Indianapolis Colts’ safety Julian Blackmon told reporters on Monday that he played through just about all of the 2024 season with a torn right labrum, according to The Athletic’s James Boyd.
Blackmon suffered the injury in the Colts’ Week 1 loss to Houston and missed the Week 2 matchup against the Green Bay Packers. Blackmon, however, would return in Week 3 and played the remainder of the season.
Now, with the offseason here, Blackmon will need surgery. He also acknowledged that playing through the injury could have made it worse but Blackmon “wanted to play for his team,” as Boyd posted on X.
It was a shoulder injury in 2023 that cut Blackmon’s career year two games short after being placed on injured reserve.
As the Indy Star’s Joel Erickson detailed a few weeks ago, the injury to Blackmon’s shoulder forced a position change. After beginning the year as the strong safety, he would move to free safety, where there is less contact and with the hope that doing so would help keep him on the field.
Compared to his 2023 season, Blackmon’s production took a step back in several categories, which in part, came with moving from strong safety to free safety, but we would be naïve to think that the shoulder injury didn’t also play a role as well.
Blackmon re-signed with the Colts this past offseason to a one-year deal for 2024. He will now be a free agent again this upcoming 2025 offseason.
