Insider: Colts' injuries will create complicated roster cuts
INDIANAPOLIS — The NFL regular season is fast approaching, along with the roster decisions that precede it.
For the Colts, that means tough choices, further complicated by the team’s growing list of injured key players.
With just 11 days before the Colts must trim their roster to 53 players, they face the prospect of having to carry as many as seven starters or key reserves who potentially won't play in Week 1. Those players still need to be retained on the roster while they heal.
That could make it infinitely more difficult to field a competent team for the Sept. 11 season opener against the Detroit Lions. Roster limits aren’t negotiable, and the Colts might have to expose some young prospects to the waiver wire to make room for some of their prized, but injured, veterans.
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“It certainly muddies the water,” coach Chuck Pagano conceded.
The list of injured players described by Pagano as “week to week” is a virtual who’s who of the team’s starting lineup:
Cornerback Vontae Davis (ankle), defensive end Kendall Langford (knee), safety Clayton Geathers (foot), defensive tackle Henry Anderson (knee), guard Hugh Thornton (ankle), guard Joe Haeg (ankle), linebacker Sio Moore (hamstring). Defensive tackle Art Jones is scheduled to miss the first four games of the season because of a PED suspension and won’t count toward the 53-man limit during that period.
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The reality of this puts the Colts in a tough spot in a number of areas. Take Anderson, for instance.
“He may not be ready by Week 1 probably, so you still carry him (on the roster),” Pagano said. “So, now you’re down to 52. So, you can look at any situation like that and it is what it is. We’ll make do.”
The list goes on and on. For every injured core player on the 53-man roster, the Colts will have to find room by skimping elsewhere. Maybe that means one fewer offensive lineman. It could be the difference between keeping or parting ways with a young prospect like, say, linebacker Edwin Jackson.
Some of the decisions the Colts face on individual players are more complex than others. Langford, for example, is a pretty straightforward situation. Pagano said the team is moving forward with the hope that he can play in Week 1. That is based on reports the team is getting from its medical staff.
But there's no official timeline for the return of Geathers, who is still in a walking boot after suffering a broken foot just before training camp. Because he’s currently on the non-football injury (NFI) list – his injury occurred while he was training privately – he must be activated or miss a minimum of six weeks if he remains on the NFI list at the start of the season.
It’s just one example of the many dilemmas the Colts could face in just more than a week.
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