Chuck Pagano provides injury update on Clayton Geathers, others

Colts head coach Chuck Pagano met with the media for the first time during training camp this morning and provided an injury update for some of the Colts players.

Yesterday, the team placed defensive lineman Henry Anderson and tight end Darion Griswold on the PUP list, while also placing safety Clayton Geathers and tight end Mike Miller on the non-football injury list.

The fact that Anderson was placed on the PUP list is no surprise, as he suffered a torn ACL in week nine last season and was never expected to be ready for the start of training camp. Owner Jim Irsay said earlier this offseason that the hope is that Anderson will be back for week one but that it’s no guarantee. Pagano said that Anderson is “ahead of schedule” and Anderson told us that his knee feels good but that he knows the team wants him to be 100%.

Geathers was a surprise, as the Colts’ starting safety was placed on the NFI list with an undisclosed injury yesterday. There was a report yesterday that it was a broken foot, and Pagano confirmed today that it is a foot injury that Geathers is dealing with. “Clayton Geathers was doing what he’s supposed to do in the offseason, working at his craft,” Pagano said. “Unfortunately, he had a foot injury. He’s doing well; he’s three weeks into that. He’ll be week to week, start on PUP.”

When pressed for more details, Pagano would only re-state that it’s a foot injury, adding, “It’s week to week; I listen to the docs. Always hopeful it’ll be sooner than later.

So while we didn’t get a firm timetable on Geathers’ injury, we did gain a few nuggets of information. Firstly, we got confirmation that it’s a foot injury. Secondly, we found out (somewhat) how it happened: we knew that it was away from the team, but Pagano made it sound like it was while Geathers was doing his normal workout program - perhaps the one the Colts gave to him. Thirdly, we learned that the injury happened three weeks ago, which gives him a nice head start in his recovery. And fourth, we learned that he’s week to week. This normally wouldn’t mean much, but it’s a Pagano-ism for meaning that the player will miss some time. Whether that’s just a week or two or whether that’s a longer injury isn’t clarified, but when Pagano uses that phrase it means the player will miss time.

The other injured players worth noting are the two undrafted tight ends, who Pagano grouped together. He didn’t elaborate on many details for either Griswold or Miller, simply saying that they’ve “got some things going on, injuries. They’ll be basically day to day.”

So while we don’t know what exactly is wrong with either, the fact that they’re day to day means that they should be back sooner than Geathers and that it could come at any time, though most likely they’ll still miss a couple of days at least.

Pagano will likely be much more cautious with injured players and with veterans in terms of players who could use some extra rest, as the Colts will play five preseason games this year instead of the regular four. It wouldn’t be a surprise, then, if the Colts play things even more cautiously than they have before.

One other thing to not in relevance to injuries is the status of Art Jones, who wasn’t placed on the PUP to start camp. That’s a good sign, and Pagano acknowledged that Jones passed his conditioning test and is at a good weight. But, at the same time, the Colts are going to be smart and Pagano said that they won’t just throw Jones back in there with normal reps, and that it will be the same thing with other injured players such as D’Joun Smith.