Since Week 6, Indianapolis Colts’ wide receiver Michael Pittman has been dealing with a back injury.
In fact, it was initially reported by Adam Schefter that the injury could land Pittman on injured reserve. However, both he and the team made the decision to push through the pain and continue playing over the last month.
But this week of practice was not like the others for Pittman. Typically over the last month he has not practiced on Wednesdays, but has returned for Thursday and Friday and then been available on Sundays. This week, however, Pittman did not practice at all.
Michael Pittman injury update
Following Friday’s practice, Colts’ head coach Shane Steichen told the media that Pittman had already been ruled out of Sunday’s game with Buffalo.
“The fact that he was playing up to this point is miraculous,” said Josh Downs of Pittman’s injury.
How long will Michael Pittman be out?
We don’t have that answer at this time. From the start, Pittman and the team have made it clear that they are taking the injury week-to-week. So what next week holds for Pittman in terms of his availability is unknown at this time–it’s all dependent upon how he’s feeling when we get there. However, Steichen did make it known that injured reserve is still not being considered.
“At this point, everybody’s fighting through some type of thing, so it’s not like I’m doing anything that’s special, but we’re just taking it week to week and then just seeing where it goes,” said Pittman on Wednesday.
Colts WR depth chart
With Pittman out for this game, presumably, rookie AD Mitchell will see a larger role. Since Week 3, when Josh Downs returned from injury, Mitchell has been used sparingly, averaging just over 12 snaps per game during that span.
However, after a slow start to the season where he caught only two of his first 13 targets, Mitchell has been trending upward as of late. While Mitchell will see more opportunities, I would also expect Ashton Dulin to get more snaps as well and the team also elevated Laquon Treadwell from the practice squad for this game for boundary depth at the receiver position.
“Just gotta pick up the slack,” said Josh Downs about Pittman’s absence. “Me, Alec, AD–really AD. He going to be playing a lot more. We just gotta step up to fill the void.”