flowers, who was a healthy scratch in the season opener. Flowers started the first four games last year before he tore his right Achilles.
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Indianapolis could also look to sign a free agent, though the market is bleak at this point in the year. GM Chris Ballard passed on signing a proven veteran cornerback earlier this offseason and ultimately chose to roll the dice on second-year pros Brents and Jaylon Jones. In fairness to Ballard, Jones was viewed as more of a question mark than Brents since the former was a seventh-round pick and Brents was selected in the second round. But an argument can still be made that Ballard failed to surround his starters with adequate depth.
Brents’ MCL injury is the latest blow in what has already become an extensive injury history in the NFL. The 24-year-old was sidelined throughout his first training camp with a hamstring injury that also kept him out of the first two games of his rookie year. Brents then went on to miss six more games due to a quad injury. He finished his first season with 43 tackles, six pass breakups, one interception and one forced fumble in nine games (including eight starts).
Prior to this year’s training camp, Ballard revealed that Brents underwent ankle surgery. He also missed a few training camp practices early on with a shoulder injury. Brents then broke his nose on a freak play against the Cardinals in the Colts’ second preseason game. He had surgery and was sidelined for the rest of the preseason.
Now, Brents is out for the foreseeable future as the Colts try to stay afloat after losing their second defensive starter to a significant injury. Starting defensive end Samson Ebukam, who totaled a team-high 9 1/2 sacks last year, tore his Achilles on the third day of training camp. Ballard called it an extreme long-shot for Ebukam to return but did not rule him out for the season.
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