Colts Sign Andrew Jackson, Waive-Injured Mario Harvey

The Colts made a roster move today that will likely make many fans happy: they signed linebacker Andrew Jackson from the practice squad to the active roster and waived-injured linebacker/fullback Mario Harvey.  If Harvey clears waivers, he will revert to the team's injured reserve.

Jackson was the Colts' sixth round pick this year out of Western Kentucky, where he played in 37 games (starting 33), racking up 326 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 4 pass deflections, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 pick.  Here's what I wrote of Jackson shortly after the draft:

"Talent-wise, Jackson is the run defender that the Colts really needed. He's a thumper in a 3-4 scheme who is very stout against the run - something the Colts have really needed from their inside linebackers and something that wasn't really addressed that great with D'Qwell Jackson, either. In coverage and in pass defense, however, Jackson is a liability and therefore he will likely never be an every-down player because of the pass-heavy nature of the NFL today. That said, as a rotational and depth player, he's a very nice piece to have, as he can bring the hammer as an inside linebacker and that is something the Colts can absolutely use."

Jackson missed a lot of training camp and preseason with an injury, which put him behind in his progress and adjustment to the NFL.  He was signed to the team's practice squad after final roster cuts, however, and we knew that it was likely only a matter of time before he made it to the active roster.  Especially with Jerrell Freeman currently injured (he's set to miss his third straight game), D'Qwell Jackson struggling somewhat (mainly in coverage), the Colts could use an inside linebacker.  They have Josh McNary and Henoc Muamba who will both get time ahead of Jackson so don't think that he'll immediately step into a big role (if any) on the defense, but he'll likely contribute on special teams as well and is a good depth player to have.

The more notable part of this roster move to fans, however, is that linebacker turned fullback turned linebacker Mario Harvey was waived-injured.  What this doesn't really indicate is that the Colts are moving away from using a fullback, because it's an injury-based move and if Harvey clears waivers, he will revert to the team's IR.  However, the past few weeks had already made it clear that the Colts were moving away from using a fullback - whether it was Harvey hardly seeing any snaps with the offense to him moving back to linebacker, we knew that the Colts weren't using a fullback much.  When they do want to use a fullback, they'll now just use tight ends Jack Doyle or Dwayne Allen, which is pretty much what they've been doing anyway.  It seems like the Colts are perfectly fine going without a true fullback, at least until Stanley Havili is healthy - and that's perfectly fine with most fans.