Braden Smith’s injury progress ‘not going as fast as we want’

The Indianapolis Colts have been without starting right tackle Braden Smith since he suffered a foot injury during the Week 1 opener against the Seattle Seahawks, and it still isn’t clear when he’ll return.

Smith hasn’t even been able to practice since the injury came to light following the opener and despite this, hasn’t made a trip to the injured reserve list.

Head coach Frank Reich told the media Wednesday that the foot injury is taking longer than initially expected to heal.

“It’s just not going as fast as we want it to go. He’s making progress. Like you said, we’re not practicing. We’re going to try and do some stuff with the guys out on the field today,” Reich said. “We’ll have an extra period, kind of a development period where we test some of those guys out a little bit and get them working.”

The right tackle spot has been a major detriment to the Colts offense since Smith was out. He didn’t help all that much in Week 1 but there’s a reason he got a massive extension right before the season. The combination of Julién Davenport and Matt Pryor hasn’t been very good for the majority of the season—even if Pryor showed a lot of promise in getting his first start in Week 5.

There was some optimism and hope that Smith might be able to return against the Ravens in Week 5, but that was followed up by another week without practice. Smith was also an estimated DNP in Wednesday’s walkthrough to begin Week 6.

The Colts offensive line hasn’t played up to standard this season while also dealing with some injuries. The absence of Smith has been a crucial one for the entire offense, and it still remains to be seen when he will return.

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