Colts Make Roster Moves; Don’t Cut Crappy WR

The Indianapolis Colts made four roster moves yesterday, coming one step closer to the teams final 53 man roster.  By today the roster must sit at 75 players and the moves helped the Colts nearly reach that limit.  One more move today will put the team at their limit.

Placed on the Injured/Waived list were cornerback Michael Coe and defensive ends Curtis Johnson and Rudolph Hardie.  The list means that once a player clears waivers he can be picked up by another team, or if no one claims him, the Colts place him on the IR. Either way they will most likely not play in 2009.

As Big Blue Shoe at Stampede Blue notes, Coe was no surprise and Hardie was (apparently seriously) hurt in the last preseason game against the Lions.  But Johnson was the shocker here.  I thouhgt he showed good speed off the outside and was playing well enough to make the roster, as did BBS and others at Stampede Blue.  I could not find any news on the nature of his injury at Colts.com (big surprise) so I suppose that the best case scenario is that if he has a fairly serious injury that no one will claim him. This way the Colts can retain him and maybe give him another shot next year.

The Colts also cut tight end Colin Coherty.  He seemed to have nice skills and made some nice catches in the one practive I saw.  However, the Colts are deep at TE and had no room for Cloherty. Best luck to him on making the cut with another team.  The Colts still need to make one move today to make the 75 man limit and Big Blue Shoe suggests it will be cutting Shane Andrus and bringing Adam Viantieri (aka Adam Nougatieri) back on the active roster.  Not a bad guess, either way, good luck to Andrus who has kicked very well in the preseason.

But naturally, the biggest shocker of the day might be in regards to a player who did not get cut. I’m talking about wide receiver John Matthews.  In my humble opinion, he’s not really that good and the Colts need to get rid of him.  He’s only 6-0 and 197 pounds, so he’s not a huge guy, more of a slot type really. The only problem is that he doesn’t have slot like skills.

In three preseason games this season he has five catches for 58 yards.  Jacob Tamme surpassed that in one game against the Eagles.  And in last weekend’s game he took a quick pass from Curtis Painter, punched it high into the air and let it fall right into the hands of a Lion’s defender.  It was ugly.  It led to a score and ultimately the loss for the Colts.

The real problem is that he provides no real value to the team. We have our two starters at receiver, then Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon, and then a stable of tight ends and running backs that runs wide and deep.  John Matthews is like the old 2 liter of Sprite that just sits in the back of your refrigerator.  Someone brings it over for a party, but then after the party is over – well, it just sits there, wasting space until it finally goes flat.  You try to hold on to it, saying maybe you’ll drink it later.  But no … it’s too late.  Matthews has done nothing to help the Colts and they need to let him go.  And I’m sure they will, now it’s just a matter of when.

GO COLTS !!!