WESTFIELD — Julian Blackmon’s second interception of Colts training camp was far more routine than the first.

Days after opening the week with an instinctive, freelancing interception off Anthony Richardson created when Blackmon dropped out of his assigned zone and into the passing lane, Blackmon came down with another, this time cradling a jump ball fired deep into double coverage for Michael Pittman Jr.

What was a little bit less routine was where Blackmon started the play.

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Blackmon, the team’s starting strong safety, appeared to spend at least one period of Friday’s practice lining up at free safety, the site of the biggest position battle of Colts training camp so far.

“I’ve got to go back and look at the tape, but he was obviously the deep middle safety on that one,” Indianapolis coach Shane Steichen said.

Blackmon turned in a breakout season in 2023 as a strong safety. Because of Blackmon’s success, the Colts opened the offseason by holding an open competition among Nick Cross, Rodney Thomas II and veteran Ronnie Harrison, three guys with varying levels of starting experience.

“I think the biggest thing is getting some consistency back there,” defensive backs coach Ron Milus said. “All those guys have played ball at this level. Rodney’s been a starter, Ronnie’s been a starter here and at other spots, and Nick’s been a starter.”

But Blackmon has not been mentioned as a possibility at free safety for most of the offseason.

Blackmon opened his NFL career as a free safety with the Colts, turning in a tantalizing rookie season at the position before a torn Achilles suffered in his second year torpedoed his progress.

The veteran found a home at strong safety last season, leading Indianapolis with four interceptions and eight passes defended, in addition to finishing fourth on the team with 88 tackles in 15 games.

“Julian is one of those guys, right?” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “Like personnel placement. Where do we position him? He’s got to be a guy for us that’s around the ball quite a bit. He makes plays, and he’s got really good instincts.”

The Colts got Blackmon around the ball last season by walking him down into the box as the team’s strong safety, relying on his instincts to take away the short and intermediate throws that form the bulk of every NFL passing offense.

A move back to free safety seemed unlikely.

Until Blackmon moonlighted at his old spot Friday, and Steichen left all of his options on the table when he was asked about the development.

“We’re looking at all those guys,” Steichen said. “There’s competition on the back end, obviously, and we’re working through that right now.”

A shift would not necessarily force anybody out of position.

The Colts initially developed Cross as a strong safety, and Harrison is a strong safety by trade who has never played free safety in the NFL. A Blackmon return to the free safety spot might open a more natural fit for either player as they compete for a starting role.

The move might also take Blackmon away from the ball.

In Bradley’s defense, the free safety’s job is often to force the quarterback to look somewhere else.

“Building trust, making sure where we need to be,” Milus said. “The corners, we say with our corners, especially with the deep ball, we should have a halo back there with a free safety able to go red line to red line. He needs to be our guardian angel back there.”

A guardian angel is often sitting back, away from the center of attention.

Potentially robbing Blackmon of opportunities to freelance. When he made a leaping interception off Richardson earlier this week, Blackmon was playing a short zone, and he broke on the quarterback’s eyes once he realized that no route was coming into his area.

“He’s been phenomenal so far,” Steichen said. “He’s making plays left and right, he’s all over the field.”

A free safety, the team’s last line of defense, cannot take those calculated gambles as often as a defender creeping into the box.

“We could talk about, boy, you’ve got to be a good eraser, tackler and all that, but it really comes down to trust,” Bradley said. “Do the guys in front of you, do they look back and have the trust that you have the skill set to get it done? And can you get it done? That breeds confidence.”

A Blackmon return to free safety might still be a long shot. The Colts could have been trying out a different combination of players for the sake of contingency planning; Cross could finally emerge as the difference-maker Indianapolis thought it was getting when it traded a future third-rounder to get him in 2022.

“I think that was one of the positions we looked at yesterday where we started to see some flashes,” Bradley said Wednesday. “When you see them play with good execution, you can kind of judge their speed then, they’re not thinking as much. So we’ve still got some work to do. … but it’s going in the right direction.”

A direction that remains unclear.

Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Joel A. Erickson on X at @JoelAErickson.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis Colts camp: Plan at free safety not any clearer