Already home to WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, Indianapolis will be poised to draw some Simone Biles visits soon. The Colts are bringing in veteran safety Jonathan Owens, ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets.
Owens, who is married to the Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast, will join the Colts after spending the past two seasons with the Bears. This is a one-year contract, per Schefter.
Working as a part-time starter in Chicago, Owens has made 35 starts in seven seasons. Managing to carve out a long career out of Division II Missouri Western, Owens is obviously best known for his Biles relationship. But he has served as a long-running special teams presence — with the Texans and Packers prior to the Bears deal — and a valuable backup. Owens is going into an age-31 season.
Making 125 tackles as a full-season starter for the 2022 Texans, Owens landed a one-year $1MM Packers deal but secured a slight raise (two years, $3.8MM) with the Bears. Chicago used Owens as a five-game starter in 2024 and as a full-time backup behind Jaquan Brisker and Kevin Byard last season. The Bears have now lost Byard, Brisker, Owens and Nahshon Wright from their secondary this week. Byard joined the Patriots, with the Steelers and Jets respectively adding Brisker and Wright.
The Colts are also signing former Cowboys safety Juanyeh Thomas, NFL insider Jordan Schultz tweets. Thomas made three Cowboys starts last season and played three years in Dallas. Indianapolis has an opening at safety after losing starter Nick Cross (to the Commanders). The team will likely not devote notable funds to replacing him, as Camryn Bynum joins Sauce Gardner, Charvarius Ward and Kenny Moore in carrying pricey contracts in this secondary.