INDIANAPOLIS — There are two sets of numbers on undrafted Colts safety Austin Brown.
The test results he put up at Wisconsin’s Pro Day are eye-popping.
Brown touched 43 inches in the vertical leap, broad jumped 10 feet, 9 inches and bench-pressed an impressive 20 repetitions at 5-11, 199 pounds, big numbers for a safety who ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds.
“Athletic freak,” former Wisconsin and current Colts teammate Hunter Wohler said. “The dude can play. It’ll be exciting to watch him come in here and do what he loves.”
The other set of numbers are why Brown had to wait to land his NFL opportunity.
Brown started 24 games at Wisconsin and played in all four years with the Badgers but he recorded only two sacks, eight pass breakups and a fumble forced in his college career, along with 142 total tackles.
For that reason, Brown knew he might not hear his name called on NFL draft weekend.
“I thought it could help, definitely, but I didn’t have the production I wanted,” Brown said. “I didn’t really worry about it too much.”
The Colts were willing enough to take a chance on unlocking Brown’s athletic potential that the team guaranteed $282,500 of his rookie contract to land him, according to a source, a figure that was one of the highest of any undrafted player in the NFL.
Brown was clearly one of the most coveted players on the undrafted market. NFL teams start laying the groundwork for undrafted guys long before the draft is over, and Brown had a firm offer in hand early, one that could provide leverage.
Indianapolis ended up winning the battle for his services, reuniting Brown with Wohler. The Colts hosted Brown on a top-30 visit, and when he met everybody in Indianapolis, it felt familiar to him.
“The culture, I feel like it’s similar to Wisconsin,” Brown said. “The tough, nasty, disciplined mindset to things. It almost feels like Wisconsin.”
Even with a relatively large guarantee, Brown knows the odds are stacked against him making the 53-man roster. Indianapolis already had Wohler and Cam Bynum on the roster, drafted LSU strong safety A.J. Haulcy in the third round, signed Juanyeh Thomas and Jonathan Owens in free agency and stashed Reuben Lowery and Trey Washington as intriguing young players last season.
But the odds have always been somewhat stacked against him.
Brown is from Johnston City, Ill., a small town in the southern part of the state that reported a population of just 3,348 at the last census.
“The odds are stacked against you when no one else from your area really goes,” Brown said. “It’s hard for people to see you.”
Because of his athleticism and the availability of camps, Brown had no trouble getting in front of college coaches, but he felt a little bit of a stigma as a three-star trying to prove he could rise above the competition.
“I was the first person in my school to go Power Five in football, like, ever,” Brown said. “Maybe I struggled with some confidence issues early on in college, and to be able to get over that hump, stick through it all and get through that adversity was the biggest obstacle.”
His otherworldly athletic traits certainly didn’t hurt.
Brown hasn’t always been the most instinctive defensive back but a player with his gifts is almost always an asset on special teams.
That’s where he got his start at Wisconsin.
“It sounds cocky, but I’ve realized for a long time that I’m pretty athletic,” Brown said. “I’m from a small area, so it was kind of easy to be the most athletic, but as I got to college and compared myself to guys who might have been higher recruits at a Big Ten football program, I showed I can compete with the best when it comes to my athleticism.”
Brown’s special teams work ended up earning him a role on the defense.
“He’s a physical dude, fast,” Wohler said. “He can run, he can do it all.”
There are places in the NFL for a player like that.
Even if it might take some time. Brown has a summer of offseason workouts and training camp to carve out a role among the group of safeties competing for roster spots behind Bynum, Haulcy and Wohler, trying to get in the mix to make the 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent.
When it comes time to make that decision, the Colts must weigh Brown’s athleticism against how much he can help Indianapolis in 2025.
“It’s who he’s competing with on the roster,” Colts assistant general manager Ed Dodds said. “It’s really, what’s he going to look like in Week 10?”
But there are times a player’s overwhelming athleticism can shift the team’s decision making.
When Dodds was in Seattle, the Seahawks kept an undrafted defensive end named Benson Mayowa on the roster for an entire season, even though he never played, because of his athletic potential. Mayowa ended up playing almost a decade in the NFL.
Brown has the athleticism to put that kind of career together.
His opportunity to prove he belongs starts now.
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: 3-star recruit. ‘Athletic freak.’ Small-town hero. Why the Colts paid an UDFA $282K
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
