Cam Taylor-Britt's a low-risk, high-reward gamble by the Colts at CB
· Yahoo Sports
INDIANAPOLIS — Cam Taylor-Britt is coming to the Colts with an awful lot at stake.
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Two years ago, Taylor-Britt looked like he could be a building block in Cincinnati. Drafted in the second round, he’d blossomed in his second season with the Bengals, establishing himself as the No. 1 outside cornerback in Lou Anarumo’s defense.
Cornerback can be a volatile position.
Taylor-Britt lost everything he’d gained in Cincinnati over the next two seasons. Anarumo benched Taylor-Britt twice in 2024, and after Anarumo was gone, Taylor-Britt was a healthy scratch at times in Al Golden’s Cincinnati defense before Lisfranc surgery ended his 2025 prematurely.
“It didn’t have anything to do with the coordinator,” Taylor-Britt said. “I believe it was most definitely a personal thing with me. I couldn’t get my head right, and it showed in my game.”
Taylor-Britt didn’t expand much on what was going on with him personally.
But there were other things going on beyond the field. Taylor-Britt was cited twice for separate traffic incidents in 2025, leading to him spending five days in jail in January after pleading guilty to reckless driving and driving without a license.
The player who was once Cincinnati’s No. 1 cornerback ended up making only two starts.
When he reached free agency this offseason, Taylor-Britt needed a lifeline.
He found it in the coordinator who drafted him, developed him and wasn’t afraid to pull him out of the lineup when it wasn’t going well.
“Man, that's my dog,” Taylor-Britt said. “That's one of the big reasons that I'm here. Man, we had a great relationship while I was attending the Bengals when they drafted me, and it's kind of been great ever since then. When he gave me a call and had me come up, I was very excited, man. Can't wait for this opportunity.”
Taylor-Britt is a low-risk, high-reward type of signing for Indianapolis.
The Colts are already deep at cornerback, carrying seven players who were part of the starting lineup at one point or the other last season, and they have needs elsewhere.
But 2025 was also a lesson that a team can never have enough cornerbacks. Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard spent the entire year making bold moves to give Anarumo the man-to-man cornerbacks he needed — signing Charvarius Ward in free agency, drafting Justin Walley in the third round, gambling on Xavien Howard at the end of training camp and paying a huge ransom to get Sauce Gardner at the trade deadline — only to see his best-laid plans derailed at every turn by injury.
If Taylor-Britt is healthy, he offers plenty of upside.
The 2022 second-rounder believes he’ll be ready for the start of organized team activities at the end of April.
“I should be good here soon,” Taylor-Britt said. “I’ve got to get some things knocked out in the next month here, and then it’s go time.”
A focused Taylor-Britt still has the tools to be a good cornerback in the NFL.
He was drafted in the second round for a reason, and he made seven interceptions over two seasons as a full-time starter in Cincinnati, even though he was inconsistent.
“I bring the athleticism,” Taylor-Britt said. “I feel like I bring different vibes from the other guys. They’re very dynamic in every way. I feel like I can just fit in and bring my physicalness, my ball skills.”
If Taylor-Britt can win a battle for a backup spot behind Gardner and Ward, he can provide upside in the case of injury. Taylor-Britt has sometimes been billed as a potential nickel, but he was an outside cornerback in Cincinnati.
“I mainly played outside, unless I was playing man-to-man and I had to move into the slot to follow the receiver,” Taylor-Britt said.
Anarumo likely sees Taylor-Britt as the same type of player in Indianapolis, a player with the potential to play the man coverage he covets.
Taylor-Britt has been to the bottom, lost everything it looked like he’d built in the NFL.
Now, he has to find his way back up.
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts Cam Taylor-Britt on last season: 'I couldn’t get my head right'