TY Hilton's new era with the Indianapolis Colts after signing a nice contract extension is not off to a good start. Not only did the Colts lose in their season opener to the Buffalo Bills, but Hilton went down with an injury. While the issue does not appear to be serious, it could leave him out for a couple of weeks which will put pressure on the remainder of the offense to step up for Andrew Luck.
Hilton got some good news on his injured knee that looked much more serious than it appears to be. According to Mike Wells of ESPN.com, an MRI revealed no structural damage to Hilton's knee, but the receiver could still miss time on the field. Being ruled a deep bruise, head coach Chuck Pagano said Hilton's status for Sunday was up in the air right now. The receiver is not expected to miss much time, but could at least be out Week 2.
"Touched my knee [Sunday] and it was really numb," said Hilton, via ESPN.com. "I felt a lot of swelling. It blew up on me real fast. Just hurting, sore to the touch. I should be all right. I feel better, actually a lot better. Going on, like, my fourth treatment right now. Haven't felt that [before], so it was really scary."
Fantasy owners will be watching this situation carefully. If Hilton is out, Donte Moncrief is a waiver wire option to start in his place. Moncrief had a good showing on Sunday putting up 46 yards and a touchdown in the loss. The issue was the rest of the help around him. While Hilton and Moncrief combined for 13 catches, everyone else barely made an impact. Rookie Phillip Dorsett had just two catches for 45 yards while veteran Andre Johnson grabbed four catches put only produced 24 yards from them. If Luck and the team are going to get a win, those numbers must improve. It is clear he favors Moncrief if Hilton is not available.
The Colts biggest issue is their run game. The team announced the release of Vick Ballard which puts the pressure on Frank Gore to step up. The Colts were hoping that acquiring Gore would help them get over the disaster of Trent Richardson. However, the running back had just 31 yards on eight carries Sunday. Getting Gore more involved in the offense should help those numbers moving forward. Head coach Chuck Pagano said the team was reacting to the defense, but if Gore struggles the rest of the offense does to.
I feel like you have to run the ball. You have to do both. If the run is there, it's there. If the pass is there, it's there. We gotta do both to win in this league," said Gore, via the team website. "We did have things going, but big penalties. We can't do that."
