Colts essentially cut WR Roy Hall, sign several new players

As the discussion in the FanPost comments suggests, this move was a bit of a surprise for some folks. Roy Hall, a prospect at WR since the Colts drafted him in 2007, has been placed on the injured-waved list. This means that Roy can sign with another team. If he can't sign, he's then placed on the Injured Reserve (IR) list. Either way, his career with the Colts is over. This is now the third straight year Hall's season with the Colts was cut short because of injury. Hell, we still don't even know what his current injury is.

Roy developed as a player, but could never stay healthy to showcase any talent on the field. We wish him the best and hope he can get healthy enough to make a difference in this league. Also released was OG Tom Pestock.

After the roster spots for Hall and Pestock were cleared, the Colts re-activated Samuel Giguere from the PUP list and signed two additional players: Walter Mendenhall (a rookie out of Illinois State and older brother of Steelers back Rashard Mendenhall) and Rudolph Hardie, a DE drafted two years ago from Howard University.

You might remember Rudolph Hardie from our draft profile of him in 2008. We thought the Colts would draft or potentially sign Hardie because he seemed to fit the kind of player the Colts love. We wrote:

Despite these weakness, there is a reason Hardie keeps popping up on people's sleeper draft pick lists: He has the tools to become a very good pass rusher, and team looking for DE depth could find a gem in Hardie. Look for a Cover-2 style team, such as the Colts, Vikes, or Bucs, to draft Hardie.

It's always kind of cool to see a player you thought the team would be interested in eventually sign. We saw the Colts do this with Buster Davis and Rufus Alexander recently. We stated (waaaaay back in the day) that Alexander and Davis were good fits for the Colts. Hopefully, Hardie will find a way to stick around on the Colts roster, unlike Davis and Alexander.

Like Hardie in 2008, Walter Mendenhall is viewed by some as a possible "sleeper" player that went undrafted because he played at a small school:

Older brother to Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashad Mendenhall, the Illinois State product is just as big and strong carrying the ball. His game film is outstanding as Walter shows power on the inside, speed in the open field and the ability to slip tackles then create yardage.

Mike Hart has been ruled out for tomorrow night's pre-season game against the Vikings. with Joseph Addai likely not to see much action, and with Donald Brown being a high priced rookie, signing Mendenhall feels more like a "warm body" roster move. However, as we have seen in the past, if you show you can play, the Colts will keep you.