![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/holder_stephen.png&h=80&w=80&scale=crop.png\")
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Stephen HolderSep 12, 2025, 01:50 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>Stephen joined ESPN in 2022, covering the Indianapolis Colts and NFL at large. Stephen finished first place in column writing in the 2015 Indiana Associated Press Media Editors competition, and he is a previous top-10 winner in explanatory journalism in the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest. He has chronicled the NFL since 2005, covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2005-2013 and the Colts since 2013. He has previously worked for the Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and The Athletic.<\/p>\n INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts<\/a> defense enters Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos<\/a> with some serious injury concerns.<\/p>\n No. 1 cornerback Charvarius Ward<\/a> (concussion) won’t play against the Broncos, according to coach Shane Steichen. That issue is compounded by the loss of backup cornerback Jaylon Jones<\/a> (hamstring), a 17-game starter last season, who is expected to miss multiple weeks.<\/p>\n Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n 2 Related<\/p>\n Adding to the defensive worries is the status of pass rusher Laiatu Latu<\/a>. He sustained a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s practice and missed practice on Thursday and Friday. It’s unclear whether he’ll play, but Steichen said the 2024 first-round choice has made some progress in the past 24 hours and could still be available. Steichen said the possibility of a reduced role for Latu was on the table.<\/p>\n The Colts had an impressive defensive performance in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins<\/a>, limiting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa<\/a> to a 2.7 QBR — the worst of his career — and 114 passing yards.<\/p>\n The cornerback situation will likely press second-year player Mekhi Blackmon<\/a> into a wider role behind veterans Kenny Moore II<\/a> (slot) and Xavien Howard<\/a>. Blackmon was traded to the Colts from the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> last month and played 22 snaps in the season opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen HolderSep 12, 2025, 01:50 PM ET CloseStephen joined ESPN in 2022, covering the Indianapolis Colts and NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-152048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}