With training camp getting closer, the Colts’ safety room is starting to take shape - and the numbers suggest this could be one of the more interesting position battles on the roster.
The group currently includes Cam Bynum, AJ Haulcy, Hunter Wohler, Jonathan Owens, Juanyeh Thomas, Trey Washington, Ben Nikkel and Austin Brown. Of that bunch, Bynum, Haulcy and Wohler stand out as the clearest roster locks.
Bynum is the headliner here and should be the anchor of the group. Haulcy looks like the favorite to start alongside him, while Wohler enters camp as a recent draft pick who was trending toward snaps last season before his injury. He also has a path to a rotational role in defensive-back-heavy packages.
Owens and Thomas are a little less certain, even though both arrived in free agency. The Colts can move on from their deals fairly easily during roster cutdowns, so while they are more likely than not to make the team, they are not locked in the way Bynum, Haulcy and Wohler are.
The bigger question may be how many safeties Indianapolis keeps. Around the league, five is common. The Colts, though, carried only four at the position last year, so another four-man group is possible depending on how camp plays out for Owens and Thomas and what happens elsewhere on the roster.
For now, the prediction leans toward five safeties making the final 53: Cam Bynum, AJ Haulcy, Hunter Wohler, Jonathan Owens and Juanyeh Thomas. That gives the Colts a little more experience in the room and adds special teams value from Owens and Thomas.
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The individual valuations are the kind that make sense on paper and still feel uncomfortable in practice. Latu is viewed as having enough pass-rush upside to draw serious interest, Nelsons combination of pedigree and market scarcity still carries real value, and Taylor remains the sort of player whose name would resonate around the league even with the running back market where it is. The point of the breakdown is less about a looming deal than about how expensive it would be for the Colts to even consider one. [Read more 🡒]