The Indianapolis Colts announced on Thursday that they are signing a familiar face, wide receiver Ethan Fernea, to the practice squad.
The corresponding move that was made to make room for Fernea was releasing linebacker Austin Ajiake.
Fernea has spent time on both the Colts’ active roster and practice squad over the last two seasons. After an injury in mid-August, Fernea was waived-injured. He did not end up signing with another team since then.
Between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Fernea appeared in four games for the Colts as a special teams contributor. In those games, he’s played 36 special teams snaps across three different phases.
In the Colts’ first preseason game this summer, his only with the team, Fernea played three special teams snaps and 16 on offense.
Fernea went undrafted in 2022 out of UCLA, where he was listed as a running back and played a whopping 718 special teams snaps in his career, according to PFF.
Also on the practice squad at the receiver position are DJ Montgomery and Laquon Treadwell.
While my guess right now is that the Colts aren’t planning to have Fernea available on Sundays, he does bolster the depth at the position during the week while both Josh Downs and Michael Pittman have missed practice time over these last two weeks.