Colts place sack leader Denico Autry on reserve/COVID-19 list

When the Green Bay Packers face the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the team in blue and white will likely be missing one of its better defensive players. On Friday, the Colts placed defensive end Denico Autry on the reserve/COVID-19 list, which will likely make him inactive for Sunday’s game.

While the Colts cannot confirm themselves whether Autry tested positive for COVID, that seems likely to be the case. He missed practice on Thursday and was listed on the injury report with an illness, so a positive test with COVID symptoms looks like the most likely reason. The Colts will presumably conduct contact tracing on Friday and Saturday to determine if any additional players will be deemed as high-risk close contacts, which would land any such players on the reserve/COVID-19 list as well and would likely result in them being unavailable as well.

Autry leads the Colts in sacks this season with six, putting him on pace for a career-high 10.5. He played defensive tackle for his first two seasons in Indianapolis but has moved out to end this season, in part due to the arrival of tackle DeForest Buckner in a trade from San Francisco.

As Autry heads to a reserve list, the Colts just brought back another defensive end, Kemoko Turay, off of the Physically Unable to Perform list. Turay missed 12 games last season with an ankle injury that lingered into 2020, and he appears likely to be on the field on Sunday.

Stay tuned for additional updates about the Colts’ status heading into the weekend.