Wide receiver Josh Downs would prefer to be playing for someone other than the Colts, but that’s the uniform he will be in this Sunday.
Downs didn’t confirm a report this week that he requested a trade and said only that he’s open to anything that comes, but head coach Shane Steichen confirmed that Downs has asked to be moved at a Friday press conference. He said he has spoken with Downs and that the wide receiver will play against the Jaguars despite that request.
“You’re a professional. Obviously you requested a trade, but you’re on this football team. You’ve got to show up and we gotta go play a game on Sunday,” Steichen said, via Colts radio announcer Matt Taylor.
Downs, who is in the final year of his contract, has 26 catches for 307 yards on the season.
Jaguars Clips
Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas is coming off two straight games without a catch and he didn’t play at all in the second half of the team’s Week 6 loss to the Texans.
Thomas had a drop in the first half of that game and his ongoing role on a team with several other receiving options has been the subject of conversation with the trade deadline less than two weeks away. Head coach Liam Coen said this week that he expects Thomas to make plays for the team in this week’s game against the Colts and Thomas said on Wednesday that his approach coming out of the bye week has been to let go of what happened in the past.
“I really just wanted to flush it, come back ready with a different mindset and come back ready to go,” Thomas said, via the team’s website. “That was the biggest thing for me. . . . I feel I still know what I can do. I just have to go out and do it and go out there and show everybody what I can do.”
Thomas had 87 catches for 1,282 yards as a rookie, but had 57 catches for 812 yards since Coen became the coach ahead of the 2025 season. That hasn’t stopped the Jags from winning games — the Jags are 17-5 in the regular season with Coen — and those differing fortunes are a big reason why Thomas’s name frequently comes up in trade rumors. Such talk has been rebuffed thus far, but Thomas will likely have to show more in the next couple of weeks to put them to bed for good.
The Jaguars are coming off a bye week and their return to practice featured a few limited participants.
The group included wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, who is dealing with a hamstring injury but has not missed any game action this season. Meyers has 20 catches for 285 yards and two touchdowns.
Safety Antonio Johnson has not missed any games either, but he appears to be likelier to miss this week than Meyers. Johnson did not practice on Wednesday due to an ankle injury.
Long snapper Ross Matiscik (shoulder), defensive lineman Ruhe Orhorhoro (ankle), and linebacker Jahlani Tavai (hamstring) joined Meyers as limited participants. Cornerback Montaric Brown (hamstring) was a full participant after missing the team’s two London games and tight end Brenton Strange (eye) also landed in that category.
While players have been on the way out for the Colts this week, one key defender was back on the field on Wednesday.
Cornerback Sauce Gardner was officially limited in the day’s session, according to Indianapolis’ injury report.
The Colts held a walk-through instead of a full practice to start the week.
Gardner has been sidelined since the Oct. 18 loss to the Titans.
Gardner has recorded four passes defensed with 17 total tackles so far in 2026.
Cornerback Justin Walley (knee) and linebacker Bryce Boettcher (groin) did not participate on Wednesday.
Guard Matt Goncalves (ankle), receiver Anthony Gould (concussion), tight end Drew Ogletree (knee), defensive tackle Tim Smith (ankle), and tight end Tyler Warren (groin) were also listed as limited.
Warren has missed the last two games.
Linebacker CJ Allen (ankle) and linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither (hand) were both full.
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen acknowledged that his team’s task got a little easier when the Colts traded away two of their top players, offensive lineman Quenton Nelson and defensive lineman DeForest Buckner. The Jaguars face the Colts on Sunday, and now it’s a Colts team that has turned its attention away from winning this year and toward building for the future.
But Coen also cautioned that the Jaguars can’t allow themselves to be thinking about what’s going on with the Colts.
“Obviously really good players that I have a lot of respect for. Quenton Nelson was playing some of the best football of his career, as was Buckner in a lot of ways — extremely disruptive in both the run and the pass, tipped balls, created some issues inside,” Coen said. “It’s two good players, you can’t deny that. But knowing what that team is going to want to do, this has to all be about our improvements, us getting back on track. Got a good division opponent that we’re playing at home, and the focus level, getting in pads today, has to be about our execution, our fundamentals and technique, because you can’t control that stuff and if you think about it too much it typically doesn’t help.”
Asked if he thought the Colts might trade Jonathan Taylor, too, Coen indicated that he doesn’t think that’s going to happen.
“You try not to get into that world because it’s just rat poison either way,” Coen said. “And also a part of you wants to beat good teams, you want to beat opponents that provide strong competition, as this team does.”
Coen wants his players to remember that the Colts team that shows up on Sunday will be playing to win.
“Philly a couple weeks ago had a lot of guys out and played us to the last second,” Coen said. “In this league, any given Sunday, we all know anything can happen.”
It’s been a rough stretch for Colts quarterback Daniel Jones.
But head coach Shane Steichen reiterated to reporters in his Monday news conference that Jones will remain the team’s QB1 as Indianapolis heads to Jacksonville to play the Jaguars in Week 8.
“He knows he’s got to play better,” Steichen said, via Mike Chappell of Fox 45 Indianapolis, adding that he hasn’t lost confidence in Jones.
The Colts have lost each of their last three games, but Jones’ string of poor play goes back to the Week 4 win over Washington. In those last four games, Jones has completed just 55 percent of his passes for 787 yards with one touchdown, four interceptions, and a lost fumble. He’s also been sacked 13 times in that span.
