WESTFIELD -- Ten thoughts on the second week of Colts training camp practices:

1. We're just past the halfway point of training camp, with eight practices in the books and five left. Add in the three preseason games, one of which will be reserved for backups, and we're essentially right at halfway.

We've seen some pretty clear positives and negatives so far on the field, which is to be expected. We'll get to some of the on-field ones in a moment, but here's the biggest win to me so far: pristine health for four players the Colts are counting on to come back from injury-maligned seasons:

Anthony Richardson. Jonathan Taylor. JuJu Brents. Jelani Woods.

The three young players in that group have had some young player moments, as to be expected, especially after missing time: Richardson has had some up-and-down moments with his accuracy, with a tendency to overthrow vertical routes. Brents hasn't made many plays yet in coverage. Woods has dropped a pair of touchdowns.

But so far, none have had injury scares or missed any practice time, and that's huge for a young player to gain confidence in his body again and begin to focus on the finer points of the craft.

Colts camp observations: Young safeties finally make plays in position battle

Colts and injuries

2. It's not to say this camp has been without any bumps or bruises, of course. Losing Samson Ebukam to an Achilles tear is a blow to the hopes of building one of the best pass rushes in the NFL, though first-round pick Laiatu Latu's early emergence helps to soften the blow.

It's beginning to get concerning that Raekwon Davis hasn't suited up for practice due to high blood pressure, but he's also a backup defensive tackle, and Adetomiwa Adeboware has flashed some in his absence.

It's unfortunate that Dayo Odeyingbo has had to miss with with a calf injury, but it's not considered a long-term absence.

Every team is going to have some injuries, but the ones that could sink this team haven't happened yet. And each day that that's true remains a victory.

Jonathan Taylor, Kenny Moore II, Julian Blackmon look like stars

3. Because man, do the Colts have a couple of players they cannot afford to lose for much of any time. And three of those have only shown it more this camp in Taylor, Kenny Moore II and Julian Blackmon.

Though running backs are limited by these settings without tackling, it's clear to see Taylor is back in the rushing champion shape he was before the 2022 ankle injury and ensuing contract holdout. It's the shape he regained for the finale against the Texans, when he ran 30 times for 188 yards and a touchdown and nearly single-handedly carried an offense with Gardner Minshew to an AFC South title.

You can just feel it when he runs, as if each step contains more power and grace than should be allowed to be combined in a single body. He is a chemical contradiction and the second-most important player the Colts have.

4. I banged the table for a Taylor extension to happen because I think he's the perfect complement to Richardson in the backfield. Taylor alleviates the pressure and the wear and tear to allows the Colts to tap into their quarterback's 4.4-yard 40-yard dash speed without forcing him onto the trainer's table.

That value has only gone up this camp, as the running backs behind him have not flashed a ton. Trey Sermon had a nice day on Sunday and should have the No. 2 job on lock-down, but he still has just 78 career carries and has played for three teams. Evan Hull and Tyler Goodson have both had some drop issues, and that's the part of their games they need to bring to this room.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Colts go after a No. 2 or 3 running back as one of their waiver targets. They know how many bodies they could need to be able to run the ball at the level they want to this season.

Kenny Moore vs. Josh Downs

5. Moore's value has been clear since last year at this time, once he settled into a nickel role in Gus Bradley's defense that could get him around the ball a little more. The Colts rewarded him with a three-year, $30 million contract that made him the highest-paid nickel cornerback in league history.

And now, we're seeing him in his best form on a daily basis.

Moore has made a handful of nice plays in coverage, though he has yet to corral a turnover. What's more evident, though, is the floor he offers this secondary as the communicator and as the only cornerback who can currently handle a coverage assignment of Josh Downs. Downs mentioned that Moore is the one player he goes up against where he can't read what coverage the defense is in, taking away the built-in advantages that Downs and Shane Steichen are always hunting for.

"I found out that whenever the quarterback and the offensive opponent breaks the huddle, the quarterback is usually looking at me to try to figure out the type of coverage that we're in," Moore said. "It's like an acting job. I feel like I'm in Hollywood, giving off a certain discreet type of look so that whenever the ball is snapped, that's when I can play football."

