Breaking: Colts re-signing safety Julian Blackmon

With the re-signing of safety Julian Blackmon this week, the Colts have now retained and/or extended a player in each defensive position group for 2024.

The Colts’ commitment to so many core experienced elements of their defense was not lost on Blackmon, who re-signed with the franchise that drafted him in 2020.

“For the team to bring everyone back, it just showed what they wanted, how great the organization is, and how much my teammates enjoy being here,” Blackmon said on this week’s Official Colts Podcast (YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify). “Obviously, getting all of us back who’ve been playing here for a while is one of those situations where it’s more than just football – it’s family here. And seeing everyone else sign here made me even more excited to return.”

However, Blackmon’s free agency experience was not the same as his teammates’. Lewis, Stewart, and Moore all inked contracts two days after the NFL’s free agency period began; Franklin signed an extension a year before becoming a free agent. Blackmon, meanwhile, signed a little more than four weeks into free agency.

Blackmon relied on those closest to him, as well as counsel from players who had previously gone through the free agency process.

“I think that it was a lot of trying to take emotion out of it, and take it for what it was,” said Blackmon. “When it came to that, this was mostly a business. That’s when it became true for me, and I realized that I couldn’t take it personally. Simply understand how the market and free agency function, and how they may either boom or crash. And for my situation, it became a little tricky there for a while.

“But I had the support of my family and a wonderful agent who did an excellent job. So I just tried to focus on what I could control every day, because I couldn’t control the market or the financial side of things, but I could manage waking up every day and going to work out, spending time with my family, and being with my fiancé.

Blackmon returns to Indianapolis with excellent experience (46 career starts) and career-high figures (2023: 88 tackles, four interceptions, five tackles for loss). In 2023, he seamlessly transitioned from a deeper free safety position to a closer-to-the-line strong safety position, which Blackmon stated allowed him to play freely and quickly.

“It just fits my role better, it fits my personalty better,” Blackmon went on to say. “I’m more of a vocal person; I like to be around the ball and take the ball away, so the strong safety position in this defense, in particular, plays more of that role. For me, it’s simple to walk over there and begin making those plays.”

As Blackmon wants to expand on his shift to strong safety, he’ll focus on remaining healthy for the full season. The 25-year-old spent the 2023 season on injured reserve after suffering a shoulder injury in Week 16, and he has never played more than 15 games in a single season for a number of reasons, not all of which were under his control.

“(Going on injured reserve) was hard, because I think everybody knows that as long as I’ve been in the league, I haven’t been able to play every single game,” Blackmon said in a statement. “And so it’s one of the things that’s on my mind for the coming years, because it’s difficult when you get to the NFL, because you obviously know that some things happen, odd accidents occur.

“So, for me, it’s one of those things where I really want to finish it. I want to be one of the guys who can be on the field, reliable, and available all season. That’s one of the things that has been on my mind, and I want to do everything I can to help this team advance, and I believe it’s critical that I play all 17 games.”