8/14 Indystar
Insider: How a rookie made an impression in the Colts' cornerback competition
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Indianapolis picked off just 10 passes, tied for 24th in the NFL.
Nearly all of those interceptions came from the safety position. The only Colts cornerback who recorded an interception last season, Stephon Gilmore (he had two) is now in Dallas, trying to help the Cowboys get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl.
“That’s one thing we’ve been harping on throughout the offseason, we’ve got to up-tempo our interception total,” Indianapolis defensive backs coach Ron Milus said.
Interceptions come naturally for Rush.
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When Rush was first recruited to South Carolina, it was as a wide receiver, transferring to cornerback only as a redshirt freshman.
The ball skills stuck with him.
“Being a receiver, you’ve got a knack for the ball,” Rush said. “You see it, you’ve got to concentrate on it, and that’s what I did. Had to make sure I caught it before I started to run.”
Rush’s play was the kind of big play that coaches are trying to find in the preseason.
One of three cornerbacks the Colts drafted in April, the fifth-round pick was playing with the third-team defense when he made his interception, playing behind fellow rookies JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones.
But the reality is that three weeks into training camp, the cornerback position remains wide open. A pair of second-year undrafted free agents, Darrell Baker Jr. and Dallis Flowers, have been the starters on the outside throughout training camp, but Brents and Rush have missed significant time with injuries, leaving little chance for the Colts to evaluate them.
The Indianapolis coaching staff needed all of its cornerbacks on the field in order to start holding a competition in earnest.
“I think so. There’s probably a little bit of that,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said last week. “You would like to have them all out there, and fortunately, we’re starting to see that.”
The rookies remain intriguing.
Bradley, Milus and the rest of the Colts coaching staff like length, and although Baker Jr. and Flowers have it — they’re both listed at 6-1 — the rookies stand 6-2 or taller, in the case of the 6-3 Brents.
“The one thing that you can say about all three of those guys is they’ve got height, they’ve got speed, they’ve got what you’re looking for — at least the measurables you’re looking for — at the corner position,” Milus said.
Rush’s ball skills set him apart.
A hamstring injury in the spring and a shoulder injury at the start of training camp have cost Rush considerable time, but in the short amount of time he’s been on the practice field, it’s been evident the rookie from South Carolina has a nose for the football.
“I don’t know if (the media was) around much when Darius was out there in OTAs, but I want to say he had four interceptions in the limited reps that he had out there,” Milus said.
Rush’s ball production could get him a longer look in the weeks to come, especially with joint practices against Chicago and Philadelphia looming.
“What we’ve got to do now with some of these younger guys that are making plays with twos and threes, is to get them with the ones, and see,” Bradley said. “How real is it?”
The three rookies need those chances.
Offseason wrist surgery and a hamstring didn’t allow Brents, the second-rounder out of Kansas State, to begin practicing until roughly a week ago; and Jones, a seventh-rounder out of Texas A&M, has a long way to go by virtue of his draft position.
With Baker Jr. and Flowers already ahead, the rookies have to get the coaching staff’s attention, knowing there’s more potential for playing time available in Indianapolis than a lot of rookie cornerbacks are chasing around the league.
“When we first got in, we said we were going to push each other,” Rush said. “We understand that there’s a job to do, and we’re all going to compete with each other, but at the end of the day, we’re all here to contribute to this DB room and add value to this team. … Us three, we had that talk: We’re here for a reason. That’s what we’re here to do, to make plays and make this team better.”
Rush’s interception, and the return that came with it, are the first big blow for one of the rookies.
And when he got his hands on the football, Rush wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass him by.
“They weren’t catching me,” Rush said. “It was knees up, to the house.”
The kind of highlight the Colts defense didn’t produce enough last season.
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