Colts make a shocking rookie inactive even though he is healthy for their season opener in Week 1 against the Dolphins
Not a great start for a Colts rookie’s NFL career
The first gameday of the year has finally arrived for the Indianapolis Colts, who are preparing to take on the Miami Dolphins for their Week 1 matchup. These two teams are pretty evenly matched and will be looking for any advantage they can find once things kick off at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Throughout the week, the Colts had a clear advantage in terms of the two sides’ weekly injury reports. The Colts only had one player listed with an injury on their entire 53-man roster, Tyler Goodson, while the Dolphins’ list was pretty extensive. Well ahead of today’s game, both sides released their offical inactive players lists, and while he isn’t injured, the Colts did make a shocking player a healthy scratch.
Colts Week 1 inactives
- Johnathan Edwards, CB
- Tyler Goodson, RB
- Riley Leonard, QB (emergency third QB)
- Will Mallory, TE
- Chad Muma, LB
- Luke Tenuta, OT
- JT Tuimoloau, Edge
While Goodson was able to be a limited participant in all three practices this week, his being made inactive shouldn’t come as a significant surprise. He suffered an elbow injury in the team’s preseason finale, which had many expecting him to miss time to start the year, so his practicing at all is a good sign he won’t be forced to miss as much time as previously expected.
The Colts did have a shocker on the list, though, with rookie JT Tuimoloau being a healthy scratch after the team elected to draft him in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. A recent second-round pick by the franchise ended up spending his first Week 1 as a healthy scratch, that being Juju Brents, who the team moved on from at the end of training camp. So this is obviously not a great way for his NFL career to start, but hopefully this is more of a sign of the team’s confidence in the rest of their edge room and not a sign of distrust in Tuimoloau.
Dolphins Week 1 inactives
- Jaylen Wright, RB
- Quinn Ewers, QB (emergency third QB)
- Ethan Bonner, CB
- Kendall Lamm, OT
- Darren Waller, TE
- Tahj Washington, WR
- Zeek Biggers, DT
The Dolphins’ most notable inactive is TE Darren Waller, whom they acquired this offseason after trading away TE Jonnu Smith. With him missing this game, they will now turn to a pretty lackluster TE rotation featuring Julian Hill and Tanner Conner. During these two teams’ matchup last season, the Dolphins leaned heavily on TE Smith, with him catching all seven of his targets for 96 yards and a touchdown. I would expect the Dolphins to turn to their run game led by De’Von Achane and put even more workload on the backs of their star WR duo, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
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