The Indianapolis Colts are going to make some difficult cuts before 2020.
The Indianapolis Colts will enter 2020 with a few power-packed segments of their roster.
Unfortunately, that also means depth pieces embedded in those units who likely thought they’d get a chance someday in Indy … probably won’t.
No, you can never have too much depth. Certainly. We hear you. But from Philip Rivers’ protection to his multi-headed backfield, there are a few areas where some members of previous administrations are going to have to get sent home a few weeks early.
Without a preseason for fringe performers to prove themselves, the road to being rostered is tougher to navigate than ever. Those third-quarter pass catchers and late-game sack specialists only have drills and intra-squad workouts to establish their necessity.
Limited reps will be available, and these players will unfortunately be left without a gig when the season (hopefully) opens.
4. Chad Kelly
The Colts simply … do not have room for four quarterbacks.
Chad Kelly has been Mr. Irrelevant before, and unfortunately, we’ll predict he embodies the title again this summer.
Whatever promise the Colts see in Kelly — perhaps it’s legitimate, or perhaps they’re just blinded by his supposed prestige — likely isn’t enough to convince them to keep four quarterbacks on the roster in 2020. Perhaps (and this is going out on a significant limb) the team instead dangles Jacoby Brissett in trade talks, as his free agency next spring complicates the whole equation, but it would be far more important for our comfort in the moment to get rid of Kelly, let Jacob Eason sit in the third-string slot, and use Brissett as the Philip Rivers’ insurance policy.
After all, this is a team that should compete for the AFC South. Their backup should not be Eason when the curtain rises Week 1.
So, now we’re left dismissing Kelly. Selected with the final pick of the seventh round in 2017, after battling demons in separate incidents with Clemson and Ole Miss, his legal troubles did not stop when he reached the professional level. A bizarre home invasion spelled the end of his time with the Broncos, and several lawsuits have followed him to Indy.
As if his clouded path to playing time wasn’t enough of a reason to remove the bandage, Kelly is likely more trouble than he’s worth.
3. Xavier Grimble
The Colts will have to choose between tight ends Xavier Grimble and Mo Alie-Cox.
The Colts have a significant advantage this season of putting Trey Burton in the slot, and early indications are he’ll be the “hinge” of their entire offense. Philip Rivers-hating Jack Doyle (as a kid, as a kid!) has to have a big season on the other side to justify his semi-premature extension.
That leaves converted VCU basketball player Mo Alie-Cox and former reliable Steeler Xavier Grimble as tight end options who might have to fight for their roster spots. In the interest of keeping the number at three, we’re going to theorize that Grimble gets the boot.
Indy has already devoted so much time to Alie-Cox’s development, spending his age 25 and age 26 seasons teaching him how to get rebounding position on opposing DBs. The early returns are, at the very least, interesting — Alie-Cox played in all 16 games in 2019, though he was only targeted 11 times, and didn’t catch a touchdown pass after snagging two in ’18.
Add to this equation that Grimble is coming off a midseason release by the Steelers with an injury settlement, and it seems clear that Indy has an easier path now that Burton has entered the picture.
2. Chaz Green
Once the weakest member of the Cowboys’ vaunted OL, Green is now filling the same role on the Colts.
It’s much easier to say the sentence “Mark Glowinski will be a surprise cut for the Colts” than it is to actually cut him.
Instead, Indianapolis will likely go the far easier route and slice Green off the roster.
Poised to be the third-string RG and fourth-string LG, the 28-year-old Green has found himself in elite offensive line meeting rooms throughout his career, beginning in Dallas alongside Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, and company. The former Cowboy and Florida Gator didn’t play a single snap in 2019, but got on the field for 59 snaps in 2018, and registered a 34.5 grade, per Pro Football Focus.
Long thought of as a turnstile, Green is an instance where Indy can still upgrade at the most extreme of margins. Giving any UDFA a roster spot would be preferable to carrying a backlog of unnecessary veteran offensive linemen, especially when there’s a second level in place that’s more effective and reliable than Green.
Glowinski, in the midst of a three-year, $18 million extension, showed enough in 2019 to remain the “weakest” member of the starting unit — and that’s just fine.
1. Jordan Wilkins
The Colts won’t have room for Jordan Wilkins.
Apologies to Jordan Wilkins, but this one was written in stone the second Jonathan Taylor was selected in the 2020 draft.
Marlon Mack was the NFL’s 11th-leading rusher in 2019 in part-time duty. Nyheim Hines became more essential than ever with the arrival of Philip Rivers, ready to fulfill the Darren Sproles role out of the backfield.
Taylor himself has spent the entire shortened training camp trucking dudes very hard in the open field — dudes who just signed on to be Colts last week, in fact, since this team was so desperate for secondary help. Sorry, dudes.
The 2018 fifth-rounder out of Ole Miss racked up yardage at the tail end of the 2019 season, having an excellent finale against Carolina (9 attempts, 84 yards rushing, and a TD). He’s shown a good amount of promise in a short amount of time, and if Indy had their druthers, they’d probably keep him lingering on the fringes of the roster.
But they’d be fooling themselves.
This is too good a team to waste a roster spot on a redundant fourth back. The team may opt to try to sneak Wilkins past the goalie in the event that they don’t bring back Marlon Mack next season, but we think it’s far more likely they bite the bullet and cut bait, especially with a need for training camp bodies in other areas of need, like the secondary.
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