Mike Mitchell
 

I may have missed it. Any news on if he will be available for KC?

I like this guys leadership a ton. He's among the many reasons this young D has continued to improve all year, and I hope he can be brought back next year as either a player, of even a DB asst. coach.

Anyway, has there been any news, or will we have to wait to see what his practice status is today?

I don't know about his playing status. However,

$2.863m = Malik Hooker
$1.750m = Pierre Desir
$1.310m = Quincy Wilson
$0.838m = Clayton Geathers
$0.555m = Kenny Moore II
$0.444m = Mike Mitchell
=========
$7.760m = Total Cap Hit for Colts starting six-deep secondary

Select other AFC Contender Secondary Cap Hits:

$13.000m = KC SS Eric Berry
$11.935m = NE FS Devin McCourty
$08.887m = NE CB Stephon Gilmore
$06.250m = LAC CB Casey Hayward
$05.500m = LAC SS Jahleel Addae

PFF ranks our secondary as 15th out of 32 for the 17 week regular season. Which, considering where we were after six weeks is rather amazing. Good PFF article on our secondary located here.

Bottom line is that Eberflus is getting more out of these young guys then I thought possible. We need to hold onto him for the next year or three if at all possible.

Also, as a bonus, a PFF ranking of defensive front-7s in the league (here). The Colts ranked 22nd which I though was pretty fair also. Except for Leonard, there are not standout players; the sum ended up being a lot better than the individual parts.

Walk Worthy,

He did not practice yesterday (tuesday).

Per Reich, he has been ruled out for Saturday...hopefully Hooker is a go (he was wearing a walking boot yesterday)

Jalen Collins time?

I will be shocked if they promote a CB from the practice squad to fill a safety role.

My guess is that we will see a lot more J.J. Wilcox as the Safety-3 behind Hooker and Geathers.

He has been getting an increasing number of snaps over the past three games while Odum has been getting a decreased snap count during the same span.

Since I suspect we will be nickle and dime defenses most of the game, our safeties' ability to support run stop will be critical to our success. Luckily, our two starting safeties both play the run well. When Wilcox has been in, he often takes the Single-High position (as 45 of his 49 defensive snaps have been in pass coverage) with Hooker moving closer to the line / playing shorter zone reads or playing the other half of the field in Cover-2.

Luckily, our starting CBs (Desir and Moore) both rank in the top 25 of CBs with at least 50 snaps in run defense / support as well. Wilson is solid in run stops but not as good as the other two.

But, I don't think we will promote Collins. i suspect he is a "next year" project to see where he is at after a Colts training camp.

Walk Worthy,

Yea, I didn’t mean he would play safety, but that they’d put him back on the active roster to give us another db

This injury looms large in this matchup. With a healthy Mitchell, Colts could play a three-safety set with Hooker and Mitchell on the back end and Geather in the box primarily responsible for Kelce.

Now that calculus changes a bit and you've gotta trust Odum or Wilcox with one of those roles. Neither has proven tremendously disciplined. Makes me nervous.

Agree that it hurts, but I don't think it's too significant. Mitchell hasn't played more than 23 snaps in any game since the bye.

Agreed.

They are playing 3x CB much more than 3x Safety for the nickle. Wilson coming in as CB3 and manning the outside with Moore sliding to the "slot" to cover the WR or TE.

That is probably what we will see a whole lot more than Wilcox on the field. Hooker single high or Hooker / Geathers in two deep.

Walk Worthy,