Colts CB JuJu Brents suffers significant knee injury, placed on IR

INDIANAPOLIS — A thin Colts cornerback position is suddenly down one of its starters on the outside.

JuJu Brents will be placed on injured reserve after suffering a significant knee injury that will require surgery, a league source told IndyStar on Tuesday, although the team will leave open the possibility that Brents could return in the final month of the season.

Brents, an Indianapolis native who played at Warren Central, initially tweaked the knee during a seven-tackle performance in Sunday’s season-opening loss to Houston, a game where he played 62 defensive snaps and four on special teams.

The Colts thought the injury was minor — Brents was available for interviews in the locker room after the game — until an MRI revealed a more significant problem, the latest and most severe in the list of physical obstacles Brents has battled since Indianapolis used a 2023 second-round pick to draft him out Kansas State.

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JuJu Brents injuries

Brents underwent surgery on his wrist before the draft in 2023 and missed the team’s spring practices, then suffered a hamstring injury in training camp that forced him to the inactive list the first two games of his rookie season. Once he returned to the lineup, Brents started four games, then suffered a quadriceps injury that knocked him out of the next six games, and he left the season finale after just 30 snaps due to another hamstring issue.

Frustrated by the injury issues that limited him to nine games and 496 snaps as a rookie, Brents tried to focus on injury prevention during the offseason, but the knee will already be his third surgery of 2024. Brents underwent a cleanup on his ankle in June, needed a procedure to fix a broken nose suffered when a player’s cleat somehow slid under his face mask during the preseason and now faces a significant knee injury.

Indianapolis will place Brents on injured reserve, hoping that he will somehow be able to return at the end of the season.

His loss leaves the Colts secondary in a precarious position.

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Who will replace JuJu Brents at cornerback for Colts?

Indianapolis initially promoted veteran special teamer Chris Lammons to the 53-man roster and signed former Cowboys cornerback Kelvin Joseph to the practice squad to supplement the position. Lammons is not likely a potential replacement on the outside; the veteran played 22 snaps on special teams as a practice squad elevation Sunday, but he's played just one game defensively in a Colts uniform, stepping into the slot against the Raiders when both Kenny Moore II and Julian Blackmon were injured late last season.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard did not sign a veteran cornerback this offseason to bolster a young position that struggled at times during the 2023 season, betting heavily that the improvement of Brents, fellow starter Jaylon Jones and third-year cornerback Dallis Flowers would be able to carry the position outside of veteran stalwart Kenny Moore II.

“They’re young, they’re going to continue to get better,” Ballard said at the end of training camp. “Things don’t always work out, even when you’re trying to acquire a player. Not saying we didn’t try to do some things, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. But we do think we have good, young talent back there.”

Flowers appears to be the obvious replacement for the role Brents played against Houston.

The third-year cornerback opened the 2023 season as one of the team’s starters on the outside, then suffered a torn Achilles tendon at the end of the fourth game, ending his season prematurely. Flowers battled back to return to the field during the spring, but his ongoing quest to rebuild the strength and explosiveness in his Achilles tendon placed him firmly outside the three starting spots early in training camp.

Flowers was inactive for Sunday’s game against the Texans.

“We talked about what’s best,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “Sometimes those decisions, when you get to the third corner, the fourth corner, sometimes that special teams value and where he’s at there (plays a role). … We just felt that what was best for that particular game was to go with Sam (Womack III).”

Womack, a third-year cornerback claimed off waivers from San Francisco at the end of training camp, is one of the other possible replacements for Brents. Built more like Moore at 5-9, 190 pounds, Womack has been expected to play most of his snaps in the nickel, but the team’s need might force him or Moore to shift to the outside.

Indianapolis’s depth beyond those two players is uncertain. Former Colts cornerback Darrell Baker Jr., who started eight games in 2023, was claimed off waivers by Tennessee after the Womack move. Indianapolis added veteran cornerback David Long Jr. to the practice squad before the season opener; the Colts also have fifth-round rookie Jaylin Simpson and second-year player Ameer Speed, who has the build Bradley likes in cornerbacks but has spent most of his Colts career on special teams.

Adding another experienced option could be difficult at this point in the season, although Indianapolis has worked out several experienced cornerbacks in the past couple of weeks.

JuJu Brents high school

JuJu Brents attended Warren Central High School in Indianapolis.

JuJu Brents contract

Brents signed a four-year contract worth $8,196,927 as a second-round pick in 2023, according to Spotrac.com . He received a $2,961,408 signing bonus. $5,975,996 of the contract is guaranteed.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts CB JuJu Brents suffers significant knee injury, placed on IR