Prior to the NFL draft, Indianapolis Colts’ GM Chris Ballard mentioned that linebacker Jaylon Carlies had undergone offseason surgery on his shoulder.
This has kept Carlies sidelined during offseason programs, but his recovery is going smoothly.
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“It’s coming along smooth,” Carlies said recently. “It’s coming along real good.”
When Carlies was asked if he would be ready for training camp, he didn’t want to put a specific date on his recovery timeline. But back in April, Ballard was optimistic at that time that Carlies would be available.
Carlies appeared in 10 games as a rookie, which included six starts. He missed seven games while recovering from a fibula injury, and during the final few games of the year, upon his return, he played through the shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.
The Colts selected Carlies in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft out of Missouri, where he played safety. Carlies brings a coverage presence with his safety background to the linebacker position for the Colts. In his first season, he proved to be a reliable tackler and limited pass-catchers while in coverage.
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Beyond Zaire Franklin, this is a very inexperienced Colts’ linebacker unit, including Carlies, who has just 242 career snaps under his belt. But as Ballard described earlier this offseason, the team “thinks a lot” of Carlies and views him as a player who can “really ascend.”
“It’s fun. Everybody’s competing,” Carlies said. “That’s all it is at the end of the day, everybody’s competing. Everybody’s getting each other better. That’s what our room is all about. Everybody’s just in there doing what they’re supposed to do. Everybody’s doing their assignments. Just being in there with everybody, everybody’s getting each other better. We working off each other, complementing each other’s game, and stuff like that. So everything’s going good.”
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Colts Jaylon Carlies provides update after offseason shoulder surgery