Colts Rookie Defender Already Impressing Coaches, Fans

Indianapolis Colts rookie linebacker Jaylon Carlies is already earning some first-team reps and will play in multiple spots.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Jaylon Carlies returns an interception during training camp practice. Photo via Colts.com. / Indianapolis Colts (Colts.com)

The Indianapolis Colts defense needed reinforcements entering the 2024 season.

Most notably, the defensive backfield lacked vast experience both at cornerback and safety, but one of the defense's most subtle needs was at linebacker, specifically for a player who excelled in pass coverage. While starters Zaire Franklin and E.J. Speed are talented and productive, both are considered better in the run game.

The Colts entered the 2024 NFL Draft having not yet addressed the need for a coverage linebacker. However, as Day 3 progressed, the team struck, selecting Missouri's Jaylon Carlies in the fifth round with the 151st overall selection.

Exactly three months after being drafted by the Colts, Carlies made himself known to onlookers by intercepting a pass that had been batted into the air and taking it back for what may have been a touchdown in a real-game scenario. That wasn't the only highlight of the day for Carlies, though, who also received a handful of first-team reps at linebacker alongside Franklin and Speed.

This is not the first big play in practice for Jaylon Carlies since being drafted. He got some first-team reps at WILL today, and Gus Bradley said they’ll be working him into SAM/OTTO soon as well. https://t.co/ElTTPWViSO

— Jake Arthur (@JakeArthurNFL) July 28, 2024

Following practice, Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was asked about what he's seen from Carlies so far since joining the team.

“Generally speaking, knowing our linebacker coach, Richard Smith – he is a really good fundamental teacher and toughness, hand placement, strike and shed, all those things," Bradley began. "He and Cato (June) do a great job coaching that up. So in our scheme, what we can't coach up is speed or change of direction, things like that.

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"So you've seen us evolve to where, a little bit like we're willing to go, "Let's take a safety, and maybe he hasn't had a lot of opportunity to use his hands and strike and shed, but we feel like we can coach that part up," Bradley continued. "I think that's JC (Jaylon Carlies). He's a safety that’s playing linebacker, but he's got really good length. He has that mindset. He just has to develop that skill set.”

Although Carlies wasn't picked until the back half of the draft, it's easy to see why the Colts would be intrigued by his potential. At 6'3", 227, the soon-to-be 23-year-old already had the size and length of a normal Colts linebacker but with the physical ability to play against the pass like a defensive back, as he'd also briefly played the cornerback position at Missouri.

Collegiately, Carlies led the Tigers in interceptions (4) in 2021, which was his first season as a full-time starter. He then led the team in tackles each of the next two seasons. In all, he appeared in 48 games and totaled 221 tackles (11.5 for loss), 3.0 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovered, 9 interceptions, and 9 pass breakups.

What's next for Carlies is for the Colts to continue giving him opportunities to show where he's best suited in the defense and where he can help them the most.

“Right now for us, he is playing WILL," Bradley said. "But I would look for him to maybe get some reps on the outside to at that SAM spot.”

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