Colts Scouts Take: Jaylon Carlies

Source: Ed Zurga / Getty

No, not that type of bet.

It was Carlies as a high school senior being coveted most by colleges to play offense (wide receiver) at the collegiate level.

But Carlies wanted to play defense, and wanted to do it in the vaunted SEC.

So it was then Missouri defensive coordinator (and now Purdue head coach) Ryan Walters seeing Carlies as a defensive back.

“I like that he bet on himself to go play (defense) in the best conference in college football,” Colts area scout Tyler Hughes says of Carlies.

Now the Colts are betting on Carlies to make a position switch at this level.

The Colts see a linebacker in Carlies, after his college career included a brief stint at cornerback before switching to safety.

“You see him on the (field) and you’re like, ‘Damn, that’s an NFL linebacker,’” Hughes says. “He’s 6-3, 235 pounds, 34-inch arms, and he played down in the box a lot later in the season like, ‘Oh, yeah, he can do it.’

“He’s got a lot of versatility to him. Definitely the figure of what we want at linebacker.”

It was just one play this spring, but you saw what Carlies can bring to the linebacker position with the Colts.

With Joe Flacco attempting to fit a ball into the second level of the defense, up came a leaping Carlies, flashing that impressive wingspan, and hauling in the interception that left the veteran quarterback, and even Shane Steichen, shaking their heads.

Back end of the defense responsibility for Carlies won’t be asked of much with the Colts and that objective is something the scouting department observed during the draft process.

“Personally, I think he was at best when he was closer to the line of scrimmage,” Hughes says. “He just saw things quicker. Things kind of shrunk down for him, he was able to utilize his strengths to his game there.”

Scout a player for what he can do, not what he can’t do.

That old scouting adage is clearly at play here with Carlies transitioning to linebacker.

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