The Colts will play their first game since losing wide receiver Reggie Wayne for the rest of the season on Sunday night, which makes it exactly the wrong time for another one of their receivers to come down with an injury.
Hamstrings aren’t much for timing, however. Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey popped up on the team’s injury report on Thursday as a limited participant in practice because of a hamstring injury after not showing up on the injury report at all on Wednesday.
That suggests Heyward-Bey tweaked the muscle at some point during the week, which will make his status on Friday a big indicator of what kind of shape he’ll be in when the Colts face the Texans.
With Wayne out, Heyward-Bey and T.Y. Hilton will step into expanded roles as targets for Andrew Luck. Any absences for either player would push the relatively untested LaVon Brazill, David Reed and Griff Whalen into big roles as the Colts try to hold onto their lead in the AFC South.