Colts’ Jack Mewhort leaves game with knee injury

The story of the game tonight for the Indianapolis Colts has been their offensive line, and not in a good way. Andrew Luck was hit six times and sacked three others in the first half, but fans wondering whether it could get any worse should hold their breath: the team’s best lineman is out for the game.

Jack Mewhort suffered a knee injury during the first half and is out for the rest of the game. Colts.com’s Kevin Bowen saw him “hobbling around late in the first half,” as did several others on twitter.

Because it’s preseason, it’s incredibly difficult to tell the severity of this injury. Hopefully, it’s just precautionary to keep him out for the second half. Center Ryan Kelly was also taken out of the game for the second half, so the team was already beginning to make some changes. But Colts fans need to hope it’s nothing serious, because the offensive line problems would only be magnified without the team’s best lineman in there.

Mewhort has started 30 games for the Colts over the past two years since being drafted in the second round of the 2014 draft. He started all 16 games a year ago, the first two of which were at right tackle and then the final 14 of which were at left guard. During his short two years in the NFL so far, Mewhort has already emerged into a very good guard. It would obviously be a big loss to lose him for an extended period of time, so it’s a situation worth monitoring for the Colts.

UPDATE: NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reports that Mewhort tore his ACL and is out for the season.