Colts, Jaylon Jones Fooled Caleb Williams on First Interception: Film

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones came away with his first career interception on a trap coverage vs. Caleb Williams.

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jaylon Jones (40) runs the sideline after intercepting a pass by the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, during a game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Indianapolis Colts' defense finally came to play this past weekend, limiting the Chicago Bears' offense to 2.3 yards per carry and forcing three turnovers on the day. This performance was a massive bounce back for a unit that desperately needed a strong showing early in the season.

The highlight of the day came in the second quarter when second-year cornerback Jaylon Jones picked off rookie quarterback Caleb Williams for the Colts' first interception of the season. It was a fantastic individual effort by Jones on the play but an even better defensive design to fool the young passer.

On today's "Breakdown of the Week," let's dive into the finer details of this play and how the Colts were able to get this easy interception in the second quarter.

Palms/2-Read Coverage

The Colts' coverage call on this defensive snap is called "palms," which is a middle of the field open call intended to trap opposing offenses by pinching the flats/bubbles. Pre-snap it appears as the Colts are running either quarters or maybe cover two man with the outside cornerbacks up in press coverage and the two safeties aligned in half field looks.

Jaylon Jones bails out of his press pre-snap, but the intended pre-snap look is designed to look like press on the outside.

MOFO pre-snap with outside corners in press /

Palms, at least in Gus Bradley's scheme, is a slight variation on the traditional cover two that we all know and love. The way that Bradley teaches it, especially against 3x1 sets like the play shown above, is to have the outside cornerback maintain outside leverage in his initial vertical drop while keeping his eyes on the #2/#3 wide receivers for any out-breaking routes.

If those inside receivers break vertical, then the outside corner will transition to more of a quarters drop and keep depth on the #1 receiver. If one of those inside players breaks outside, then the outside corner while break downhill and essentially pinch the sideline on said pass catcher. The APEX defender (usually the nickel defender) is responsible for getting depth on any digs or curls while the free safety to the palms corner side is reading vertical routes from #2 receiver to the #1 receiver.

This hybrid quarters/cover two call has a handful of variations, but the main take away is that the outside cornerback on the palms call side is driving downhill on any outbreaking routes despite showing cloud coverage pre-snap.

Jaylon Jones gaining depth while eyeing the #2 wide receiver /

The trap aspect of this play is that Caleb Williams is fully expecting more of a traditional cover two/quarters coverage call. He works backside with the pressure closing in and sees the curl route completely covered over the middle. As the pressure is about to hit him, he quickly moves down to the flat route with a late throw, expecting Jones to remain on his back foot by the curl route.

Little did he know that Jones was already driving down to the outside prior to the pass being thrown. The trapping aspect of the coverage call led to the great jump by Jones, which in turn led to the easy interception on the outside. This fantastic interception was made much easier by the coverage call by Gus Bradley on this third and short.

APEX and FS squeeze on curl route while Jaylon Jones drives on the flat route outside before the ball is thrown /

Overall, this was a great moment for the young cornerback to get his first career interception. Hopefully this leads to more coming in the future (heck, it led to another one later in the game) from the Colts' number one cornerback in 2024.

The only coaching point for next time is that he needs to stay in bounds and turn these interceptions into pick sixes.

Really happy that Jaylon Jones was able to come away with his first career interception on Sunday (and then another one later in the game). This is a fantastic break on the ball in the flat for the pick pic.twitter.com/PNlXUj2G0o

— Zach Hicks (@ZachHicks2) September 25, 2024

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