Doyel: New-look Colts secondary dominates, but it's vet Kenny Moore II with play of camp

Indianapolis Star

3 days ago

WESTFIELD – You're thinking about the 2025 Indianapolis Colts secondary and you're excited about new cornerback Charvarius Ward, and I get it. Who wouldn't be excited about that guy? He's a legitimate Pro Bowl cornerback in the prime of his NFL career, and he comes to the Colts with the expectation, the promise, of being the team's best cornerback since Stephon Gilmore in 2022, or maybe farther back, since Vontae Davis in 2015.
Get excited about Ward.
Me, I'm more excited about someone else.
You're thinking about the Colts secondary and you're excited about new Colts safety Camryn Bynum, and I get it. Who wouldn't be excited about that guy? For years the Colts have tried to cram a round peg into the square hole that is free safety, going from Rodney Thomas II to Nick Cross to Julian Blackmon, with sporadic results. That's a playmaking position, free safety, and who's made plays there for the Colts? The best in a decade has been Mike Adams in 2015. Camryn Bynum makes square look cool – because he makes plays. He was involved in five turnovers last season, with three interceptions and two fumble recoveries. He was involved in five more the year before, reversing those numbers: two picks, three forced fumbles.
Get excited about Bynum.
Me? I'm more excited about someone else.
It was the play of this year's training camp, last year's training camp, next year's training camp – and you'll never see it. Well, maybe there's a bootleg video of the play on someone's phone, and it will come out eventually.
Talking about that interception by Kenny Moore II on the first day of 2025 Indianapolis Colts training camp.
Were you there? The grandstands were full. The sideline was full of reporters, too – all of us holding phones, some holding TV cameras – but it happened later in the camp session, after the filming portion of practice was over. A Colts public relations official, always the same killjoy (kidding!), walks down the row and reminds us to stop filming.
And then it happens.
Colts quarterback Daniel Jones drops back, looks around and spots slot receiver Josh Downs over the middle. Problem is, Jones waited too long – because Kenny Moore sees Downs, too. Here comes the throw and here comes Kenny AND WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
Seriously. What was that? Here's how special it was: Writing these words, now, a full week later – you feel that? Those goosebumps?
The ball arrives into Downs' chest at the same time Moore arrives, and Downs is grabbing it with two hands. He's surehanded, this guy. Caught 68 passes in 2023, a record for a Colts rookie, then caught 72 in just 14 games last season. He's the real deal, Josh Downs.
But Kenny Moore arrives and reaches into Downs' chest and rips out his heart I mean rips out the ball – and he does it with one hand. That's how it looked, but honestly, I can't be sure. I saw it … but didn't see it, know what I mean?
All I know for sure is this: Kenny Moore II is holding up the football triumphantly, and after a split-second of silence – think of the quiet after lightning flashes – here comes the thunder. It's players on the field, it's fans in the grandstands, it's coaches. The thunder rolls at Grand Park in Westfield.
Doyel in 2023: Kenny Moore II has perfect day with two pick-6's in front of family
There are other players to be excited about, too. Rookie corner Justin Walley and third-year veteran Jaylon Jones have been having a heck of a camp. Jones is long and he's fast and he's starter-quality after being a seventh-round draft pick, which means 31 teams screwed up before the Colts got it right and chose him out of Texas A&M with the 221st overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He was carted off the field Tuesday, though, with a hamstring injury. Hoping for the best.
If JuJu Brents (another hamstring issue) of Warren Central and Kansas State can get on the field and stay there, he has tools like your neighborhood handyman: 6-3, 198 pounds, 41½-inch vertical, 6.63 seconds in the three-cone drill (trust me) … you serious? Even his teammates, even Kenny Moore, are wondering what exactly it will look like when he puts it all together.
'I tell (JuJu) all the time,' Kenny Moore was saying this week, 'I'm going to come back and watch you. … I'm just gonna be a fan.'
Moore isn't close to retiring – don't think so, anyway – but he can see the end of his career from here. He turns 30 on Aug. 23, ranking 19th among active players with 20 career interceptions, and the NFL is not full of 30-something cornerbacks. This is a young man's game, and more than most, cornerback is a young man's position. Moore is under contract through 2026.
Moore sounds different this preseason, more reflective, more outward-focused. Don't read that the wrong way. He's never been self-centered. Teammates, coaches and even – yes – media have always loved Kenny Moore for a reason, and that reason is not a selfish streak.
Doyel in 2023: For Colts Kenny Moore, "Mighty" Mason is a friendship, not a photo op
But this preseason, he just sounds different. Ask him about the way he's feeling with all these new faces, and with a new defensive coordinator in Lou Anarumo, and Moore doesn't talk about himself. He talks about everyone else.
'It's been good, it's been good,' he says. 'Some areas that we're still working on … trying to get the steps right, trying to be available and trying to be getting ready to go. So, the chemistry is coming along, and I think the most important part for me is the meeting time, learning what the coaches want from myself, and I'm sure the other guys are doing the same thing – as well as the walk-thru to be able to make the corrections and everybody get on the same page.'
Guys talk about football and the joy they get playing the game, even at practice, but for Moore that joy happens during the game. You've seen him celebrate interceptions or big plays. You'd never know how quiet he is off the field, how shy he is – how sweetly uncomfortable he can seem, at times – if all you know about Kenny Moore is the way he pops a ballcarrier to the ground and then hops up to bust a dance move. Or the way he'll rise after giving an opposing receiver the business, then straightens up the imaginary tie hanging from his neck.
'That's my joy of the game,' he says, 'dancing and having fun: 'How can we turn up Lucas Oil (Stadium)?' But for us to do that we've got to hone in on practice. That's why I love practice so much. To get an interception, to be able to celebrate, those are emotional times for myself individually because I know the work that has to put in to get there.'
Oh, Kenny Moore can have some fun. And as he says, he loves practice. But he loves it the way you 'love' a diet – you know the sacrifice is worth it, because you're going to love the results.
Here's more from Kenny, on the work he's putting in at training camp.
'These are workdays, know what I mean?' he says. 'Every day is not a happy day, like, 'Oh yeah, everything is so cool.' We have to be intentional about the relationships and the time on task. These are tough days right now.'
Kenny Moore is dialed in, and coming off a quietly excellent season: three interceptions, one returned fumble for a touchdown, career-low completion percentage allowed (63.5%) and yards per target (5.5). But he's more than a cover guy. He's a hybrid linebacker/slot corner, and I know he's just 5-9 and 190 pounds, but have you ever seen a small, angry cat overwhelm a larger dog? That's Moore on running backs, receivers, even offensive linemen, According to the film-studying eggheads at Pro Football Focus, Moore ranked 13th among nearly 250 cornerbacks in quarterback pressures last season, and 215th in missed tackles. In other words, he doesn't miss.
The folks at PFF rank Ward as the No. 15 cornerback in the NFL, and Moore at No. 30. There are 32 NFL teams, remember. Moore is still elite, in other words, and now he's in a system that will unleash him more than Gus Bradley's one-dimensional defense – that dimension: scaredy-cat – utilized from 2022-24. Judging from results in camp thus far, Anarumo appears more aggressive, more demanding, more deceptive.
'Versatility,' Moore says when asked what he expects from Anarumo's scheme. 'My expectation is being proactive.'
A proactive, reflective, intentional, hungry Kenny Moore? He's been knocking down passes all camp. He had that one-handed interception. What will he do in 2025? The cameras will be rolling, and how does that song go? You won't want to miss a thing.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar. Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.