Julian Blackmon, the starting strong safety for the Colts, injured his shoulder during an attempted tackle of Falcons running back Cordarrelle Patterson. He did not come back. His regular season is now over, but James Boyd of The Athletic reports that he might make a comeback in the postseason.

“We have signed S Henry Black off of the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad and placed S Julian Blackmon on IR,” the Colts announced in a statement regarding X.

Over his four NFL seasons (all with the Colts), Blackmon was enjoying the best year of his career. Blackmon is placed on injured reserve at the end of the regular season, regardless of whether the Colts advance to the playoffs.

He’ll have a strong final stat line. Some of the metrics are shown below.

15 games (all starts); 88 stops (5 with 5 sacks); 8 interceptions; and 8 passes defended. (Every career high)

To add much-needed depth amidst this development, the Colts signed former Steelers safety Henry Black off of the practice squad. Black has some valuable experience in the NFL, as in 2021, he played in all 17 games for the Green Bay Packers and collected 38 tackles, 2 passes defended, 1 forced fumble, and 1 interception.

While Black could be plugged into Gus Bradley’s defense as either a cornerback or safety, he still likely won’t get massive playing time, even with Blackmon’s injury.

While Blackmon heals, Nick Cross is probably going to step in and fill the big shoes. As the Colts wrap up the regular season and, if Indianapolis manages to make it to the postseason, look for Cross and Rodney Thomas II to start at safety.

Can the Colts recover from both a devastating loss and a serious injury to a key defensive player?

Cross, who has shown flashes of brilliance this season, will now look to take advantage of a fantastic opportunity to show off his skills to the Indianapolis defense in their final two games of 2023, which are must-wins for the team to have any chance of making the playoffs: against the Houston Texans and the Las Vegas Raiders.