Our partners at National Football Post are reporting that the Colts are releasing oft-injured wide receiver Roy Hall. Hall was drafted in the 5th Round of the now-awful 2007 NFL Draft for the Colts. At 6'3, 240 pounds, Hall offered size and speed at the WR position. However, Hall's problem was he could never stay healthy; three season all ending with him on the IR list.
Hall was a decent special teams player, but as a wide receiver he had an annoying habit of not catching the ball in pre-season games. Size, speed, and strength are great, but wideouts who can't catch are completely and totally useless.
With Hall getting cut, that leaves only Anthony Gonzalez, Tony Ugoh, Keyunta Dawson, and Clint Session from the 2007 Draft class left on the Colts roster. Even more depressing, both Gonzo and Ugoh have lost their starting jobs, with Ugoh relegated to back-up tackle and Gonzo possibly being the #4 WR on this team. 2007 Draft selections gone from the team are Dante Hughes (cut 2009), Quinn Pitcock (retired 2008), Michael Coe (cut 2009), Brannon Condren (cut 2008, re-signed 2009 only to be cut before camp), and now Roy Hall (cut 2010). The only starter from that draft is Session, who was drafted in the 4th round. Keyunta Dawson, drafted in Round Seven, will likely not make it past the final roster cutdown to 53 this year.
Compare this to 2006, which saw the Colts grab three high-quality starters (Joseph Addai, Charlie Johnson, Antoine Bethea) and get a lot more "mileage" out of comparable lower round players like Freddy Keiaho (cut 2010) and Tim Jennings (cut 2010).
2007 was simply a terrible draft for the Colts. The best college player to come out of that group might have been Melvin Bullitt, who went undrafted out of Texas A&M.
We wish Roy the best in hopefully re-launching his NFL career. He seems like a good guy who works hard, but injuries really stunted his development.