Indianapolis Colts Activate Safety Julian Blackmon, Release Fullback Roosevelt Nix

INDIANAPOLIS — Training camp mode is concluded and Indianapolis Colts players on the roster bubble have four more practices to make their case for a spot before the roster is reduced to 53 by 4 p.m. Saturday (EST).

But the Colts began their trim early Monday evening in announcing the release of veteran fullback Roosevelt Nix, who signed as a free agent in the offseason. Nix was expected to play mostly special teams as well as assist with blocking in short-yardage situations. Evidently the team needed the roster spot and knew Nix wasn’t going to be in the final equation.

Colts head coach Frank Reich started his Monday morning Zoom video call with updates on injured players, and the news was mostly positive. In particular, rookie safety Julian Blackmon has been activated from the non-football injury list, an encouraging sign for the third-round draft selection who underwent knee surgery in December.

“Very impressive, I mean nine months or a little bit under that,” Reich said. “It just goes to speak to his mindset, the kind of person that he is, how he attacked his rehab – even during a difficult time, right? Through the pandemic, in difficult circumstances, he has handled himself like a pro. You can feel the maturity from him. You can feel the competitive fire, how badly he wants to be out there. He’s obviously ahead of schedule. We’ll still be smart with him, have him on a play count, and gradually work him back.”

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While Blackmon’s roster spot shouldn’t be in doubt, one injured player that could be on the bubble is fifth-year defensive tackle Sheldon Day, who didn’t participate in any of the team’s 11 padded practices due to a knee injury. The Indianapolis native signed with the Colts as a free agent. It’s possible the Colts place him on injured reserve for Week 1 with the option to bring him back.

“The update is that he is still making progress, getting closer,” Reich said. “He injured it – we were actually doing a drill and he injured it in a drill early on in practice. I don’t remember the exact week or day obviously, but I do remember the play. I can still see it in my mind when it happened. Just kind of a freak thing to be honest with you. It was really kind of a freak thing. Didn’t look like it was much, but you could just tell he got hit the wrong way. Sheldon is attacking the rehab and we’ll just kind of keep working with him to get him back out there as soon as we can.”

Nickel cornerback Kenny Moore II (groin), tight end Jack Doyle (neck), wide receiver Marcus Johnson (undisclosed), and wide receiver Zach Pascal (hamstring) practiced on a limited basis. They’ve all been sidelined for a week or so, although Doyle practiced some on a limited basis in camp.

Tight end Trey Burton’s calf injury is still a bit of an unknown. He suffered the injury late in the first half of Saturday’s practice at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“Still working through that,” Reich said. “A calf injury, those things can range in a number of weeks. Still kind of waiting on it to settle down for a day or two to really get a better gauge to how long it may be. I can tell you those types of things are generally more than two weeks if you get it and get it good, but we will just have to see how it settles down here over the next couple of days.”

Reich had Burton in Philadelphia and is sold on the tight end’s skills, so even if the player misses an extended period, it’s doubtful he’s going anywhere.

“Well, there is no doubt Trey is a playmaker,” Reich said. “That’s why we brought him here. We’ve seen that in the couple weeks of practices that we’ve had. He has unique, pass-receiving ability and route-running ability, so we are going to miss Trey, but the good news is he’ll heal quickly and we’ll get him back soon. It’s just next man up. You guys know we like to really use a lot of different personnel groups and it will just put a little bit of emphasis on some other personnel groups.”

The Colts are treating these four practices like it’s a regular-season game week. The team opens Sept. 13 at Jacksonville.

“We are out of training camp mode and we are into in-season mode,” Reich said. “It’s been an interesting offseason, to say the least. I give our players a lot of credit. With everything we’ve been through – going through the pandemic and still going through that, all the social unrest that we’ve had and all that’s meant and means to us and is ongoing, and our battle and fight there, and getting ready for a football season. We’ll now make the transition where we are out of training camp mode. We’ll go into an in-season schedule. Our preparation this week will not be exclusively Jacksonville or anything. We won’t get too heavy into them, but we more get into our schedule that will be like in-season and look forward to having a good week there.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)