Colts' Donte Moncrief back to running routes after rehabbing injury

One of the players who is expected to play a key role for the Indianapolis Colts in 2016 hasn't practiced yet this year. Wide receiver Donte Moncrief sat out the offseason program with a foot injury as he recovered from an offseason procedure that he had done to clean some things up. The injury bothered him during last year, so he took advantage of the offseason to get it taken care of.

Because of that, however, he was in a boot during the offseason program, and though he got the boot off by the time the team began mini-camp, he still didn't participate. Colts coach Chuck Pagano addressed Moncrief’s status by saying that the Colts expect him to be back by the start of training camp (which likely will be July 26, though it’s not yet official). Moncrief today reached a significant milestone in his recovery that gives more reason to believe he will indeed be back when the Colts arrive at Anderson University: he’s running routes once again.

The fact that Moncrief is running routes now is good news, as it means that he’s far enough along in his recovery to get back to a fundamental aspect of playing receiver. He likely still has a little ways to go in his rehab, but it’s encouraging to hear that he’s already back running routes and it's certainly reasonable to think that he’ll be ready to go next month for camp.

The Colts are counting on Moncrief to be their number two wideout in 2016 and start alongside T.Y. Hilton, so it’s important that he be on the field as soon as possible to work with Andrew Luck. Last year, he played in all 16 games and caught 64 passes for 733 yards and six touchdowns, a very nice season especially when considering he played nine games without Luck and struggled through his foot injury as well.