Darius Slayton still hasn’t taken the field for the Indianapolis Colts.
For two weeks, that hadn’t been due to injury. Slayton was simply getting up to speed with how Indy operates.
It looked like for Week 5 in Pittsburgh against the Steelers, Slayton would be ready to go.
Then an injury happened. The start to Slayton’s Colts tenure is still struggling to get off the ground.
Darius Slayton Injury News
Slayton was reportedly injured in practice on Friday.
The Athletic’s James Boyd wrote on X:
“WR Darius Slayton, who’s yet to make his #Colts debut, suffered a knee injury in today’s practice and is now questionable to play Sunday against the #Steelers.”
Slayton hadn’t had an injury designation until Friday, so the mid-practice injury has apparently set him back.
The fact that it wasn’t worse news is the only silver lining here, because the reality is that the Colts need Slayton.
They signed him in the aftermath of Alec Pierce’s Week 2 heel injury that sent the WR1 to injured reserve.
Slayton had been surprisingly released by the Giants at the end of the preseason despite still potentially being in his prime. He remained available for a couple of weeks before the Colts picked him up.
He’s been a healthy scratch for the first two weeks of his time in Indy, with it making sense the first week after he was a Tuesday signing but then being a little more disappointing after he’d been with the Colts for a dozen days.
Slayton already has a relationship with Daniel Jones from multiple seasons together with the Giants, so that if anything should help him be ready for the Colts.
And maybe he would’ve played in Week 5. Maybe he still will. But it’s now definitely more in question.
Colts Other Injury News
The Colts will have two other players listed as questionable for Week 5.
Keenan Allen, the veteran WR, has a groin injury that kept him out of the Week 4 game in London. He’s questionable.
If the Colts are missing Allen and Slayton, the WR group would be quite thin, just like it was in London, when they beat the Commanders anyway.
Indy also has cornerback Charvarius Ward Sr. listed as questionable, and he like Allen is listed with a groin injury.
The Colts’ secondary continues to have question marks, and missing out on Ward wouldn’t help the cause.
The Steelers’ passing attack is helmed by QB Aaron Rodgers, who is far past his prime but can still exploit a mismatch.
The Colts will be hoping at least some of their injured players can suit up on Sunday, but that remains to be seen.
Darius Slayton’s Short Colts Tenure Just Got More Bad News