There’s a three week window for players placed on the physically unable to perform list before the start of the regular season to start practicing after their team plays its sixth game of the season, a window that’s open for every team in the league right now.
The latest player to climb through that window is Colts guard Justin Anderson. The 2012 seventh-round pick will start working with the team on Wednesday, a moment that will mark his first official practice with the team since he was placed on the PUP list at the start of training camp. It’s unclear if the Colts believe he will be able to make it back to the active roster this season, but he’ll have three weeks to pull it off before the Colts pull the plug on his season.
It’s also not clear what role the Colts envision for Anderson. They list him as a guard, Anderson played both guard and tackle at Georgia, and have been starting Mike McGlynn and Jeff Linkenbach at those spots since Seth Olsen was lost for the season. Anderson probably won’t be ready to replace them at this point, but the work he does this season could serve him well for a future shot at the job.
Anderson is the second Colts rookie to start practicing after spending the first chunk of the season on a reserve list. Defensive tackle Josh Chapman started practicing last week, but remains on the non-football injury list at this point in time.