JuJu Brents Emerging as Legit Cornerback for Colts: Film
The Indianapolis Colts selected Indiana native JuJu Brents in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Despite missing time due to injury in the offseason, and being a healthy scratch to start the season, Brents has emerged as a strong starter for the team in recent weeks.
Through just four games in his NFL career, Brents has totaled 24 tackles, three pass breakups, one interception, and one forced fumble. He has been tasked with some tougher assignments the past two weeks, and the rookie has shown real growth in this expanded role.
Today, I'm going to dive into the strong play of this first year cornerback and break down exactly why I'm optimistic about his future potential with the team.
Big Time Match-Ups
JuJu Brents has seen his role expand quite a bit due to the injury to Dallis Flowers back in week four. Brents has been tasked with more one on one situations, and the rookie corner has really stepped up to the plate in this tougher role.
For proper context on how the Colts' defense works, the Colts run a cover three match scheme. The base of this scheme is a traditional zone defense with match coverage rules to eliminate vertical threats and to create ideal situations for defenders.
I'm not going to break down the entirety of Gus Bradley's scheme in this article, but I did want to point out that the backside cornerback (the corner typically on an island vs 3x1 sets and similar looks) is usually in man coverage. This corner is in straight press MEG (man everywhere he goes) and tasked to follow his assignment in key situations.
Opposing offenses know this and try to isolate their best receiver against that backside corner on key downs. It is important for this scheme to have a reliable, and an athletic, player in that role to lock it down in man coverage. While JuJu Brents hasn't been perfect, he has held his own against two really strong receivers the past two weeks.
In week five, Brents had the near impossible task of covering DeAndre Hopkins in these MEG situations. Brents did force a deep incompletion on the day and should have had another one (but was called for a ticky-tack illegal contact instead).
Brents elected to get physical with the star receiver and as a result, most of the damage that Hopkins did was over the middle of the field away from Brents:
This past week may have been even more impressive by JuJu Brents. He had another tough assignment with Calvin Ridley, but he was able to change his style to accommodate the new threat.
Brents opted to use his physicality to match Hopkins in week five, but he relied on his length and positioning to counter the speed of Calvin Ridley. Ridley was able to counter a few times for some quick catches, but Brents mostly swallowed up this match-up all game long.
What impressed me the most this past game with Brents is how patient and in control he looked at the line of scrimmage. He never panicked at the point of attack, and he was able to do a lot of the dictating against a really talented pass catcher in Ridley.
He did get called for another illegal contact in this game, but those growing pains are expected in a young player still learning what he can get away with:
First Career Interception
JuJu Brents' first career interception came down to a little bit of luck and some really good zone eyes by the rookie. The Jaguars are in a third and short situation, so Brents knows the ball is likely to come out quick and underneath.
Brents' responsibility is to carry the vertical threat, so he begins to open up his hips to turn and run with Evan Engram on the inside corner route. Before he does that, he keeps his eyes trained inside, so he can react underneath if that ball comes out hot.
Trevor Lawrence throws this pass just before Brents bails to the vertical route, leaving Brents in the perfect position to come away with the interception. It was certainly lucky that the ball happened to hit him right in the chest, but Brents' eye discipline led him to the right spot to make the play:
Near Interception vs Tennessee
Flash back to week five against the Titans and Brents nearly had an interception in that game too. Much like with the other clips in this article, the play starts with Brents' work at the line of scrimmage.
The Colts are in a cover two zone, so Brents' job is to reroute the outside receiver and stay in the flat zone. He does an excellent job of executing his job on this play, as he reroutes the outside receiver almost all the way out to the sideline.
From there, Brents recognizes the lack of threats to his side so he gets vertical depth to make the deep throwing window more difficult for the opposing quarterback. He keeps zone eyes while retreating and nearly comes away with an interception in the endzone.
The feel and comfort while retreating plus the calmness getting into the window is next level stuff from the rookie:
The Bottom Line
Rookie cornerback JuJu Brents still has some room for improvement in his game, but the early returns are looking promising on this young player. He looks calm and collected at the line of scrimmage, and he is already approaching different assignments with different styles on a weekly basis.
If he continues this upward trajectory, the Colts may have found their future CB1 in the 2023 draft class. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but his ability at the line of scrimmage and his length remind me so much of Richard Sherman as a rookie.
Overall, I've just been really impressed with this rookies' play. He is playing some outstanding football in recent weeks.
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