When meeting with reporters following Sunday’s win over New England, Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen said that there is a “good possibility” that center Ryan Kelly could return from injured reserve coming out of the bye week.
Kelly was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury prior to the Colts’ Week 10 matchup with the Buffalo Bills.
Once a player is put on IR, they have to miss at least the next four weeks, so the Colts’ pivotal Week 14 matchup with Denver is the first game that Kelly is eligible to return to.
Without Kelly, the Colts turned to rookie Tanor Bortolini from Weeks 10-13. Overall this season when called upon, Bortolini has held his own, allowing seven pressures and no sacks on the year, ranking 14th in pass-blocking efficiency among all centers. By PFF’s run-blocking grade, Bortolini ranks 19th.
However, Bortolini entered concussion protocol after the Detroit game and missed this past Sunday’s matchup with the Patriots. So down both Kelly and Bortolini, the Colts turned to veteran Danny Pinter.
Pinter would surrender just one pressure on 28 pass-blocking snaps, and the combination of him and new starting right guard Mark Glowinski helped carve out running lanes to finally get the ground game going for Indianapolis–an element that has sorely been missing over the last month.
Prior to being placed on injured reserve, Kelly had surrendered one sack and seven pressures. By PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric, he ranked 15th among centers going into Week 10 and was 26th in run-blocking grade.
Consistency for this Colts’ offense as a whole down this final stretch of the season begins with more steady play along the offensive line, something we saw from this unit against the Patriots.
