Colts Dump Deshea Townsend, Make Plethora Of Roster Moves

With the expected return of Jerraud Powers and Justin Tryon from nagging foot injuries this week, along with the wide receiving corps utterly decimated with injuries, the Colts have parted with veteran corner Deshea Townsend. Townsend spent most of his 13 year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was signed the day Colts training camp started with the intention that he teach some of Indy's younger DBs how to play in this league. Townsend's play on the field has left a lot to be desired. He was pretty much last on the depth chart for the corners.

The news on the injury front involves Austin Collie, who has been ruled out for the game against the Bengals with a concussion. Defensive tackle Antonio Johnson will return to practice this week. No word yet on if he will play.

The Colts also promoted Chris Brooks from the practice squad seeing as the only healthy receivers on the active roster are Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, and Blair White. Activating Brooks, who was a fairly recent addition to the squad, is pretty much a slap in the face of Brandon James. James has been on the practice squad since early September after spending all of training camp fighting for a roster spot. James also returns punts and kicks, but it seems clear that the Colts do not trust him with those duties yet.

Unless my math is off (which is probably is), the release of both Townsend and Andre Brown opens up one roster spot for Indy. We will probably see some kind of follow-up roster addition today or tomorrow.