Colts rule five players out for Saturday’s game vs. Ravens

The Indianapolis Colts will play the Baltimore Ravens this Saturday evening at Lucas Oil Stadium, but there are five players who won’t be participating in the home opener. Head coach Chuck Pagano this morning ruled out offensive lineman Hugh Thornton, defensive back Darius Butler, inside linebacker Sio Moore, wide receiver Marcus Leak, and cornerback Jalil Brown. That is, of course, in addition to safety Clayton Geathers and defensive lineman Henry Anderson, who are on the NFI/PUP lists.

Pagano said that Butler’s hamstring is acting up, so he won’t be able to play. The other four players have missed some time, as Thornton, Leak, and Brown all missed last week’s preseason opener, while Moore suffered a “pretty significant” hamstring injury during the contest. Meanwhile, both Geathers and Anderson are progressing well and the outlook for both seems positive (especially for Anderson), but they obviously won’t be able to play this Saturday.

With that said, Colts fans can expect to see a couple of significant players make their preseason debuts, as Chuck Pagano said he expects Robert Mathis to play and expects Andrew Luck and the offensive starters to play a quarter to a quarter and a half. Frank Gore said earlier this week that he plans to play as well, so this could be as close to full strength as we’re going to see the team this preseason.