I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day Weekend.
Unlike (hopefully) many of you, it seems the Colts coaches were working over the weekend to fine tune and expand their roster. After days of watching the waiver wire, waiting to see who was cut and signed, the Colts have now thrown us fans another curve ball by subtly announcing via their website depth chart that Tyjuan Hagler is now the starting SAM linebacker.
Apparently, Tyjuan beat out second year backer Philip Wheeler, who had been working as the starter at that position all off-season. Tyjuan had this same job last season, but lost it when he tore a pectoral muscle lifting weights. Clint Session was able to win the job, and Tyjuan Hagler spent much of 2008 as a back-up. He was initially not re-signed when his contract expired this off-season, but eventually signed a one-year deal in the hopes of winning his old job back. Looks like he did.
The other big news is it seems Marlin Jackson is still not 100%. So, the Colts are turning back the clock, allowing Jackson to play as the nickel corner. Jackson played nickel in 2006, the year Indy won the Super Bowl. Replacing him in the starting lineup could be rookie Jerraud Powers, who had an amazing pre-season. From Indy Star's Mike Chappell:
Therein lies the possible opportunity for Powers to become the first rookie cornerback to start a season opener for the Colts since Ashley Ambrose in 1992. Powers could get the nod at Jackson's right-side spot over veteran Tim Jennings.
Lots of Tim Jennings haters out there are doing a little happy dance right now. However, I will point out that Jennings did have a great camp and (arguably) his best pre-season. Bob Lamey made a point of that on last week's Colts Friday Night. He's also seemingly got a pretty good attitude about the whole thing:
"Whatever they need me to come in at, I'll be ready for that," [Jennings] said.
The other little bit of roster news worth mentioning is that we are now five days away from the start of the 2009 regular season for the Indianapolis Colts, and they still have two field goal kickers on the active roster. Indy did not release Shane Andrus in their cutdown to 53. With Adam Vinatieri still recovering from knee and hip surgery, Andrus might be "hanging around" in case Adam cannot go. We already know from the Indy Star's PhilB that rookie punter Pat McAfee will handle kick-offs this year. How long McAfee will do the kick-offs has not been determined. What we can deduce is Vinatieri is still not 100%, and it is possible he will not kick on Sunday.
Also, quick deviation from the main topic of this article, but I feel the need to discuss "the elephant in the room." I'm sure like many of you, all the Phil Simms-James Brown glory painted the background and sides of our little blog is a bit overwhelming. As you can probably guess, Showtime paid SB Nation some cash to advertise the hell out of the new season of Inside the NFL. I know many of you feel as I do that ads like these are troublesome, annoying, and distracting from the reason you visit the site (the content). Unfortunately, these ads are what pay the bills. And, on the positive side, it's not like the ads are for Bud Lite or Viagra or anything like that. Inside the NFL is a good show, and it was stupid for HBO to dump it. So, while having Phil Simms leer at me while I try and read posts is a bit weird, I'm happy to pimp his show for the simple reason that it is good, and worth pimping.
Kindly bare with the ads as best you can while we move forward with the 2009 regular season. As always, we appreciate your support of Stampede Blue and SB Nation.