The Indianapolis Colts young secondary had multiple questions surrounding them heading into the 2024 season.
And they've already lost one of their starters for the season, with second-year cornerback Juju Brents being placed on the injury reserve with a knee injury.
Their secondary arguably had its best outing of the season in Week 3 , but they are monitoring injuries to starter Kenny Moore II and rotational CB Dallas Flowers. With that in mind, they brought in a former first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, CB C.J. Henderson, for a visit.
C.J. Henderson's path to being a top 10 draft pick
Henderson played his college football career at the University of Florida as a Florida Gators. He spent all three seasons at Florida, where he appeared in 33 games and stuffed the stat sheet by recording 93 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, four sacks, six interceptions, 22 pass deflections, and two defensive touchdowns. A big staple of his ability at Florida was how he excelled in single coverage. In college, he logged 172 snaps in single coverage, was targeted 49 times, and only allowed one touchdown.
His best collegiate season came during his freshman season in 2017, where he exploded onto the scene with a career-high four interceptions and returned two of them for touchdowns. He chose to forego his senior season at Florida to declare for the 2020 NFL Draft. During his draft cycle, he was able to pair his college production with elite athletic testing with him, earning a 9.97 RAS.
Henderson's rough start to his NFL Career
The Jacksonville Jaguars drafted Henderson with the ninth pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. During his rookie season, he appeared and started eight games for the Jaguars, recording one interception, six pass deflections, one forced fumble, and 36 total tackles. His career with the Jaguars would only last ten games, as the team elected to trade their 2020 first-round pick along with a 2022 5th-round pick to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick in the middle of the 2021 NFL season.
He finished out the rest of his rookie contract with the Panthers, where he appeared in 39 games. His best season with the Panthers and arguably in the NFL as a whole came in 2022, where he set his career high with two interceptions and tied his career high for pass deflections with six. Following the end of last season, Henderson became a free agent after the Panthers declined to pick up his fifth-year option. He signed with the Houston Texans this offseason and spent training camp with the team up until he was released as a part of the team's roster cuts to get down to 53 players.
Would Henderson be a good fit with the Colts?
Henderson checks the Colts' size and athleticism boxes at the CB position. He most recently was listed at 6'1" and 205 lbs. And his ability to make plays around the ball would be a welcome sight as an outside corner. And with Brents getting hurt, the Colts don't have an apparent second starter opposite of Jaylon Jones on the outside. The team rotated between Flowers and Samuel Womack in Week 3. If the team decided to sign Henderson, he'd have a legit shot at competing for the team's second starting outside CB job the moment he put on a Colts helmet.
Now, he is available in September for a reason. Henderson has struggled with multiple injuries over the past four seasons, and he tends to be a bit too aggressive in coverage as he tries to make plays on the ball. But he's still only 25 years old (he will turn 26 on September 30) and would offer the Colts a high upside option to attempt to develop into a solid rotational CB. Who knows, maybe he could finally live up to the draft hype that led to him being drafted ninth overall in the 2020 NFL Draft.
