From Special Team Prospect to a Very Special Player: This is Just the Beginning for Isaiah Rodgers

Rodgers has fulfilled that role for the team in a great way, as he has totaled 35 returns for 926 yards and one touchdown so far in his time in Indy. While he has made his mark as a returner, I want to focus this article on the strides he has made as a defender.

He may have been drafted to solely be a special teams player, but the coaching staff was certainly intrigued by his traits and upside as a cornerback. His speed is something that can't be taught and that trait is so valuable when matching up with receivers.

His rookie season was all about sitting back and learning from the talented veterans on the roster. He did get in on defense a few times early in the year, most notably late against the Chicago Bears in week four.

With the game nearly out of reach, Rodgers lined up in press coverage against one of the best receivers in the NFL in Allen Robinson. Rodgers played the route well, but was ultimately out-jumped by the veteran receiver.

“I felt like I took a lazy rep. I looked back on it in film and thought that I definitely could have jumped higher.” said Rodgers.

While his rookie year was mostly positive with highlight plays (including a kick-off return touchdown against the Cleveland Browns), this was the play that Rodgers said was his favorite of the year.

Why would a play that involved him being beat for a score be his favorite of the year?

“That was week four right there, and it most definitely woke me up. I knew that I didn’t want to keep being that guy that they showed on every Monday or Tuesday on film.”

Rodgers' friends even commemorated the play by making him a hat with Robinson climbing up over him for the catch. Rodgers says that the hat sits right on the corner of his T.V.

For Rodgers, he has always kept that mindset. He will remember the plays that he gets beat and work tirelessly on them to make sure that it doesn't happen again. That hard work paid off and he got his chance to play in the playoff game against the Buffalo Bills late last season.

Late in the first half, Rodgers came into the game against one of the best offenses in the league. He knew the ball was coming his way. He jammed the receiver (John Brown) on the outside and he stayed in the back hip pocket throughout the route.

Once the ball was thrown, he undercut the route and nearly came away with a game-changing play. In typical Rodgers fashion, his big takeaway from the play wasn't exactly what you would expect.

“To be honest, I never really liked watching that play because of the situation of the game. They ended up scoring that drive, and I feel like if I had just caught it and got us even a touchback, the game would have been different.”

Even in the best play of his young career, Rodgers still found something that he needed to improve on. He took that mindset into this past offseason and really worked on being a better overall corner for this team.

His drastic improvement from year one to year two has been a blessing for a Colts' team that has been decimated by injuries early. Veterans T.J Carrie and Xavier Rhodes have missed quite a bit of time to start the year, and that has led to increased snaps for Rodgers.

After only seeing 56 defensive snaps in year one, he is already up to 261 snaps through the first ten games in 2021. In those defensive snaps, Rodgers has allowed just 17 completions on 29 targets for 185 yards. He also has come down with an interception and has totaled eight stops in the run game.

This uptick in playing time has largely been due to how Rodgers is performing in practice along with what he is showing on gameday. Here is what Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus had to say about Rodgers back in week six:

I think that really, his biggest growth has just been experience. He’s putting himself into the coverages, he’s matching up different types of routes during the course of the game. I think that just – it lends to his getting better. Every time he goes in there he’s learning and getting better at the coverages and the matches and his technique for each cover. If it’s man, it’s zone or match coverage – whatever it might be. He’s learning. I think that he’s really doing a good job with that. Obviously, he’s very fast, he has tremendous ball skills. That’s what we want to highlight. We want to highlight those things and put him in position to make those types of plays and he did that last Sunday. He’s got a ways to go, he’s continuing to learn as we go here and he’ll do that this whole time as he gets more reps.

This past game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Rodgers was targeted just two times. He allowed zero receptions and logged a pass breakup on those two targets. His play in this game even earned him praise from Head Coach Frank Reich, whom brought him up without even being asked in the post-game press conference:

“....and then Isaiah (Rodgers) – shoot, Isaiah played well yesterday too. We’ve got a good thing going back there. We have to keep building that secondary.”

Overall, Rodgers is having a phenomenal second-season, especially for a player that was never supposed to see time on defense. He is a freak athlete that works tirelessly to improve on every aspect of his game.

Rodgers has far and away exceeded my expectations, and I think the coaching staff would agree with that sentiment. If he continues this upward trend, the Colts really found a gem in the 6th round of the 2020 NFL Draft.