Tight End Down: Coby Fleener Suffers Concussion

Well, the injury bug has taken a chomp out of one of the Colts yet again, and this time, it’s tight end Coby Fleener.

According to the various eyes and ears of training camp, Fleener has suffered from a concussion and will now go through the concussion protocol to be cleared.

Last week, the Colts were dealt with their first tight end-related injury scare when Dwayne Allen went down with a banged up foot. Thankfully, Allen will be ready to go for the regular season opener, according to head coach Chuck Pagano.

However, for Fleener, it will require a wait-and-see approach.

As Colts fans brutally learned with Austin Collie, concussions are not only nasty (and incredibly scary in Collie’s case), but they have a rather unpredictable recovery time. Even if the player feels like they’re ready to go, they still must meet and achieve the requirements of the protocol to fully return to action, and for good reason.

Back in 2010, two years before the NFL’s widespread attempt to crackdown on concussions, Collie was cleared to return in a game against the Patriots, and did so, only to suffer what was believed to be his second unconfirmed concussion of the year.

Collie would later suffer yet another concussion, putting his career in jeopardy.

I'm not trying to be the concussion bogeyman, but needless to say, concussions are absolutely nothing to mess with. Fleener could be ready to go in a week, and we all hope that's the case, but it should be obvious that coach Pagano and crew will err on the side of caution, especially with Allen already recovering from injury.

For Fleener, the concussion diagnosis comes after a preseason effort against the Buffalo Bills that was fairly unspectacular.

Fleener had a costly fumble on his second drive with the first team and an end zone drop/strip during the third drive that would’ve been Matt Hasselbeck’s first touchdown.