Colts wide receiver Josh Downs will not be on the field against the Texans this Sunday.
Downs hurt his ankle during training camp in August and has not returned to practice yet. Head coach Shane Steichen said on Wednesday that Downs’s condition is improving, but the wideout was ruled out on Friday.
Downs works out of the slot for the Colts and second-round pick Adonai Mitchell could pick up snaps alongside Michael Pittman Jr. and Alec Pierce in the opener. Ashton Dulin and fifth-rounder Anthony Gould are also part of the receiver group in Indy.
Kicker Matt Gay has also been out of practice this week as he recovers from hernia surgery. He has not been ruled out at this point, however. Rookie Spencer Shrader will kick if Gay doesn’t play this week.
Stefon Diggs said in a recent interview that he was in the “worst mental space” of his career with the Bills last season, but the wide receiver is feeling much better about things as the 2024 season gets underway.
Diggs was traded to the Texans in the offseason and he was named one of the team’s captains this week. He said it means “everything” to have won the trust and respect of new teammates in such a short amount of time and that the good feelings run both ways.
“I always believe in where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be at my feet, you know where I’m at,” Diggs said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “I don’t talk bad about my old girlfriend to make my new girlfriend feel good. Being here, this is where I am right now. It’s my place and it’s amazing. It’s some great people here. I can say there’s a lot of southern hospitality here. I’m just happy to be where I am.”
Diggs may not want to talk about his past stops, but he had times where he felt at home in Minnesota and Buffalo before things stopped being so pleasant. The Texans seemed to take that into account when they reworked Diggs’s contract to make him a free agent after this season, so everyone will have to buy back in if there’s going to be a multi-year run for the wideout in Houston.
Colts wide receiver Josh Downs remains out with an ankle injury.
Downs injured his ankle in a training camp practice in early August and he was one of two Colts players who did not practice on Wednesday. Given the length of the layoff and the fact that he’s not back on the field, it seems like a long shot for Downs to play against the Texans this weekend but head coach Shane Steichen didn’t close the door on the wideout.
“We’ll see,” Steichen said, via Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Star. “He’s progressing really well.”
Rookies Adonai Mitchell and Anthony Gould could see more playing time if Downs is out of lineup on Sunday.
Kicker Matt Gay was the other Colts player to miss practice. Gay had hernia surgery recently and said he’s not sure if he’ll be able to play this weekend.
Kicker Matt Gay may not be available for the Colts in Sunday’s season opener against the Texans.
Gay has been out of practice and head coach Shane Steichen said at his Wednesday press conference that the kicker had a hernia. Gay told reporters that he felt pain last week and had surgery to repair the issue.
Gay said he did not know if he will be able to kick this weekend, so his status will be something to monitor as the week plays out.
The Colts have Spencer Shrader on the practice squad. He was undrafted out of Notre Dame and spent the offseason with the Colts before being released last month.
The situation between the Bills and receiver Stefon Diggs seemingly reached critical mass during the 2023 mandatory minicamp, when the Bills acted as if Digg stormed out before admitting that they’d asked him to leave. In lieu of trading him then and there, the two sides tried to stay together for another season.
In hindsight, they probably shouldn’t have.
“Last year, I was in the worst mental space I’ve been in since I’ve been in the league,” Diggs told Clay Skipper of GQ. “If I’m not in a good space, obviously that’s not the best for me. So that’s when things had to start shaking out.”
It didn’t seem that it was going badly, at first. Through six games last year, Diggs had 620 receiving yards with five 100-yard performances. He didn’t have more than 87 yards in any game after that. While the shift in offensive coordinator from Ken Dorsey to Joe Brady can easily be blamed for the decline, Diggs started to dip in the four games before Dorsey was fired.
“You can’t roll out of bed and get 800 yards in the first eight games,” Diggs said of his early-season performance. “Your best receiver’s doing that. You tell me about the last 10. What changed? Were there changes going on? I just pay attention to what really happened and not what people try to act like happened. Like, for the last 10 games, I forgot how to fucking play football?”
Something happened. And if Diggs was, as he says, in the “worst mental space” of his NFL career, it’s possible something happened behind the scenes that became the straw that, for him, broke the camel’s back and, for them, resulted in a de-emphasis of Diggs in the passing game.
Regardless, he has now been traded again, for the season time in his career.
“None of those teams wanted to get rid of me,” Diggs told Skipper. “Things had to shake because I kind of wanted them to shake.”
In Minnesota, a tweet posted on the same day Kirk Cousins received an extension resulted in Diggs’s first trade. In Buffalo, he knew it was coming.
“We had some talks with Buffalo,” Diggs said. “We knew where things were going — I did, at least. The outside world had so much speculation. I knew, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year to the offseason, exactly what was going on. Not too much confusion on my end.”
To his credit, Diggs won’t talk about specific problems at this past stops.
