Colts Safety Julian Blackmon On Career Year, Looking Forward

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The Indianapolis Colts are officially back for training camp, which means the 2024 NFL season is right around the corner!

One of the biggest questions marks for the Colts heading into the season will be their young defensive secondary. The unit suffered from injuries in 2023, as well as from their relative lack of experience. The Colts’ confidence in them has remained steady however, with Chris Ballard choosing to, by and large, run it back with the same players. With Dallis Flowers and JuJu Brents back and healthy, the secondary will be expected to show signs of progress.

One player who has already proved himself is safety Julian Blackmon. Blackmon had his best season in 2023, recording 88 tackles and a team-high 8 passes defended. During the Wednesday edition of The Ride With JMV, John spoke to the Colts 5 th -year safety about his decision to return to Indianapolis on a 1-year deal.

“I just had a lot of guys here who I was close with, and I really enjoyed the organization as a whole, and so keeping that into account, it was pretty for my decision. I think it was just one thing to kind of go out and see what the market looked like, but I had it in mind that I wanted to be a Colt, so it’s just nice to be back.”

He also dove into his stellar 2023, and what he liked and disliked from his play last year.

“I just liked how I was around the ball a lot. I like being able to be a communicator, I’m a talkative person as it is with my teammates. I don’t like to keep secrets, that’s kind of what I say. I don’t like to keep secrets; I like to talk and tell everybody what I’m seeing. So I just felt like I was in a position that allowed me to make plays. I’m a playmaker, so it put me in position to take the ball away, and coming off of this year, I had the most interceptions I had, I had the most tackles I had [in my career]. I think that what I didn’t like was that it was only my first year playing strong safety, so I think that there were still growing pains and still a little bit of different understandings that I had to get used to, but going into this year it’s going to help a lot, especially after getting a year under my belt and seeing where I can improve.”

2024 will be another important season for Blackmon, as he again looks to show he is deserving of a long-term contract extension. He spoke about what his goals are for this upcoming season.

“I think for me it would just be to be consistent this year, and dominate again. Just be one of the guys that people realize that is going to be here for a long time, not just one of the guys that is kind of in and out, and flirts with greatness. I want to be a person that is able to be effective and be effective for a long time for this team.”

You can listen to JMV’s full conversation down below! Tune into The Ride With JMV weekdays from 3-6pm eastern on 93.5/107.5 The Fan!

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