INDIANAPOLIS — Johnathan Edwards hasn’t let himself rest.
The journey from collegiate star to NFL rookie is exhausting. From the time the college season ends to the middle of June, a prospective NFL player is going full speed.
When the Colts broke minicamp in June, most of the team headed home to get one last chance to rest before the grind of the season began in late July.
Not Edwards.
“Honestly, I told myself I was going to stay here in Indy,” Edwards said. “Grind.”
Edwards faced long odds to even get to a place like Indianapolis. A late bloomer at Parkway North in St. Louis, Edwards was a two-star recruit who didn’t have many collegiate offers coming out of high school.
A cornerbacks coach at Indiana State was convinced he saw something special in Edwards.
Something nobody else had seen in him before. When Deon Broomfield recruited Edwards to Terre Haute, the coach told the cornerback he thought Edwards had the ability to get to the next level.
“He would be the first one to tell me to say he saw this type of talent,” Edwards said. “To be here today.”
Broomfield never got a chance to coach Edwards. By the time Edwards made it to Terre Haute, Broomfield was long gone, first for a season in the NFL with the Houston Texans and then to Iowa State as defensive backs coach.
Edwards never forgot what he’d been told.
He started all three seasons at Indiana State, posting respectable statistical lines without ever making the kind of splash that got the attention of Power 4 schools on the prowl for transfer talent at any level.
Edwards decided to place a bet on himself heading into his senior year anyway.
“I knew I was going into my last year, and I wanted to make sure I graduated, but I wanted to give myself a shot to get to the next level,” Edwards said.
Tulane gave Edwards the opportunity he wanted.
The numbers weren’t eye-catching. Edwards made 24 tackles and broke up just one pass, earning him an initial opportunity at the Hula Bowl, a showcase for seniors who need to get the NFL’s attention heading into the draft process.
Edwards got the NFL’s attention in Orlando. Two weeks later, Edwards was invited to the Senior Bowl as a replacement, giving him a chance to prove himself against some of the best competition in the draft.
The Colts took notice.
Under general manager Chris Ballard, Indianapolis has always leaned towards Senior Bowl participants, believing the week in Mobile gives teams a better window into the way a prospect will play than any other piece of the draft process. Edwards wasn’t invited to the NFL scouting combine, but he turned heads at his pro day, running the 40-yard dash in a blistering 4.42 seconds despite measuring in at 6-feet, 201 pounds.
The tools were undeniable.
“He’s a big, fast, strong, physical guy,” Indianapolis secondary coach Chris Hewitt said. “We’re excited to have him and develop him. We’ll see where he ends up, but with his makeup and how he approaches things — he wants to do everything right — I like him a lot, and I think he’s going to develop into a really good player.”
Edwards had the Colts’ attention.
The Colts brought in Edwards for a top-30 visit — NFL teams are allowed to bring in 30 prospects each spring for a closer look at the team facility. No other team invited Edwards for a top-30; the Colts were foremost in Edwards’s mind when he went undrafted in April.
Indianapolis saw enormous potential in Edwards, and a player who was still very raw, like an unpolished diamond.
“I keep calling him, he’s like the newborn baby,” Hewitt said.
But Edwards had an enormous amount of physical ability and the right mentality to finally tap into that ability. NFL coaches preach the virtues of staying in the present, focusing on the task at hand and leaving the big picture up to everybody else.
Every rookie hears that speech.
Few put it into practice like Edwards, who never took a break this offseason. When his older teammates scattered for their summer break, Edwards stayed in Indianapolis, pushing himself beyond his limits to be ready for a training camp that could make or break his career.
“Not trying to count the guys in front of me, not trying to count reps,” Edwards said. “Keeping my nose down and fighting.”
If Edwards had counted the guys in front of him, he’d likely have gotten discouraged. When he signed with the Colts, Edwards joined a cornerback room that had stars in Charvarius Ward and Kenny Moore II, an established young starter in Jaylon Jones, experienced depth in the form of Samuel Womack III and Corey Ballentine, a promising third-round draft pick named Justin Walley and the untapped potential of 2023 second-round pick JuJu Brents.
The road to a roster spot seemed pretty narrow.
Until injuries started to hit. Jones and Brents went down with hamstring injuries two days before the start of August, Walley tore his ACL in Baltimore and Womack suffered a hamstring injury in the final week before the preseason finale.
A door was suddenly open for somebody to make an impression.
The Colts coaching staff handed it to Edwards, playing him alongside Ward and Moore with the starting lineup for several weeks during training camp.
“He was showing a physical presence that we liked, an athleticism and speed,” Colts cornerbacks coach Jerome Henderson said. “Long way to go to be a finished product, but flashing every day. He’d make a play every day that you’re like, ‘That’s a really good play.’”
Edwards played so well that the Colts chose him over Brents in the end, picking the undrafted rookie over a second-round talent who was unable to shake the injury bug during his time in Indianapolis.
“JuJu, unfortunate,” Ballard said. “I mean, poor kid has just had bad luck. He’s a great young man. He’s very talented. He’s just had some bad luck, and I’m hoping for him maybe a change of scenery and he’ll get it turned around where he can stay healthy.”
The call came a week ago.
Edwards was getting a massage, trying to relax and take care of his body on a nerve-wracking day for undrafted free agents around the league.
He’d made the team. Edwards texted his wife, Jazmine, an Evansville native he met at Indiana State, then texted his parents to let them know he’d won the bet he placed on himself.
A phone call to his wife and parents a little bit later was the rest of the celebrating he’d allow himself to do.
“I was thankful, but I just had more of a sense of urgency. It’s nice to know that I’m on the team, but it’s back to work,” Edwards said. “The work is just beginning. Every day is evaluation.”
The Colts held two more practices after cutting the roster to 53 players last week.
When they broke for an NFL-mandated weekend away before beginning preparations for the Miami Dolphins this week, most of the team scattered — hanging out with family, taking in high school games, heading back to campus to watch their school’s season opener.
Edwards had no such plans.
“I’m going to be in this facility, working out, training, making sure I’m ready,” Edwards said. “Because my number could be called at any moment.”
And because that’s how he got to this point in the first place.
Joel A. Erickson covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.