After intercepting a pass during OTAs, Colts’ rookie linebacker Jaylon Carlies came away with another one during the team’s second training camp practice.
According to Kevin Bowen of 107.5 The Fan, Carlies’ pick came during 7-on-7 off a pass from Sam Ehlinger that cornerback Ameer Speed was able to breakup and Carlies was able to come down with. He would take it the other way for a “touchdown.”
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A former college safety at Missouri, Carlies has a real opportunity to carve out a role on this Colts’ defense this season with his coverage abilities.
Joel Erickson of the Indy Star would note that along with Carlies’ takeaway, he was taking starting defensive reps next to Zaire Franklin and EJ Speed as the Will linebacker when the Colts are in their base 4-3 defense.
Carlies is a very good athlete and the Colts really like the length he brings to the linebacker position, in addition to his experience as a coverage defender.
“In our scheme, what we can’t coach up is speed or change of direction, things like that,” said Bradley after Saturday’s practice.
“So you’ve seen us evolve to where a little bit like we’re willing to go, hey, 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, alright, we can coach that part up. That’s JC. He’s a safety that’s playing linebacker, but he’s got really good length and he has that mindset, he just has to develop the skill set.”
Not only is Carlies making the jump from college to the NFL, but he’s in the midst of a position change as well, however, it’s one that the Colts are very well equipped to handle.
Helping Carlies with this transition will be assistant linebackers coach Cato June, who made a similar switch during his own playing career, and linebackers coach Richard Smith, who was a part of Gus Bradley’s staff in Las Vegas that worked with Divine Deablo make the move from safety to linebacker.
“Generally speaking,” said Bradley, “knowing our linebacker coach Richard Smith, he is a really good fundamental teacher, and toughness, hand placement, strike and shed, all those things. Both him and Cato do a great job coaching that up.”
With Ronnie Harrison, who can fill a similar role as Carlies, taking snaps at free safety, Carlies seems to be the early front-runner for the coverage specific role at the linebacker position.
