INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts on Thursday held their second of three days of on-field preparations for Sunday's Week 9 contest against the Baltimore Ravens. What were some of the top takeaways on the day?
Injury report
Here is the Colts' Thursday injury report:
Walkthrough only
As noted in the injury report tweet above, the Colts today conducted a walkthrough instead of a normal Thursday practice session.
The team announced earlier in the day that a member of the Colts staff had tested positive for COVID-19, and that the team, which had entered the NFL's intensive protocol, was in the process of contract tracing for the positive individual, who has self-quarantined and is under the care of team doctors.
The Colts decided to hold a walkthrough practice session and then conduct all meetings virtually, away from the team's facility.
The injury report for Thursday, meanwhile, is just an estimation of a player's participation had the team conducted a full practice. There were several new additions to Thursday's list who did not practice with "not injury related" labels, including defensive tackle Sheldon Day, defensive tackle/end Tyquan Lewis, guard Quenton Nelson and wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr.
Wide receiver Marcus Johnson, the other new addition to the injury report on Thursday, did not practice with a knee injury. Tight end Mo Alie-Cox, who has been working his way back from a knee injury for a few weeks now, also did not practice on Thursday after being a limited participant on Wednesday.
Wide receivers Ashton Dulin (knee) and T.Y. Hilton (groin), meanwhile, missed their second straight day of practice on Thursday.
Head coach Frank Reich does not typically talk to reporters on Thursdays; he's next scheduled to speak to the media on Friday, when he usually announces who has been ruled out of the upcoming game.
In more positive injury report-related news, center Ryan Kelly (knee) and running backs Jonathan Taylor (ankle) and Jordan Wilkins (groin) were upgraded to full participant status on Thursday after they were limited on Wednesday.
'Sudden change'
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught everybody across the NFL landscape to expect the unexpected. Each day, and each game, can be affected at a moment's notice.
So when the Colts on Thursday morning changed their practice to a walkthrough, and then moved all meetings to a virtual format, the players and coaches, as they've been doing since the start of the offseason workout program, just rolled with the punches.
Linebacker Darius Leonard likened this morning's change of plans to a "sudden change" event during a game.
"You have to adapt and just go with it," Leonard told reporters today. "You take whatever at hand and you take it to the team and say, 'Let's go. Let's make a play.' Now I feel like this will make our story even better. We are going through this, we're going through adversity – it's not how you get knocked down, it's what you do when you get up from being knocked down. That's basically the same thing now. We faced adversity, it's how we approach the game and how we step up and make this thing work."
As veteran wide receiver T.Y. Hilton put it: "We've been dealing with it since March, so you just adjust."
"You just adjust," Hilton continued. "That's what we do, we adjust and we just have to find a way to get better."