“He’s proven that he can do it. So that’s where the confidence comes from,” Steichen said, via Stephen Holder of ESPN. “And we need to get him back playing to that level that he was last year. It’s taking a little bit longer.”
Overall this season, Jones has completed 60 percent of his passes for 1,398 yards with four touchdowns and seven interceptions. He’s lost three fumbles and been sacked 19 times — 7.3 percent of his dropbacks.
Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2023 draft, would presumably be the next man up if the Colts were to make a change. But Steichen appears to be quite reluctant to go back to Richardson, who last started a game in 2024. Richardson has not yet appeared in a game in 2026. He was in for two games last year, completing one of his two passes.
In his 17 career games with 15 starts, Richardson has completed 51 percent of his throws for 2,400 yards with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
Notably, the Colts have not defeated the Jaguars in Jacksonville since Sept. 2014. At least to start, it will be Jones trying to break that streak on Sunday.
Jaguars wide receiver Brian Thomas didn’t have any catches in the team’s final two games before their Week 7 bye and he found himself on the bench for all of the second half of their Week 6 loss to the Texans, which led head coach Liam Coen to say that “guys have to step up and make plays” if they want to be on the field.
On Monday, Coen was asked in a conference call if Thomas is going to remain out of the plans against the Colts in Jacksonville’s Week 8 home game. Coen said that Thomas will have a chance to make an impact on offense.
“He’s gonna be able to help us make plays this week,” Coen said. “I bet it, I know it. We’re gonna continue to support him, throw our arm around him and continue to do what we gotta do to make plays on Sunday. We gotta continue to put him in the best position to do so. BT works at it. He cares about this, he cares about winning and losing, he cares about his team. We all wanna see guys have success individually, but I’m excited about attacking this week with BT.”
With a couple of weeks to go before the trade deadline and the Jaguars employing a deep group of receivers, there will likely continue to be chatter about Thomas being on the move before November 10 whether he makes it back onto the stat sheet or not this week.
There’s no uncertainty as to whether the Ravens need quarterback Lamar Jackson. There’s plenty of uncertainty as to when he’ll be able to play.
With him, they’re 3-1. Without him, they’re 1-2. With losses to the Browns and Bengals in the past eight days, the Ravens have started 0-2 in the AFC North for the first time since 2007.
Jackson made it clear on Friday that he’s dealing with a high-ankle sprain, suffered in Week 4 against the Titans. He said at the time, as to the possibility of playing on Sunday against Cincinnati, “Right now, I’m heading in the right direction.”
One day later, the Ravens downgraded Jackson from questionable to out.
With a Sunday trip to Buffalo coming, followed by a short-week visit from the Jaguars, Jackson’s return becomes critical. Absent Jackson, Baltimore’s 4-3 record could sink to 4-5 by next Friday.
So the question of the week in Baltimore becomes whether Jackson will play against Josh Allen and the Bills. As mentioned on Sunday’s Football Night in America, it’s unknown within the building whether he’ll be able to return on Sunday — and any effort to predict when he’ll be able to play is a guess.
Jackson made it clear during his Friday press conference that it’s an issue of pain tolerance, and that the ankle sprain is keeping him from being as mobile as he needs to be. That’s no surprise. A high-ankle sprain takes more time to heal than other types of sprains. He explained that he doesn’t want to play if doing so would potentially hurt the team.
The challenge this week for the Ravens will be to get the eventual starter ready for the game. If Jackson is listed as a “full” participant on Wednesday, Thursday, and/or Friday, it will mean he has taken 100 percent of his normal first-team reps. Which also will mean that, if he doesn’t play, backup Tyler Huntley won’t be getting the first-team reps in preparation for Buffalo.
With or without Jackson, the next two games become critical to Baltimore’s season. Win both, and they’re right on track for reaching their goal. Lose both, and it could be another season without a ticket to the postseason party.
The chances of going 2-0, and not 0-2, will be much greater if Jackson is able to play. It’s something that we’ll find out as the current week unfolds.
When Jaguars left tackle Anton Harrison was placed on injured reserve earlier this month, word was that the results of knee surgery would determine how long he’ll be out.
A report on Friday morning indicates that Harrison is going to be out for a long time. Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that surgeons discovered Harrison has a torn ACL during his procedure on Thursday.
Harrison, who was injured in Jacksonville’s Week 5 win over the Eagles, will miss the rest of the season as a result of that diagnosis. Harrison will be in the final year of his rookie contract in 2027.
Walker Little took over at left tackle in Week 6 and Friday’s word means that he will be set to stay there for the long term.
NFL official Larry Smith suffered a season-ending injury on Sunday in London.
Smith, who serves as the umpire on referee Shawn Hochuli’s crew, suffered a torn quadricep and is out for the season, according to FootballZebras.com.
Smith slipped on the wet grass at Wembley Stadium and fell on his back, tried to get up and fell again between plays. Trainers from both teams attended to him and he was eventually taken off the field on a cart. The officiating crew was down to six for the rest of the game, with other officials splitting the umpire’s responsibilities.
This is Smith’s first season officiating in the NFL after several seasons working in college football and spring leagues. Now he’ll sit out and won’t work another game until 2027.
The NFL will have to find a replacement umpire for Hochuli’s crew for the rest of the season. The league always has some officials lined up who can join a crew during the season when needed.
