Doyel: 'Boom Herron was screwed'
Sunday was the day we learned just how badly the Indianapolis Colts messed up with Boom Herron.
We also learned just how lightly Duron Carter is regarded around the NFL. And how married General Manager Ryan Grigson is to the first-round mistake formerly known as Bjoern Werner. And how confident Grigson is in his ability to judge young talent, given that the 2015 Colts, embarking on one of the most pivotal seasons in franchise history, will set sail with 10 rookies.
Colts' Herron to miss the season; Carter, McNary to practice squad
That’s 10 rookies on the 53-player roster. That’s damn near 20 percent of the team. That’s almost one in five …
OK. You get the point. That’s a lot of rookies. Is that a mistake? Doubt it. The veterans let go – defensive linemen Montori Hughes and Josh Chapman, running back Zurlon Tipton, receiver Vincent Brown, linebacker Cam Johnson, somehow not Bjoern Werner – are a who’s who of Who’s He?
The rookies look good. Defensive linemen Henry Anderson and David Parry. Running backs Josh Robinson and Tyler Varga. Receiver Phillip Dorsett, obviously. Safety Clayton Geathers, a fourth-round pick from UCF, was the most effective rookie of the preseason.
The Colts, who got noticeably older during free agency – Andre Johnson, Frank Gore, Trent Cole, Kendall Langford, Todd Herremans, Dwight Lowery – got noticeably younger during the roster cut-down phase. Other than Andrew Luck and the rest of that remarkable 2012 draft class, the Colts are either very young, or very old.
Is that very good? Who knows?
But on Sunday, we learned this:
Boom Herron was screwed. It wasn’t planned, wasn’t malicious, but it was avoidable. And more than avoidable, it was stupid. And listen: I really, really hope the number of times you see me call the Colts “stupid” over the course of a year can be counted on one hand. When it comes to football, and it comes to the Colts vs. me, there’s only one stupid party: me. I know football? Sure, at a certain level. Like I know algebra. (Don’t laugh; I can really do algebra.)
The Colts know football at the Ph.D. level. But what happened to Boom Herron, who was waived Sunday after being hurt Thursday? Stupid. Just stupid. And not only for Herron’s sake, but for the Colts’ sake. This is more than a nice guy you hate to see suffer an apparent season-ending injury. This was a guy the Colts were counting on as their backup running back, the most experienced and effective option behind the 32-year-old Gore, who was treated this preseason with the care of a Faberge egg. Gore carried the ball twice in four games.
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Herron was fourth on the team with 14 preseason carries, none in the fourth game, because you don’t play someone as important as your backup running back in the final preseason game, not if you can avoid it. And the Colts, with Vick Ballard starting on Thursday against the Bengals and Tipton and Varga in reserve, could avoid it.
But they didn’t avoid sending Herron onto the field for the most violent play in football, the kickoff return. Were they really interested in Boom’s viability as a return man? He had returned one kick all preseason, and three in 16 games last season. As a returner, say this for Daniel Herron: He’s quite the backup running back.
But midway through the second quarter Thursday he returned a kickoff 21 yards and went down holding his left shoulder – same one he dinged in a playoff victory last season at Denver – and Herron left the field irate, throwing equipment on the sideline.
Maybe he knew it was over, his 2015 season. Whatever he knew then, we know now that using Herron on such a high-speed, violent play in such an irrelevant setting was stupid. And truth is, it looked stupid at the time. Won’t say who, but someone in the press box was wondering loudly about Boom Herron returning kicks seconds before he returned the kick that injured his shoulder and left a rookie (Robinson or Varga) as the backup to Gore for the season opener.
As for what happened Sunday to camp superstar Duron Carter, I can’t make sense of that one either. He’s raw but enormous (6-5, 210 pounds) and enormously gifted – and after no-show performances in the first two preseason games, he caught eight passes for 110 yards in the final two.
Carter’s release in favor of versatile veteran Griff Whalen wasn’t stunning; the Colts, playing poker at the big-boy table, felt they can’t afford to carry a project at receiver. But nobody around the league, not even a lousy team, wanted Carter badly enough to stash him at the end of their 53-man roster? He could spend the season inactive but still valuable, like a savings bond growing interest.
Carter is better than what he got. And Herron deserved better than what he got. Grigson? With a team whose offseason makeover was built entirely on aging veterans and inexperienced rookies, the Colts’ general manager is sitting at that big-boy poker table with a full house: three Grigsons over two Grigsons.
If the Colts win it all, Grigson facilitated it.
If they don’t?
Same thing.
Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel