Shane Steichen came to the Indianapolis Colts as an offensive coach. He had a coordinator and a plethora of position coaches, but he knew that if there were any problems on the offensive side of the ball, it would ultimately fall on him to fix them. On defense, it was a different story.

Steichen had veteran coordinator Gus Bradley already in place running the defense when he arrived in 2023. After struggling in 2024, the head coach decided to go in a different direction and thus brought in Lou Anarumo, formerly defensive coordinator in Cincinnati. Along with Anarumo came three new defensive assistants.

James Bettcher took over the linebackers’ room. For the defensive backfield, where everyone recognized there would be major changes, Steichen and Anarumo turned to two veterans. They may not be household names in Indy just yet, but Chris Hewitt and Jerome Henderson have worked magic with what could have easily been a train wreck this season.

Despite injuries and new faces galore, Colts’ coaches get strong production from the DBs

Hewitt’s title is Pass Game Coordinator/Secondary coach while Henderson has the Defensive Backs coach position. Both have extensive experience as both pass game coordinators and as position coaches.

That means both see the macro perspective – how all the parts of the defense fit together to shut down opponents’ passing attacks – and the micro – the tiniest details of hand placement and hip turns.

Together, they bring 32 years of experience coaching NFL secondaries. This season, they have needed all of it.

In 2024, under DB coach Ron Milus, Indianapolis’ secondary stayed mostly healthy. Cornerbacks Kenny Moore and Jaylon Jones, and safeties Nick Cross and Julian Blackmon, stayed on the field for almost every play. Journeyman Samuel Womack and a host of others, manned the third corner spot.

Despite relative continuity, the on-field performance left a lot to be desired. The Colts finished 26th in passing-yards-allowed and 29th in yards-per-attempt. That contributed to a defense that surrendered more than 25 points-per-game – in the bottom third of the league.

Womack and Blackmon were not retained. Jones has been hurt for virtually the entire year. That leaves just Moore and Cross as holdovers from last year’s group. And Moore, after a sensational start, has missed the past several weeks with an Achilles injury.

That injury is just the tip of the iceberg.

Through just six games, Indianapolis has seven different cornerbacks who have played at least 18% of the defensive snaps. Seven. That is astonishing. One of them, veteran slot Mike Hilton, arrived about five minutes ago after being released by the Bengals. Fortunately, that’s where Anarumo coached so Hilton was able to step right into the new defense and contribute immediately.

The presumptive number one cornerback – free agent signee Charvarius Ward – has missed more than a third of the snaps. Another veteran free agent, Xavien Howard, played a lot in the first couple weeks before realizing he could no longer perform at a high level. He has essentially retired at this point.

In their absence, young players like Mekhi Blackmon, Chris Lammons, and rookie UDFA Jonathan Edwards have stepped into major roles.

Edwards was not supposed to be the rookie cornerback making a difference this season. Chris Ballard knew he needed to replenish the secondary so he spent a third-round draft pick on Minnesota’s Justin Walley. Through the summer, he was looking like an excellent addition until a torn ACL ended his season.

Injury also took out seventh-round pick Hunter Wohlers, who was tearing up training camp transitioning from a college linebacker to a pro safety. Oft-injured safety Daniel Scott finally seemed poised to help out until the injury-bug bit him too.

Fortunately, the starting safeties Cross and Bynum have stayed on the field this year.

Blackmon, the 26-year old who was acquired less than two weeks before the start of the season, has become the Colts’ most reliable cornerback.

Somehow, through all the injuries and new faces, coaches Hewitt and Henderson have kept Indianapolis’ secondary functioning as a cohesive unit. They have improved by wide margins in almost every key metric from last year.

Points allowed in way down, from 24th in the league to 8th. Yards-per-attempt is down by almost a full yard – a major drop. That matters because the Colts are actually giving up more total yards passing this season. That is largely because their offense has established big leads and forced opponents to throw a lot more. Defensive efficiency is way up, despite giving up a few extra yards in the air.

Even the interception rate, which was pretty good last year, is up, currently tied for third-best in the league.

Whatever buttons they are pushing, Hewitt and Henderson have the Colts’ secondary rolling right along. Backups are gaining valuable experience and some of those injured players will be returning soon. It should be fun to see what these two little-known coaches can do once they get back to full strength in the secondary.