{"id":706132,"date":"2026-01-26T10:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/706132\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:41:14","slug":"a-healthy-justin-walley-could-be-big-piece-of-colts-defense-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/706132\/","title":{"rendered":"A healthy Justin Walley could be big piece of Colts defense in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 A potential starting cornerback didn\u2019t get to play a single snap for the Colts<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n

Justin Walley went down in the team\u2019s first joint practice, tearing his ACL before Indianapolis played a preseason game, robbing the rookie of a chance to make an impact.<\/p>\n

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Out of sight, out of mind.<\/p>\n

But it is worth noting Walley\u2019s presence as the Colts head into an offseason where they face uncertainty at cornerback, both because of the difficult decision Charvarius Ward faces about his future <\/a>and the team\u2019s stated desire to get younger and faster on the defense.<\/p>\n

Walley should not be forgotten. The third-round pick was headed for a starting job until he tore his ACL in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re riding this high, everything\u2019s going good, and then it\u2019s like everything\u2019s going too good, so something\u2019s bound to happen,\u201d Walley said. \u201cAt first, I was down on myself. It was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Walley was the frontrunner to start at outside cornerback opposite Ward, a development that shows exactly how much the Colts liked the rookie, considering how difficult it became for younger players to carve out roles on the defense the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou all saw it in camp,\u201d general manager Chris Ballard said. \u201cWalley, he was playing really good football, and he got hurt in that practice, but up to that point, in that practice against Baltimore, against some pretty good wideouts, had held up really well. \u2026 We thought he had a high ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drafted because of his instincts, Walley was one of the stars of the offseason, absorbing defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo\u2019s system quickly and making plays all over the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pick up things pretty easy,\u201d Walley said.<\/p>\n

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The first major injury of the rookie\u2019s career forced him to spend his rookie season learning from others.<\/p>\n

Indianapolis had a trio of big veteran names \u2014 Ward, Xavien Howard and Sauce Gardner \u2014 join Kenny Moore II in the cornerback meeting room in 2025, and even though injuries kept that trio from living up to their prior accolades, Walley got to see how three guys who have been All-Pros see the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned more this year than I have my whole life of football,\u201d Walley said.<\/p>\n

The hard part is he must spend his offseason trying to get his physical capabilities back.<\/p>\n

Walley is a burner, drafted to take on faster receivers, and his ability to change direction is critical for a player who can react to a throw on the fly.<\/p>\n

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A torn ACL obviously presents problems for a player with that kind of skill set.<\/p>\n

But the injury is also not as catastrophic as it used to be. For more than a decade now, since Adrian Peterson won the MVP in his first year back, players have been shortening the recovery time for a torn ACL, and some believe they came back better than before.<\/p>\n

Walley talked to a string of Colts who\u2019ve been through the surgery.<\/p>\n

Ashton Dulin, the veteran wide receiver and special teams star who tore his ACL during a joint practice in 2023, led a chorus of Colts with encouraging words for the rookie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all helped me, they were like tearing their ACL helped them out in the long run,” Walley said. \u201cYou can put a couple extra years on the end of your career.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That might seem counterintuitive.<\/p>\n

But it is a byproduct of the knowledge teams and doctors now have about the recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rehab is so intense,\u201d Dulin said. \u201cYou kind of lose quad function a little bit, so when you\u2019re rehabbing, you\u2019ve got to get the quad back first, and with that comes the hamstring and stuff. \u2026 For nine months, you\u2019re working lower body, and you come back stronger and faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walley has already gotten through the initial surgical recovery.<\/p>\n

He will spend his offseason trying to get back the explosiveness and burst that marks his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of high-speed training, training where a lot of reaction is involved,\u201d Walley said.<\/p>\n

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Walley believes he\u2019ll be ready for the start of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

His versatility gives the Colts options in the offseason. If Ward decides to retire, Walley will likely be in the mix to fill his spot on the outside, and if Ward comes back, Walley could be a solution at several different spots, including the slot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time the ball\u2019s back on the turf,\u201d Walley said. \u201cI\u2019ll be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colts might need him more than anybody realizes.<\/p>\n

Joel A. Erickson<\/a> and Nathan Brown<\/a> cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV<\/a> and with the Colts Insider newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: A healthy Justin Walley could be big piece of Colts defense in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 A potential starting cornerback didn\u2019t get to play a single snap for the Colts this season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[1141,5005,184,4991,2005,7,2004,392,2381,1008,10175,6,7536,13625,10785],"class_list":["post-706132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-indianapolis-colts","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-ashton-dulin","tag-baltimore","tag-charvarius-ward","tag-colts","tag-football","tag-indianapolis","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-indianapoliscolts","tag-justin-walley","tag-kenny-moore-ii","tag-nfl","tag-sauce-gardner","tag-the-colts","tag-xavien-howard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115960983311907177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}