Colts not yet sure of Reggie Wayne's status for Monday night

Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne missed practice all of last week and missed the game against the Steelers due to an elbow injury, but Chuck Pagano said this past Monday that Wayne is ahead of schedule and can hopefully practice some this week.  Wayne didn't go today at practice, but Pagano said that was because he was resting.

"He was able [to go]" Pagano said today.  "We just rested him."  Wayne is listed on the injury report as missing practice for elbow/rest reasons, but with today begin the equivalent of Wednesday in a normal work week it would be Reggie's normal weekly day of rest - so no surprise there.  The real question is whether Reggie will practice tomorrow (and Saturday), and based on Pagano's comments it would seem that the receiver is ready to return to practice.  But the head coach wasn't ready to say yet on whether Reggie will be available for Monday night's game against the Giants.

"We'll go through the week," Pagano said.  "It's probably a little bit early in the week to still determine that. I need to see tomorrow's practice and Saturday's."

That's fair enough, as there is still quite a bit of time for the Colts to make a decision on Reggie's status and any such decision at this point would be pretty early.  With that said, it's encouraging that Wayne is ahead of schedule and should hopefully practice this week, and that he has a chance to play on Monday night.  We won't know whether or not he actually will on Monday night for another couple of days at least, but there's a real chance he could.

So far this season (seven games), Wayne has caught 38 passes for 434 yards and a touchdown.  He's clearly not the player he once was but for a 35-year old receiver who's the team's second wideout, he's a very reliable and still effective option.  Hopefully he'll be out there sooner rather than later.