Ahead of their Week 1 matchup with the Houston Texans, the Indianapolis Colts have listed seven players as in active in order to be at the maximum amount of game-day eligible players, which is 48.
Below are the players that will be inactive for Sunday’s Week 1 matchup:
C Tanor Bortolini
WR Josh Downs
QB Sam Ehlinger
CB Dallis Flowers
OT Blake Freeland
K Matt Gay
TE Will Mallory
There are some noteworthy moves here, but let’s start with the obvious. The Colts will be without Josh Downs and Matt Gay today. Downs was ruled out on Friday as he still recovers from a high ankle sprain, while Gay’s status was up in the air, but it became clear that he wouldn’t be playing when the team elevated Spencer Shrader on Saturday. Rookie AD Mitchell will likely see the bulk of the slot opportunities.
With the NFL’s emergency quarterback rule, there really is no reason to have Ehlinger active on game days since he can still be called upon if needed.
Now, of note, Freeland being inactive tells us that Matt Goncalves is the swing tackle. With Flowers not playing, the Colts must feel more comfortable at this time in Samuel Womack’s ability to contribute on defense if needed and on special teams.
Mallory, meanwhile, has been the clear fourth option at tight end and could be a sign—and not a surprising one, that we could see a lot of 12 personnel and a heavy dose of Jonathan Taylor.
With Danny Pinter on the roster, the Colts are going with his experience at center to backup Ryan Kelly. During training camp, offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter discussed how difficult the learning curve can be for rookie centers when it comes to making the jump from college to the NFL.