Boulder’s NFL pipeline just got a little thicker in northeast Ohio, as the Cleveland Browns have claimed former Colorado Buffaloes defensive back Mekhi Blackmon off waivers from the Indianapolis Colts.
The move adds a veteran corner to a secondary that needed depth while handing Buffs fans another familiar name on the same roster as quarterback Shedeur Sanders.
Cleveland waived wide receiver Cedric Tillman in a corresponding move.
Blackmon’s path is a Colorado story first. After one season at College of San Mateo, he spent four years in Boulder from 2018 to 2021, working his way from rotational snaps to a starting role in the Pac-12.
Across 26 games with the Buffaloes, he recorded 76 tackles, two interceptions, 12 pass breakups, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Injuries interrupted stretches of those seasons, but the ball skills and physicality that later made him a third-round pick were already on tape at Folsom Field.
He transferred to USC for 2022, earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors, and was selected 102nd overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2023 NFL Draft.
His pro career has been uneven but productive when healthy. Blackmon played 15 games as a rookie in Minnesota, then missed the entire 2024 season after tearing his ACL.
The Vikings traded him to Indianapolis last August. In 2025 he started 11 of 17 games for the Colts and posted 64 tackles, two interceptions, seven passes defensed and a sack. Career totals now sit at 32 games, 14 starts, 105 tackles, three interceptions and 15 pass breakups.
The Colts waived him this week after a rough stretch in joint practices and the preseason. Cleveland immediately put in a claim.
For Colorado fans, the reunion is the headline. Sanders, who starred in Boulder in 2023 and 2024 before the Browns drafted him in the fifth round in 2025, already gave the program a quarterback in Cleveland.
Blackmon predates the Deion Sanders era, but he is still a Buff, and the two will share a locker room in a city that has become an unexpected CU outpost.
Blackmon is not expected to unseat Denzel Ward or Tyson Campbell on the boundary, but he can play outside or in the slot and gives Cleveland a fourth-year veteran who has already started double-digit games.
It is a late-August roster squeeze, not a splash free-agent signing. Still, from a Colorado angle it is easy to root for: a corner who paid his dues in Boulder getting another NFL chance next to a former Buffs quarterback.
If Blackmon settles in as reliable depth, Folsom Field will have two more reasons to watch the Browns this fall.
