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Insider: Why Colts free safety Julian Blackmon isn't playing like a rookie

INDIANAPOLIS — The odds against Julian Blackmon playing like this, against the third-round pick out of Utah playing much at all this season, seemed longer than the drive from Salt Lake City to Indianapolis.

Blackmon tore his ACL 10 months ago, then got launched into a pandemic offseason, void of everything a rookie typically needs to get up to speed. No rookie minicamp, no organized team activities, no preseason games. Because of the knee, no traditional training camp practices.

The rookie free safety wasn’t even active for the season opener.

A week later, Blackmon was in the lineup making plays.