Coming out of the bye week, the Indianapolis Colts made a pair of practice squad moves ahead of Sunday’s playoff-like game against Denver.
On Tuesday, the team announced that they signed defensive tackle Pheldarius Payne, and the corresponding move in order to make room was placing defensive tackle Trysten Hill on the practice squad injured list.
Payne went undrafted this past April out of Virginia Tech and spent time with Houston. He has no regular-season NFL snaps.
Listed at 6-3 – 275 pounds, Payne played 657 career snaps over three collegiate seasons. He graded out by PFF’s metrics as one of the best run defenders in 2023 and tallied 23 pressures, including six sacks.
Hill was signed to the practice squad recently, following the Colts’ Week 11 win over the New York Jets. He is a former second-round pick by Dallas in 2019, having appeared in 34 NFL games, including five starts.
Hill also has spent time with Arizona, Cleveland, and New England.
Throughout the course of the season, GM Chris Ballard has continually churned the back end of the practice squad depth chart, making moves to either bolster the depth at positions dealing with injuries or in an effort to take a swing on some higher end talent.