The Indianapolis Colts begin their 2026 preseason against the New England Patriots on Thursday. Indy will actually face off twice against New England this week. One was a joint practice on Tuesday, and the other is far more meaningless overall.
Preseason games are the place where the bottom of the roster battles play out. If a player does exceedingly well in all three contests, they might make a strong argument for earning a place on the 53-man roster. Joint practices are mostly for starters, where coaches can put their players in specific scenarios and see how things unfold.
Fans can't truly watch joint practices very well. Preseason games are fun, though. While it doesn't matter which team wins or loses, players will win or lose based on how they play. The following players need to do well, beginning with preseason Week 1 against the Patriots.
These Indianapolis Colts could be fighting for their roster lives in the preseason
Quarterback Anthony Richardson
Would Indy entertain releasing Richardson? The question might be why they would choose to have him take up a roster spot. He has trended toward being bad in training camp once again, outlandishly having problems even accepting the snap from center many times.
He still hopes to be traded, but no team seems willing to offer much to get him. He has raw skill, of course, but that doesn't mean he will ever be a good quarterback. For one, while he can throw the ball with velocity and depth, his decision-making play to play has been atrocious.
If Richardson performs poorly in the preseason and is outplayed by Riley Leonard, the former has no reason to be on the roster when the team might need to keep an extra edge rusher or wide receiver. Teams know they can wait until next offseason to sign Richardson if they want. If he's bad in the meaningless games, why would any team want him now?
Safety Juanyeh Thomas
General manager Chris Ballard did several odd things this past offseason. One was loading up certain positions in hopes that one or two players would emerge from groups that seem to have the same skill set. This was the case at depth along the defensive line and safety, too.
Thomas is likely in a roster battle with fellow free agent acquisition Jonathan Owens. Owens has historically been the better special teams player between the two, and that might be enough to earn him a spot behind Cam Bynum.
Should the Indianapolis Colts keep only four safeties, Bynum, Hunter Wohler, and rookie AJ Haulcy will certainly get three of them. Thomas and Owens will need to earn the fourth spot.
Running back Ulysses Bentley IV
The Colts are seemingly going to keep just three tailbacks on the roster, and obviously Jonathan Taylor is going to be one of them. The backup role might come down to DJ Giddens and Seth McGowan. Giddens was listed as RB2 on the team's first unofficial depth chart, but McGowan has had the better camp so far.
Arguably, Bentley has had a better camp than Giddens, too. The difference between the two players generally isn't vast, and as both should get a lot of reps in preseason, if Bentley outshines Giddens, he could sneak onto the roster.
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