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On Monday, the NFL announced that Colts starting safety LaRon Landry had been suspended for the next four games for violating the league's PED policy. It doesn't come as a big surprise, but the Colts list Sergio Brown as the starting safety now on their depth chart (with Dewey McDonald as his backup).
"Just move Sergio up," head coach Chuck Pagano said today when asked what the Colts would do to replace Landry. Pauences for not following them. "We'll miss him for four weeks, and then he'll be back," Pagano said.
"Obviously, Serge (Sergio Brown) has been been here and he's been in the system," Pagano said. "We all know what LaRon brings to the table, so he's out for the next four weeks and it's next man up. Serge will go in and Serge will do a great job. Serge is a big, long, athletic guy, he's got range, he's been in the National Football League for a long time. He fully expects, and we fully expect him, to go in and play winning football, and that's what he'll do.
Pagano said that he felt "disappointment" with Landry for the suspension but that there are policies and that there are consequences for not following them. "We'll miss him for four weeks, and then he'll be back," Pagano said. In the meantime, it's Sergio Brown's job.
In the past two weeks, with the Colts blowing out both the Jaguars and the Titans in back-to-back games, Sergio Brown saw a few snaps at safety - seven (12%) against Jacksonville and 8 (17%) against Tennessee. He's most notably a special teams ace for the Colts and that is where he has really established himself, but the Colts gave him an opportunity in training camp to get a lot of time at safety, which should help him now. In camp, Landry missed some time and the team was still trying to figure out who would start at the other spot, so camp opened up with Sergio Brown and Delano Howell as the starters. Obviously, it ended up being Landry and Mike Adams starting (in part due to a season-ending neck injury to Howell), and Adams has played good football this season.
Now, Sergio Brown will be stepping in to start alongside Adams in place of the suspended Landry. Brown has appeared in 59 career games (including three this year) in his five-year career, and has started 3 career games at safety - all for the New England Patriots in 2011. Brown has recorded 69 tackles, 2 passes defensed, a pick, and three fumble recoveries in his career.