Ahead of their game against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Indianapolis Colts received positive news on the status of two important offensive starters on the injury report.
The Indianapolis Colts conducted a walkthrough on the practice field on Wednesday in an effort to be ready to forget their sad loss from last weekend and concentrate on their Sunday game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Colts’ final two regular-season games are hugely important, and the good news is that both right lineman Braden Smith and wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., two vital offensive starters, were listed as participating.
Both teams held walk-throughs on Wednesday rather than full practices, leading to the injury report being an estimation of a player’s participation if there was a practice.
Here are the reports for the Colts and Raiders for Week 17.
Although it’s too soon to predict whether Pittman or Smith will play on Sunday, it’s encouraging that both are listed as participants as of this writing. Last week, Pittman made progress through the concussion protocol, even receiving a clearance before experiencing a setback that put him back under the protocol. Smith hasn’t practiced since missing the majority of the previous four games.
Last week against the Atlanta Falcons, while Pittman was out, outside receivers Alec Pierce and Montgomery combined to catch four out of ten passes for 38 yards. This season, Pittman alone has averaged seven receptions (10 targets) for 76 yards per game.
Smith’s replacement, rookie Blake Freeland, ranks 22nd out of 24 qualifying rookie offensive linemen in pass-block efficiency (93.8%) this season according to Pro Football Focus after allowing at least 4 quarterback hurries in 7 games.
Jacobs and Mayer are a couple of key players to watch as starters on an already-struggling Raiders offense.
The Raiders also placed tight end Jesper Horsted on Injured Reserve this week with a hamstring injury.
