Jack Mewhort’s return date “still up in the air”

The bye week is always a good time for teams to get healthy, and that will be especially important for several Colts players who have been dealing with some injury issues.

One such player is guard Jack Mewhort, who has missed the last three games with a tricep injury. And on Monday, Chuck Pagano said that there are still some questions about his status when asked if there’s a good chance the team gets their injured guys back post-bye.

“Always hopeful for that,” Pagano said. “I will leave it up to the doctors and the trainers like we always say. We should. There are still some question marks [with] Jack Mewhort, we will see how those guys do. Obviously this comes at a good time. I love when a plan comes together as far as a bye week.”

Pagano mentioning Mewhort obviously caught some attention, so a follow-up question was asked regarding Mewhort’s status: is it a long-term thing?

“Again, it is still up in the air,” Pagano said. “Again, this comes at a good time where you get an extra week for things to heal up. Not only him, but those other guys to get treatment and come back in a week from today and see where he is at.”

It’s very noncommittal, but that’s the way it’s been recently regarding Mewhort’s injury. When it first happened, he missed a game but Pagano said he should be back the following week. Then Mewhort returned to the practice field on the ensuing Wednesday but suffered a setback, and he hasn’t practiced since. And since the setback, we haven’t gotten any firm details about the severity or extent of the injury, but the fact that there’s a lack of answers and so many questions raises some red flags.

So at this point, we simply don’t know when Jack Mewhort will return. Hopefully it’s after the bye week, but Pagano didn’t sound overly confident in that happening.

It’s a significant loss to have to play without Mewhort, who is their starting left guard and started the first six games of the season there. In his third season with the Colts, he has started 36 games (out of a possible 41) and has done a very good job at the position. In the meantime, the Colts have had to shuffle their offensive line, moving Joe Haeg to left guard to replace him. But last Sunday with Joe Reitz also out, it was Jonotthan Harrison who filled in at left guard while Haeg moved to right tackle.