The Indianapolis Colts announced on Monday that the ‘questionable’ designation has been removed from Pro Bowl veteran defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (neck), and that he’ll be activated off injured reserve
for tonight’s game against his former squad, the San Francisco 49ers.
Buckner’s return will obviously provide a big boost to the Colts interior line for both run defense and pass rushing purposes as the unit’s best best player. However, he may be on an initial pitch count in this one.
The Colts waived backup quarterback Brett Rypien on a corresponding roster move. Having been signed from the practice squad last week ahead of unretired longtime veteran quarterback Philip Rivers’ surprising 2025 debut, as the Colts’ QB3, Rypien could be a strong candidate to be re-signed to the team’s practice squad again.
It is a little surprising that the Colts aren’t carrying an emergency QB3 in this one—even as an initial game day inactive, in case injuries at the position were to arise on game day.
It likely won’t matter, but a 44-year-old quarterback who just started playing again two weeks ago seems to carry a lot more injury risk than the average NFL starting quarterback one would reasonably think.
While healthy again, rookie quarterback Riley Leonard, as the QB2, just recovered from a knee injury that he’s been battling the past few weeks. If the Colts were forced to turn to their QB3 in another dire injury situation, it would be another fellow rookie, tight end Tyler Warren, who would theoretically be the third-string quarterback tonight—as a wildcat option.
Otherwise, the Colts have elevated wideout Coleman Owen and offensive guard Josh Sills from their practice squad. Colts wideout and special teams returnman Anthony Gould has already been ruled out with a foot injury, so Owen will be serving as a special teams returnman and gunner again for a consecutive week.
Meanwhile, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Colts would be elevating an offensive lineman with starting left tackle Bernhard Raimann ruled out on Sunday with an elbow injury. It seemed reasonable that 4th-year offensive tackle Zach Thomas might get the nod, but he was just signed to the Colts taxi-team last week.
Sills, who’s been with the Colts organization since 2023 and has appeared in 18 career games, assuredly has a leg up on the Colts offensive system and playbook under head coach Shane Steichen compared to Thomas.
It’s possible that if there’s another injury at offensive tackle, that 2nd-year starting right guard Matt Goncalves could simply kick out to first-team right tackle again, where he played a bit as a rookie—and the Colts could replace him with Dalton Tucker at right guard. However, hopefully we’ll never have to find out.
