Getty Head coach Frank Reich and the Indianapolis Colts haven't played one of their young star players in the secondary much this season.
The Indianapolis Colts picked up a huge 34-27 victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 6. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t the potential for more improvement from the Colts.
In the win, Indianapolis modified its offense to emphasize short, quick passes. The Colts also used tempo to gain advantages against the Jaguars.
Furthermore, the Colts made another change to their offensive line and adjusted to being without Shaquille Leonard and Kwity Paye on defense.
But Colts reporter Nate Atkins of The Indianapolis Star suggested another change the Colts should make on defense following the victory against the Jaguars — play cornerback Isaiah Rodgers more instead of fellow cornerback Brandon Facyson.
“[Isaiah Rodgers] didn’t start the game at cornerback, which continues to be a puzzling decision,” Atkins wrote. “Brandon Facyson had a difficult day in contain as well as coverage.
“The Colts have a situation at cornerback where Stephon Gilmore and Kenny Moore II are going to play every snap, as they should, but it leaves it so that the second outside spot is the only place Rodgers can get on the field. He needs to play more, because he has elite speed to stay with receivers and just has a ridiculous nose for the ball.”
Other members of Colts media shared Atkins’ frustration over the lack of snaps for Rodgers.
Colts have to bench Facyson. Like he can’t play
That Brandon Facyson/Gus Bradley relationship…
Rodgers Needs More Snaps?
A sixth-round pick from the 2020 NFL draft, Rodgers played about 48% of Indianapolis’ defensive snaps a year ago under former defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus. But new defensive coordinator Gus Bradley hasn’t been interested in playing Rodgers that often.
In fact, at the beginning of the season, Bradley didn’t want to play Rodgers at all. In the first two weeks, the third-year cornerback received zero defensive snaps. He finally started playing on defense a little in Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The official snap count from Week 6 is not available yet, but in the previous three games, Rodgers lined up for 82 snaps on defense. That was about 43% of the team’s defensive snaps in those three contests.
Interestingly, Facyson also played 82 defensive snaps from Weeks 3-5. Of those 82 snaps for Facyson, though, 46 of them came during his lone start of the season in Week 3. Over the last two weeks, Facyson has played under 30% of Indianapolis’ snaps on defense.
It will be interesting to see if there was a significant change in the playing time for the two cornerbacks once the official Week 6 snap count is released. But Atkins was pretty clear in his postgame analysis on October 16 that even a snap count split between Rodgers and Facyson shouldn’t be happening.
Facyson’s Struggles in Week 6
As Atkins wrote, Rodgers has found himself around the ball much more than Facyson this season. Even worse, though, is the fact that when Facyson was around the ball in Week 6, he seemed to be making big mistakes.
The former undrafted cornerback made two blunders on the same drive during the third quarter against the Jaguars. First, the Colts forced an incomplete pass on third-and-1 at their own 39-yard line. That should have forced Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson into a difficult early second-half decision.
Instead, Facyson committed a defensive holding on the play which gave Jacksonville a first down. Four plays later, Lawrence completed a pass to rookie wide receiver Tim Jones. Not only did Facyson give up the completion, but he missed the tackle, allowing Jones to advance all the way to the 2-yard line.
Jacksonville scored on the next play to take an 8-point lead.
Unless Facyson starts to play better quickly, the media will only get louder with its desire for Rodgers to play more in the Colts secondary.