“I’m a professional,” Diggs told Skipper. “I believe in professionalism. You don’t gotta talk bad about your ex-girlfriend to your new girlfriend.”
The real question for Diggs is whether his latest new girlfriend will have that title for more than a year. The Texans wisely re-did his deal to make it a contract year. He’ll be a free agent in March. That gives him every reason to have a big year before either re-signing with the Texans or going wherever he wants to go next.
Which probably won’t be back to Buffalo.
The Texans have stability at starting quarterback with C.J. Stroud heading into his second season and they are set to have it in the backup role as well.
According to multiple reports, Davis Mills has agreed to a one-year extension with the team. The new deal will keep Mills tied to the Texans through the 2025 season.
Mills was a 2021 third-round pick in Houston, so he was heading into the final year of his contract before agreeing to this extension. He started 26 games over his first two seasons, but moved into a backup role after the Texans selected Stroud with the second overall pick in 2023.
The Texans also had Case Keenum on the roster last year, but he was placed on season-ending injured reserve last month.
Mills is now set for at least two more years filling a reserve spot on the depth chart and the Texans will be hoping most of that time is spent clapping on the sideline rather than taking snaps.
Texans running back Joe Mixon missed most of training camp with a quadriceps injury. He now is fully healthy and ready to face the Colts in the season opener.
Mixon, one of the team’s key free agent signings this offseason, is expected to have a heavy workload.
“Joe will be Joe,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “Joe will be doing what he’s done his entire career. I don’t think you’ll see anything different. He’s a strong, physical back. He’s going to get yards. So, I’m excited about seeing Joe run the ball behind our offensive line.”
Mixon, 28, averaged 22 touches per game in his seven seasons, including 21 per game last season. He has averaged 88 yards per game in 97 career games.
The Colts have DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart manning the interior, which could make running a challenge.
“They are really great front seven, start with the two interior guys, Buckner and Stewart., those guys are a force inside,” Ryans said. “But it’s not about if we have to run it. Whatever we have to do to move the football up and down the field. It really doesn’t matter. It’s running the ball, throwing the ball, whatever it takes for us to be successful, moving the football that is what we will do.”
New Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs has been chosen a captain in his first year in Houston.
The Texans announced their seven captains today, and Diggs, who arrived in an offseason trade with the Bills, was selected. Diggs was also a team captain in Buffalo.
Houston’s other offensive captains are quarterback C.J. Stroud and offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, both of whom were captains last year as well.
The defensive captains in Houston also include two who were captains last year, in defensive end Will Anderson and safety Jimmie Ward. Also named a defensive captain was linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair.
The Texans’ special teams captain is long snapper Jon Weeks.
Wide receiver Noah Brown has found a new home and he’ll be reunited with a familiar face.
According to multiple reports, Brown has agreed to sign with the Commanders. Brown and Commanders head coach Dan Quinn were both with the Cowboys earlier in their careers.
Brown was most recently with the Texans, but they released him as part of their cutdown to 53 players this week. Brown had 33 catches for 567 yards and two touchdowns for Houston last season and he had 82 catches for 980 yards and three touchdowns in 66 games for Dallas.
The Commanders traded Jahan Dotson to the Eagles last week and currently have Terry McLaurin, Olamide Zaccheaus, Luke McCaffrey, Dyami Brown, Byron Pringle, and Jamison Crowder on the roster at receiver.
The Texans announced a series of moves to get to 53 players.
They placed linebacker Christian Harris and defensive tackle Kurt Hinish on injured reserve/designated to return. The players will miss four games before becoming eligible to return.
Safety Brandon Hill and quarterback Case Keenum went on season-ending injured reserve. They can only return this season if the Texans waive them with an injury settlement.
Defensive end Dylan Horton will begin the season on the reserve/non-football illness list, and defensive end Denico Autry is on the reserve/suspended list.
The Texans waived defensive tackle McTelvin Agim, linebacker Tarique Barnes, defensive end Solomon Byrd, wide receiver Quintez Cephus, offensive guard Dieter Eiselen, defensive end Malik Fisher, defensive end Ali Gaye, fullback Troy Hairston, defensive tackle Marcus Harris, wide receiver Johnny Johnson III, cornerback Troy Pride, wide receiver Ben Skowronek, running back J.J. Taylor, linebacker Max Tooley and offensive tackle Kilian Zierer.
They released fullback Nick Bawden, fullback Andrew Beck, quarterback Tim Boyle, wide receiver Noah Brown, offensive tackle Cameron Erving, cornerback Mike Ford, offensive tackle Charlie Heck, cornerback CJ Henderson, safety Lonnie Johnson Jr., cornerback Desmond King II, linebacker Jacob Phillips, offensive guard Chris Reed, offensive tackle David Sharpe and cornerback D’Angelo Ross.
They waived/injured running back Jawhar Jordan, defensive end Pheldarius Payne and tight end Teagan Quitoriano.