Getty Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich saw one of his wide receivers come off the PUP list on August 15.
As a group, the Indianapolis Colts wide receivers struggled during their first game action of the 2022 season. But the unit is about to receive a reinforcement.
The Colts announced on August 15 that the team removed wide receiver Mike Strachan from the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List. Strachan began training camp on the PUP list after undergoing a procedure on one of his knees during the spring.
Indianapolis drafted Strachan at No. 229 overall in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He caught 2 passes for 26 yards on 3 targets in 6 games as a rookie.
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Strachan Returns for Colts
The 25-year-old missed most of the team’s offseason workouts and just about the first three weeks of training camp. That’s going to put him at a disadvantage in the wide receiver competition.
But Strachan showed enough promise last preseason — even as a seventh-round pick — to start last season on the active roster. He was on the team’s active roster for six of the first nine games in 2021.
Strachan’s size and speed were the traits that led to his playing time early in 2021. His NFL draft profile listed him at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds. And before becoming a football player, Strachan had real aspirations of being an Olympic sprinter.
The 25-year-old will have to lean on those traits again when aiming for a Colts roster spot this preseason.
Colts Wide Receiver Depth Chart
Normally, a former seventh-round pick with little NFL experience coming off an offseason without much training isn’t going to have much of a chance at making an NFL roster. That’s not the case for Strachan partially because of the inexperienced wide receivers the Colts possess.
There aren’t more than four Colts wideouts who have already earned roster spots. That leaves the door open for Strachan to still prove he belongs on the active roster.
“By getting back on the field now, Strachan has a chance to prove he’s made enough strides in the offense to battle for an open roster spot at wide receiver,” Colts insider Joel A. Erickson of The Indianapolis Star wrote. “Four players — Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce, Parris Campbell and Ashton Dulin — appear to be locks, but teams usually keep at least five, and there has been no clear front-runner for that spot in training camp so far.”
Seven different receivers caught passes in the preseason opener against the Buffalo Bills, and three more wideouts had targets but no receptions (Campbell and Dulin were two of the three Colts receivers who saw a target but didn’t make a catch). So there’s plenty of competition for Strachan.
But in all likelihood, he will compete with Keke Coutee, Dezmon Patmon and Isaiah Ford for the final one or two receiver spots on the Colts active roster.
Coutee has the most experience of that group. In 2020, he posted 400 receiving yards for the Houston Texans.
Like Strachan, Patmon has 2 career catches, both of which came last season. Patmon was a sixth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Ford isn’t as big as Strachan, but he displays terrific speed and is also a former seventh-round choice. Ford posted 63 receptions, 681 yards and 2 touchdowns in four seasons with the Miami Dolphins.