WITH THE 44TH PICK IN THE 2023 NFL DRAFT, THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS SELECT: JULIUS BRENTS, CORNERBACK, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Julius Brents grew up in Indianapolis idolizing the Colts. He watched as a hard-hitting safety built like Adonis was laying people out on Sundays. A star at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis, IN, he dreamed of playing for his hometown team and striking fear in opposing offenses just like that guy.
“You couldn’t write a better story than this. Being a Colts fan my whole life, growing up Peyton Manning was my favorite player. Growing up with Bob Sanders. Now, just being able to put on that same Horseshoe man, it’s nothing short of a blessing,” Brents said on Friday night in an interview with local media.
The main difference: Bob Sanders would dream of having the size of Julius Brents. An athletic specimen in his own right, Brents is cut from a different cloth than a guy like Sanders. Standing at 6’3 with a wing span reaching 82-5/8th inches (that’s about 6’10”), Brents is not the muscle-bound bowling ball of Bob Sanders, but he absolutely SHINES when using his unique size and length.
It’s no shocker that GM Chris Ballard dipped into the RAS (Relative Athletic Score) pool once again after picking up a perfect 10.00 prospect in Anthony Richardson at 4th overall. Brents himself scored an impressive 9.99 RAS score which landed him 4th out of 2222 CBs from 1987 to 2023. To do so while trading down and adding an extra 4th and 5th round pick, that is called a “Chris Ballard Special”.
To quote the man himself: “I love them picks.”
Now he drafts a building block for a weak secondary that can immediately translate within Gus Bradley’s scheme. Below is an excerpt from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler’s ‘The Beast’ draft guide displaying Brents’s strengths:
“Extraordinary height, length and wingspan for the position … aggressively uses his long arms at the line of scrimmage to disrupt route timing … fluid athlete to spring in any direction and transition well in his movements.”
Pairing that with Colts Secondary Coach Ron Milus could prove to be a very fruitful marriage. Milus is well regarded as one of the premier secondary coaches in the entire NFL. Give him a player like Brents to mold and we could be looking at the Indy version of Richard Sherman.
A local media member asked him about his name since he is commonly referred to JuJu. Which name does he prefer?
“It’s whatever. That’s been my nickname my whole life growing up. Julius, JuJu, whatever – it doesn’t matter man. I would say my opponent – we’re going to call it JuJu Island, so yeah, we can rock with JuJu.”
Welcome (back) to Indianapolis, JuJu. As for the rest of the NFL?
WELCOME TO JUJU ISLAND…
More from The Blue Stable:
Landon was boots on the ground in Kansas City Thursday night as a credentialed media member for the NFL Draft and got to ask Indy’s future QB1 a couple of questions. More in his recent article: HERE
2 Comments