Colts release Brian Tyms from injured reserve with injury settlement

With it being Hall of Fame weekend and with Marvin Harrison and Tony Dungy both being enshrined in Canton, it’s easy to miss some of the more minuscule aspects going on currently with the team. One of them that seemingly no one caught at the time was this: the Colts released wide receiver Brian Tyms from their injured reserve list with an injury settlement on Friday.

Tyms was injured in practice a week ago, and it appeared he was getting his ribs wrapped in the trainer’s tent. No official update on his injury has since been provided, but the day after his injury he was placed on injured reserve. Basically, here’s the deal with an injury settlement: the team and the player will reach an agreement on how long the injury should take to heal, and then the team agrees to pay the player for that length of time. For example, if a player was placed on IR with an injury that was expected to last seven weeks, the team would then agree to pay him for seven weeks. Tyms can sign with another team, but it would very likely free the Colts of having to pay the remainder of the injury settlement. It also would allow the Colts to bring Tyms back later in the season if they wish. NFL rules stipulate that a team cannot bring a player back until six weeks after his injury was supposed to have healed - in other words, they can’t sign him until six weeks after the injury settlement is up. For an example of a team doing this, look no further than the Colts and Boom Herron last year.

The loss of Tyms was a hurtful one for Indianapolis, as he was very much in the running for the fourth wide receiver spot and was getting plenty of reps. The position is still very much up in the air and there are several players competing for the depth receiver spots, but it would have been nice to have Brian Tyms competing there as well.