Clayton Geathers to Return to Practice Next Week

In some rare good news for the Colts, it looks like Clayton Geathers will be back at practice starting next week.

Geathers has been out since week 12 of 2016 with a neck injury that put his career in jeopardy. At just 25 years old, the safety had already proven to be one of the more valuable and talented members of the Colts defense, and the idea of pairing him alongside ball hawking Malik Hooker is a pretty exciting prospect.

As Matt Danely talked about on the latest Stampede Blue Colts Cast, we should temper expectations for Geathers. He will be coming back in a non-contact capacity, and he hasn’t played football for a long time. It would be unrealistic to expect him to come out playing with his hair on fire. However, this is the kind of progress that should be encouraging to Colts fans, because we really couldn’t say whether we should have expected to see him come back at all.

If Geathers can get back and get into the mix with this young defense and play at least 3 or 4 games to end the season, it will give us a look at just how good our defensive backs can be. I believe this could be a major team strength going forward, and the strongest member of that group might just be Clayton Geathers. Perhaps the best thing is, we actually have enough talent in our secondary that it might be worth an actual argument over who is the best player there.

Wherever you land on that argument, it is definitely good to hear that Geathers is progressing. Neck injuries are no joke, and I, for one, will be glad to see him back. Any time you get back a player who actually makes open field tackles that’s a plus. Plus his return lowers the risk of ever having to see T.J. Green take the field again.

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