The Indianapolis Colts could very well be without wide receiver Josh Downs in their Week 13 matchup with the New England Patriots due to injury.
If that’s the case, what will the team do at the slot receiver position in his absence?
According to Ian Rapoport on Monday, Downs, who suffered a shoulder injury in the Colts’ Week 12 loss to Detroit, is considered “week to week” at this time and a is a “long-shot” for the upcoming game.
The good news is that the injury doesn’t appear to be long-term.
The Colts were without Downs for the first two games of the season as he worked through a high-ankle sprain. Those two weeks may give us the blueprint for how Indianapolis handles his potential absence this week.
At that time of the year, it was a group effort to make up for not having Downs. In that two-game stretch, Kylen Granson, AD Mitchell, Ashton Dulin, Alec Pierce, and Michael Pittman all saw regular snaps from the slot.
While I still expect that to be the general plan in Week 13, we could potentially see Mitchell emerge as the more go-to option at this stage of the season.
Mitchell was already used heavily as a slot option in Weeks 1 and 2 and has steadily improved as the season has progressed, which includes having a career game against Buffalo a few weeks back when the team was without Pittman.
Although Mitchell spent most of his college snaps on the boundary, the Colts got him acclimated to the slot during training camp and the preseason when they were without Downs at that time.
In the last four games, Mitchell has 136 receiving yards, catching nine of his 10 targets.
Not having Downs is obviously a huge loss for the offense. He’s been a go-to option in the passing game all season and is one the most productive slot receivers in football.