Colts place Dwayne Allen on injured reserve, sign Erik Swoope

It is possible that we've seen the last of tight end Dwayne Allen in a Colts uniform.  The Colts today placed Allen, who will be a free agent this offseason, on season-ending injured reserve today, ending a disappointing 2015 season.  The team promoted tight end Erik Swoope from the practice squad to the active roster to take Allen's place on the 53-man roster.

This season, Allen played in 13 games but only caught 16 passes (on just 29 targets!) for 109 yards and a touchdown, averaging 6.8 yards per catch!  It is almost comically low production from a talented tight end who, essentially, was just an extra offensive lineman this season.  The Colts used Allen as a blocker often but rarely as a receiver this season.  In his four seasons with the Colts, Allen has played in 43 games and caught 91 passes (on 147 targets) for 1,045 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 11.5 yards per reception.  He established himself as a very good all-around tight end during his rookie season, providing a perfect blend of blocking and receiving ability.  His second season lasted just one half of a game, however, as he suffered an injury in the season-opener that ended his season.  Since then, he has struggled with a number of different injuries but did manage to play in 13 games in each of the past two seasons - though not always fully healthy.  His injuries have become a concern, and then this year he was very much under-utilized.

There's no guarantee whatsoever that Allen is back with the Colts next year, as I would think it would have to be a pretty cheap price in order for the Colts to re-sign him.  And then there's the question of whether the tight end would even want to return to Indy after how he was treated this season, as there's a very real possibility that he would want to move on.

Anyway, the Colts will play their regular season finale without Allen, instead promoting Erik Swoope from the practice squad to take his place.  Swoope has spent the entire 2014 and 2015 seasons on the team's practice squad, so this marks a pretty significant occasion as he is getting his first shot at being on the active roster.  He has been a project player for the past two years after being signed as an undrafted free agent out of Miami - as a basketball player.  The Colts likely want to see what he can do with a spot on the active roster, if only just for one game.  He will join Coby Fleener and Jack Doyle on the active roster, and while you'd think the loss of Allen would be a significant one, let's be honest: the Colts probably wouldn't have used him much, other than as an offensive lineman, anyway.