Trey Burton’s already expected to miss Colts regular season action, even after the team supposedly dodged a bullet.
When Trey Burton had to be helped off the practice field this weekend, Colts fans feared the worst about his mysterious lower-body injury.
And when we were told that Burton had dodged a bullet with his official diagnosis, we still barely exhaled, knowing that the first assessment of a calf issue almost never sticks.
Lo and behold, after all the positivity this weekend, Burton is now clearly on the shelf for several weeks, and seems unlikely to debut for the start of the regular season. It begins.
How long before it is long-term?
Colts still weighing the severity of TE Trey Burton's calf injury. Sounds like it'll be a few weeks, but it depends on how the calf responds in the next few days. But looks like his absence will stretch into the regular season. https://t.co/zPPg1qD46u
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) August 31, 2020
Frank Reich spoke about Burton’s status again on Monday, and he had very little optimism to dish around.
"“Still working through that,” Reich said. “Calf injury, those things can range in a number of weeks. Still kind of waiting for it to settle down for a day or two to really get a better gauge to how long it might be. Those types of things are generally more than two weeks, if you get it and get it good.”"
In other words, Burton, recently a hinge to the entire offense according to Colts OC Nick Sirianni, is now more accurately represented by this crumpled paper, courtesy of beat man Mike Chappell.
Frank Reich:
— Mike Chappell (@mchappell51) August 29, 2020
Trey Burton with calf injury. Will get scan and ‘miss a bit’ of time pic.twitter.com/tBBZPfBkg3
Don’t know what this is. Love it though.
Indianapolis has tight ends on the roster, that is not up for debate. Jack Doyle and developmental prospect Mo Alie-Cox will see significant targets in Philip Rivers’ offense, with or without Burton on the field.
But Burton’s loss is a big one because he operates in an entirely different manner. The Indy Star went as far as to say there is “no clear successor on the roster” to Burton, in case you thought we were the only ones over-dramatizing the situation.
Will the Colts survive with only one highly-paid TE in active duty? Probably. But it’s not a good sign when an offseason addition works his way from newcomer to focal point of the offense, only for him to be lost for an ever-expanding amount of time just before the season.
The clock is ticking in the wrong direction.
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