6. But no player can come close to the camp that Blackmon has turned in.

He's making plays every single day now. He's picked off Richardson three times, which is one short of the secondary's total against the starting quarterback. And he's doing it from a variety of responsibilities and depths, with a mix of pre-snap vision and post-snap reaction and recovery speed, while bouncing between the free and strong safety spots in recent days.

Blackmon is just in a really fun spot in his career, still just 25 years old but with 46 career starts now at three different secondary positions between free safety, strong safety and nickel back. It's added a library of coverages to a mind that can now run in lock-step with an athletic body that has fully recovered from the Achilles tear that maligned most of his 2021 and 2022 seasons.

He led the Colts last year with four turnovers and eight passes defensed. So long as he can stay healthy -- a fair question for an undersized, explosive player who has missed 17 games in four seasons -- it should be a safe bet for him to lead those categories again.

Should be.

When will the Colts pick a free safety?

7. That's not set in stone, though, because now the Colts are experimenting with Blackmon as a free safety again. It's not because that's the best spot to use him. It's because he might be the only free safety on the roster they remotely trust.

This experiment started this weekend, and it carried over into Monday's practice. The Colts started with Blackmon at strong safety and Nick Cross at free safety but soon brought Rodney Thomas II in at free safety and moved Cross to the second team. Then they brought Cross back to the first team but at strong safety, with Blackmon at the free spot.

Amid all the shuffling, the other safeties had their best practice, with Cross and Thomas scoring interceptions. But those plays only barely nudged the needle in this competition.

“I think as soon as someone consistently steps up," Bradley said when asked when he'll pick a starter. "I will say this, the last about seven, eight days we've seen it – that position elevate. That's what we were kind of hoping – create a lot of competition there, and then just see the cream comes to the top.

"So I think once we feel good about, all right, this is the direction we're going to go, then we'll go. But I don't think we're any time close right now.”

8. I do think with the current roster, Blackmon at free safety and Ronnie Harrison Jr. at strong safety has a chance to be the Colts' best combination. It would get them to three veterans among the five starting positions, allowing Brents and Jaylon Jones a little more comfort as young players on the outside, especially with Blackmon as the rangy last line of defense.

The coaches love Harrison, who has earned a lot of trust since a year ago, when they asked him to exclusively play linebacker. I think they're realizing that he is not really suited to be a free safety, which he hasn't played since 2014. He didn't play in that spot at all on Monday after seeing some consistent run there in the past week.

The downside to this combination is that the upside is limited. Harrison doesn't have the playmaking in coverage that Blackmon does as a strong safety, and Blackmon won't be near the ball as often in the single-high safety looks Bradley employs. It'd feel more like a necessity from the coaching staff than the ideal deployment of a rising star like Blackmon.

With Quandre Diggs gone, is Justin Simmons a possibility?

9. And the thing is, the Colts can still get to that ideal deployment if they'd just sign Justin Simmons.

Last year's second-team All-Pro safety is still on the free agent market, which he now controls after Quandre Diggs signed a one-year deal worth at least $3 million and up to $5 million with the Titans on Sunday. That signing shows us that it wasn't a high asking price keeping the Colts from signing Diggs, and the more they experiment with the free safety spot as camp drags on, the harder it is to figure out why they aren't taking one of the obvious alternatives available to them.

The one explanation that would make sense here is that they like Simmons more than Diggs, and he's been the target. But now that he's the only legitimate safety left on the market, the leverage is going to shift his way a little bit more.

10. I feel confident in saying the coaches, who love veteran leaders, would be ecstatic with a signing like Simmons. It would not only add trust on the back end, but it would allow them to mix and match the looks with Blackmon, Simmons, Moore and even Harrison at times. We could start to see more of the disguised blitzes that some are begging Bradley to add to his bag.

I feel equally confident in saying the players would love it, too. It would signal a kind of "all in" approach to leaders like Blackmon, Moore, Zaire Franklin, DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart, who have built this defense up organically and want the chance to go from good to great together.

The biggest beneficiaries, though, would be the outside cornerbacks. Brents and Jones are built stylistically the same as hulking, physical players who want to live in the grills of receivers and operate in short areas. They need a safety on each side of the field they can trust behind them. It would help to have one who can call out more looks pre-snap, too, as Simmons can offer with his 108 career starts.

If the Colts have a reason not to make this move, they're not expressing it with their words or their actions in practice right now.

So, the wait continues.

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 10 Colts training camp thoughts: Justin Simmons, injuries, more