Indianapolis Colts tight end Jelani Woods missed most of training camp and the entire preseason due to a hamstring injury. Now, we may have an update on the severity of that injury.
Because the Colts don’t have to put forth an injury report during camp, it’s difficult to know the severity of some injuries. With Woods, it appears he suffered a torn hamstring during the first week of training camp, per Nate Atkins of The Indianapolis Star.
Jelani Woods tore his hamstring. I asked Shane Steichen how close he was to returning last Tuesday and he said, “Hopefully sooner than later.” https://t.co/gl0DEF7S45
— Nate Atkins (@NateAtkins_) August 28, 2023
That certainly would explain the lengthy absence from training camp and the preseason, and it lines up with what Woods was dealing with during the spring workouts.
Woods dealt with a hamstring injury during the offseason training program, and he wasn’t able to get on the field much at all throughout OTAs and minicamp.
He returned to training camp telling reporters he was a full-go at the end of July. Unfortunately, Woods left the fourth practice of training camp early and hasn’t returned to practice since.
Because we don’t know the grade of the tear, it’s best to view his recovery timeline as indefinite until more updates are provided. The severity of the tear highly dictates how long the recovery will take, and it’s pretty clear this is a re-injury from the spring.
Considering the indefinite timeline, Woods is a candidate to begin the season on either the reserve/PUP list or the injured reserve list. Going on the PUP list would force Woods to miss the first four weeks of the season. The same goes for the injured reserve list, but the Colts would have to carry Woods on the initial 53-man roster and then put him on the list following the conclusion of the waiver period the following day.
This certainly will be a situation to monitor over the next week and, hopefully, we can get more information about the injury. But this certainly isn’t the way Woods or the Colts envisioned his second season starting out.