INDIANAPOLIS – Practice is complete and it’s time for arguably the most difficult weekend for NFL coaches and personnel departments.
The Colts held their final practice of the week on Thursday afternoon, with all the attention now shifting towards roster cuts that are coming this Saturday at 4:00 PM.
What were the takeaways from the Colts on Thursday?
-Tight end Trey Burton (calf) will miss the start of the 2020 regular season, Frank Reich confirmed on Thursday. Reich said Burton will miss “the first coupe of weeks, for sure.” Earlier this week, we examined how this offense will deal with life without Burton—a key receiving threat for the team. As far as roster cuts go this weekend, Burton seems like a prime candidate to initially start the season on the 53-man roster, and then quickly be moved to injured reserve. In 2020, injured reserve guys can return after at least 3 weeks on IR.
-Good news on the Parris Campbell (concussion) front. Frank Reich said that Campbell is ‘full-go’ after recovering from last week’s car crash. We’ve said it many times this offseason—the Colts are bullish on Campbell bouncing back in Year Two. Campbell should have a big role with Philip Rivers at center.
-It’s looking like Ball State rookie Danny Pinter will play early in 2020, along with being the top interior reserve up front. The Colts have used Pinter as a blocking tight end in their jumbo package (6 offensive linemen) and that’s a personnel grouping that Frank Reich has used a decent amount during his time in Indy. Pinter was first a college tight end, played two years at right tackle at Ball State, and has worked mostly at guard and center in the NFL. The Colts really like what they’ve seen from the 6-4, 308-pound South Bend native. “It’s hard, but I’ll give Danny a lot of credit, he’s adapted very well,” Frank Reich says of Pinter playing both guard and center, to go along with his jumbo package duties this camp. “He’s got great football IQ to be able to do that. Ideally, you don’t have to do that to a guy. Ideally, you want to stick a rookie at one spot and let him learn one spot and get good at one spot and then gradually phase in a second position and so on and so forth. For a variety of reasons, we’ve put him under the gun and he’s responded to that. He looks really good at center, has the football IQ to play that position, with what we demand from our center. He’s athletic, so can do all the things we need our center to do. And then at guard, he’s strong enough and stout enough to take on those big defensive tackles. Then we’ve played him some at tight end when we put an extra lineman at tight end. And we know he’s played tackle, so in a pinch he could do that as well. Very talented guy. Very smart guy. Great teammate. Really, really great draft pick. Very glad he’s here.”
-Couple of injuries to watch in the next week: LT-Anthony Castonzo (oblique) and LB-Matthew Adams (ankle). Reich said he feels good that neither will be long-term, but the Colts are still monitoring things. Adams is fighting for a roster spot.
-In case you missed it, here’s my final 53-man roster projection leading into Saturday’s cuts. Remember, along with the Burton injury situation, the key injury names to watch for are: DT-Sheldon Day (knee, hasn’t practiced in full pads) and DE-Kemoko Turay (ankle, hasn’t practiced in full pads and is still on the physically unable to perform list).
-Thursday was the final practice until Saturday’s roster cuts.
