We will see what the final injury report says on Friday afternoon, but where we stand right now, the Indianapolis Colts may have to navigate a few injuries at the receiver position against New England.
For two days now, Josh Downs, Ashton Dulin, and Alec Pierce have not practiced.
While Shane Steichen wasn’t going to rule Downs out on Wednesday, he did mention that Downs being available this Sunday would be “tough.”
When it comes to Dulin and Pierce, their statuses seem to be more up in the air. However, whenever a player misses two practices, it is always worth monitoring.
This means a potentially much larger role is incoming for rookie AD Mitchell.
If the Colts are in fact without Downs, those slot snaps are going to have to be filled. During Weeks 1 and 2 when Downs was out with an ankle injury, it was a by-committee approach to fill that slot role but Mitchell was among the leaders in snaps from that position.
Now further into the season, while a by-committee approach may still be dialed up to fill the void, presumably Mitchell would continue to see ample snaps there and potentially even more given the experienced he’s gained since those early season games.
If the Colts are without one of Dulin and Pierce, things get a bit trickier when it comes to how Steichen distributes snaps at receiver. But in that case, Mitchell may end up filling Pierce’s downfield role within the offense, while others, including fellow rookie Anthony Gould, help out in the slot.
But all of this as of now is just speculation until we see the final injury report and get to Sunday. But it’s shaping up to be a game where Mitchell will play a much larger role.
After a bumpy start to the season where Mitchell caught only two of his first 13 targets and often wasn’t on the same page with Anthony Richardson, he began to pick up steam in this latter half of the season, and that culminated with a career day against Buffalo when the team was without Michael Pittman.
Mitchell would catch all six of his passes in that game for 71 yards and also drew a holding penalty in the red zone that extended the drive and eventually resulted in a touchdown.
When the receiver unit is fully healthy, the expectation isn’t that Mitchell is going to out-snap Downs, Pittman or Pierce. However, he needs far more opportunities than what he’s been getting.
From Weeks 3-9, he averaged just over 12 snaps per game. Following that Week 10 performance versus Buffalo, Mitchell has played 24 total snaps over the last two weeks, often getting out-snapped by Dulin.
As a bit of a raw player coming out of college, there are going to be ups and downs with Mitchell as he navigates the learning curve that comes with making the jump to the NFL level. But he brings an added juice to the passing game that his offense could use.
By limiting his playing time to just 12 snaps per contest, it’s elongating that aforementioned learning curve. Like any young player, Mitchell needs reps, but the opportunities haven’t often been there.
But this week, as Indianapolis navigates injuries at the receiver position, Mitchell may end up being thrust into a much larger role in what is essentially a must-win game for the 5-7 Colts.