After suffering a groin injury late last week, Colts tight end Tyler Warren remained sidelined on Wednesday.
Warren was listed as a non-participant on Indianapolis’ first injury report of the week as the club gets ready to face Minnesota on Sunday.
“He’s progressing really well, but I’ll defer to the injury report this week on a lot of those guys,” head coach Shane Steichen said in his Wednesday press conference of Warren.
Warren leads the Colts with 30 receptions. He’s tallied 213 yards with two touchdowns. He also has rushed for 6 yards with a TD.
Indianapolis has a lengthy injury report, particularly in the secondary. Cornerback Sauce Gardner (calf), cornerback Justin Walley (knee), and cornerback Charvairus Ward (rest) all did not practice.
Linebacker Bryce Boettcher (groin), guard Matt Goncalves (ankle), receiver Anthony Gould (concussion), tight end Drew Ogletree (ankle), punter Rigoberto Sanchez (right foot), receiver Keenan Allen (rest), and defensive tackle Jerry Tillery (personal) also did not practice.
Linebacker Austin Ajiake (concussion evaluation), linebacker Jaylon Carlies (ribs), receiver Ashton Dulin (hamstring), offensive tackle Jalen Travis (foot), and running back Jonathan Taylor (rest) were all limited.
Last Tuesday, a key document in the ongoing Brian Flores litigation was made public. The item, a summary of Flores’s strengths and weaknesses as listed by the Korn Ferry search firm, contains several statements that will strengthen multiple aspects of his case alleging racial discrimination and retaliation for filing suit.
Here’s a full explanation of the significance of the document.
During Flores’s first media availability since the document was released, he was asked about it.
“I prefer . . . to use this forum, to talk about our players, our coaches, this team, you know, and so, you know, I think I’ll probably take this time just to say that,” Flores said. “This forum is about our players, not any personal situation for me. So I’ll just kind of leave it there. I understand the question, respect it, but, you know, I think this, I use this time to talk about our players, our coaches, our team.”
It’s the smart move, as it relates to the lawsuit. Anything he says about the case can be used against him, and the NFL surely will be looking for anything it can to make him look bad in the eyes of a jury.
Indeed, as Flores’s lawyers aggressively attempt to find documents and other evidence that will bolster their position, the NFL and the teams Flores have sued will be digging for anything it can use. Which will mean exploring the factual rabbit hole as to any remotely relevant incident at any of his NFL employers — the Patriots, Dolphins, Steelers, and Vikings.
The higher the stakes of a civil action, the more intense the defense will become. In this case, Flores has the tiger by the tail. At some point, the tiger will uses its claws.
With the Eagles slipping to 2-4 and the Commanders sliding to 1-4-1, the two teams have a Week 8 prime-time date looming. And if the league is considering a flex (as it reportedly was out of last week), the clock is ticking.
By rule, Tuesday, October 20, is the deadline for moving the Sunday night game.
The problem is the absence of clear options. Ravens-Bills makes the most sense, but the Ravens play the following Thursday night. Vikings-Lions is a possibility, if the NFL is willing to commit now to flexing Lions-Vikings in Week 15 out of Sunday night.
Colts-Jaguars wouldn’t have as much sizzle as Eagles-Commanders, given the wide-open nature of the NFC East. The Jaguars are off this week, so they’re guaranteed to enter the game at 4-2. The Colts, who face the Vikings on Sunday and who have fired their G.M., could be 2-5 by Week 8.
Browns-Steelers and Chiefs-Broncos are presumably off the table because the first game between the rivals was televised in prime time. (By rule, at least one game of a home-and-home division rivalry must be televised on Sunday afternoon.)
It’s ultimately the league’s decision. By tomorrow night, everyone should know what it is.
The Vikings are getting healthier on offense.
Minnesota has designated running back Jordan Mason to return to practice.
The club will have 21 days to activate him off of injured reserve. But he could also be back as soon as this week.
Mason has been sidelined by a fractured thumb.
In his second season with the Vikings, Mason took 15 carries for 59 yards with a touchdown in the Week 1 victory over the Packers.
Last year, he rushed for 758 yards with six touchdowns in 16 games with five starts.
One of the basic realities of life in the NFL is that each team is assigned to a division with three other teams, permanently. (Until there’s a reason to realign, which last happened in 2002.) And whether a team is in a good division or a bad division controls much of a team’s success, or not, in a given year.
Of the 17 games played, six of them are determined by the division to which it is assigned. If the other teams are really good, it makes it harder for an otherwise good team to be as good as it can be. If the other teams aren’t very good, it’s easier.
The fact that this is so obvious shows how fundamentally unfair it is. It can give some lesser teams a shot at hosting a playoff game. It can give the one good team in an otherwise bad division a chance to win enough games to emerge as the top seed in a conference (for example, the Patriots throughout most of the 2010s).
This year, the teams of the AFC and NFC North will each have a tougher road to whatever their best-case scenario could be, based simply on membership in a predetermined division. All of them are over .500 through five weeks.
Via NBC Sports research, a full division has been above .500 after six weeks only three times since 2002 (the 2025 NFC North, the 2024 NFC North, and the 2005 NFC East). Depending on how this weekend goes, both the AFC North and NFC North can turn that list of three into five.
The Vikings, Lions, and Bengals are off, so the six-week hay is in the barn as to each of them. To complete the feat, the 3-2 Browns need to beat the 4-1 Ravens, the 3-2 Bears need to beat the Falcons, the 3-2 Packers need to beat the Cowboys, and the 3-2 Steelers need to beat the Buccaneers.
If the Bears and Packers win, it’ll be the third straight year that every team in the NFC North is above .500 through six weeks. Which will make it harder for each of them to get to wherever they want to be.
That will likely change when the NFL expands the regular season to 18 games and seeds the playoff tree without regard to whether a team has won its division. That still won’t solve the problem, and it will bolster the argument that there should be no divisions at all. Or, alternatively, that the two games per year against each of the other teams in the division should become one game per year.
The point for now is that each of the four teams in the AFC North and NFC North could end up being objectively playoff-worthy in 2026, but playing six games against those other teams will make it harder to qualify. Meanwhile, someone from the NFC South will be winning the division and hosting a playoff game — even if (like last year) none of them ends up at or above .500.
The entire approach makes it harder for the NFL to honor sports’ most basic, longstanding message: “May the best team win.” Given the way the NFL arranges its teams, the best team could end up with roadblocks that the not-best team won’t have to navigate. Which could make it easier for the not-best team to win the Super Bowl.
