Colts’ injury report, Week 18: the status of Ryan Kelly, Quenton Nelson, Braden Smith, Zack Moss and Kenny Moore II have been decided ahead of kickoff

Who’s inactive for the Indianapolis Colts’ Week 18 game against the Houston Texans

The Indianapolis Colts have released their inactive list ahead of tonight’s kickoff against the Houston Texans:

To the delight of Colts fans everywhere the only mild surprise on this list is Trey Sermon and his name isn’t that surprising given that Zack Moss will be playing. Quenton Nelson, Ryan Kelly and Braden Smith will all start together on the offensive line for the likes of Moss and Jonathan Taylor and will hopefully provide time for Gardner Minshew to throw to Indy’s group of receivers.

On defense the Colts will get Kenny Moore II back after missing last weeks game. Moore will join a defensive backfield who had a good day in his absence but are surely happy to have him back. One thing to watch for is that Moore has 91(!) tackles on the season. I can’t think of another time a cornerback had 100 tackles in a season but Kenny has a shot to cross that mark this season.

The Colts opponent tonight, isn’t quite as lucky when it comes to their inactives:

The fact that both Woods and Brown are out mean that 3 of the Texans top 4 receivers will miss tonights game. The only healthy receivers on the roster are Nico Collings, John Metchie III, Xaiver Hutchinson and Johnny Johnson III- who they called up from the practice squad earlier today. Metchie and Hutchinson have combined for 22 catches for 204 yards and 0 touchdowns on the season. C.J. Stroud has had a fantastic rookie year and Nico Collins is a very respectable WR1, but someone is going to have to make plays for the QB when Collis is taken away as an option.

On the defensive side of the ball the Texans have ruled out Jonathan Greenard who is leading the team with 12.5 sacks on the season. In one small piece of good news for the Texans rookie pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. has been cleared to play in his second game in a row after missing previously with an ankle injury. Anderson has 7 sacks on the season including 2 last week against the Titans and 2 on December 3rd against the Broncos.

The inactive lists couldn’t have broken much better for the Colts but these two teams still have to play the game. Fingers crossed.

As always, go Colts.