Written by Zak Keefer at Indianapolis Star.com
You know it’s bad when we’re three weeks shy of the season opener and this is how the head coach is describing the situation at cornerback: “It’s a little scary … it’s not a pretty sight right now.”
As for reinforcements? “We’ll look in the street, we’ll look wherever we have to look,” Chuck Pagano said Monday.
As for the urgency? “We’re running out of time,” he added, and rightly so.
Thus the team made a significant move Monday, signing free agent Antonio Cromartie to bolster the team’s depleted cornerback depth. Cromartie, a 10-year league veteran, is a four-time Pro Bowler and a former first-round pick.
The Colts have been utterly gashed at the cornerback spot this preseason — before the Cromartie signing, six of the 11 on the roster were dealing with some sort of injury — and the situation has grown dire enough that Pagano resorted to lauding the skills of an undrafted rookie who could very well see some regular season snaps in a few short weeks.
No offense to Frankie Williams, but if he’s in the starting lineup when this team opens the season versus Detroit on Sept. 11, the Colts are in serious trouble. Calvin Johnson might come out of retirement just to pad those stats a little more.
Why the quick signing of Cromartie? The Colts learned over the weekend that Pro Bowler Vontae Davis suffered a medial ankle sprain in practice Thursday and will be out several weeks. Davis has long fought off bumps and bruises with the Colts and regularly played as well as anyone on the defense. This could be different. This could be serious, as medial sprains — which are on the inside of the leg and much rarer than lateral sprains — generally take longer to heal.
To continue reading this article, click here.
