On Saturdays during the NFL season, teams announce any practice squad elevations for the following game-day. While the Colts made practice squad elevations for Weeks 1 and 2, they did not ahead of their Week 3 matchup versus the Chicago Bears.
In short, each team can elevate up to two players from the practice squad to the game-day roster each week. Each player can be elevated a maximum of three times during the season. After that, they either have to be released or signed to the 53-man roster.
Oftentimes, these elevations are made to bolster the game-day depth at a position or two where there are injuries.
So, given that the Colts didn’t make any elevations this week, what does that tell us?
The Colts only have two players with injury designations going into Sunday’s game with both Michael Pittman and Laiatu Latu listed as questionable.
When it comes to Pittman, for one, Shane Steichen did seem optimistic about his chances of playing on Friday. Although, the fact that no receiver was elevated doesn’t really tell us anything. During Weeks 1 and 2, when Josh Downs was out, the Colts didn’t make any receivers elevations those weeks.
With Latu, the fact that no defensive end or tackle were elevated doesn’t shed a ton of light on his status either. If without Latu, the Colts still have five defensive ends and four defensive tackles on the roster, with Tyquan Lewis and/or Dayo Odeyingbo having the ability to play inside.
With that said, nine active defensive linemen would be light for the rotation-heavy Colts.
Inactives will be announced 90 minutes before kickoff on Sunday, at which point we will know for sure whether Pittman and Latu will be available.