Stephen Holder

IndyStar

The injury statuses of NFL players tend to be closely held secrets during the offseason, when the league does not mandate injury reporting and players have limited interaction with reporters.

But with the start of organized team activities and actual full-fledged practices, we’re beginning to get a better sense of the statuses of specific Colts players.

Tuesday marked the first practice open to media this spring, and it helped clarify a few important health-related questions, while raising others that didn’t previously exist.

So, let’s run through some of the more notable injury-related issues.

• QB Andrew Luck: He’s fine — like 100 percent fine. He threw the ball with ease and velocity and seemed to move effortlessly. This was expected to be the case, but some of the mixed messagesover the past couple of months meant this needed to be addressed.

For a guy who suffered shoulder, ribs and kidney injuries in 2015, Luck looked better than expected.

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• DT Art Jones: Jones landed on injured reserve last August after undergoing ankle surgery. He’s now nine months removed from that injury, but Jones isn’t on the field just yet.

He’s kept his distance from reporters, so we haven’t heard from him. But coach Chuck Pagano said Tuesday that Jones is scheduled to return to the field with the start of training camp in late July.

That answers one important question. Next comes the other pressing matter: Can he return to form?

On a related note, there’s nothing new to report on defensive tackle Henry Anderson. He won’t be on the field during the offseason after coming off knee surgery in November. He isn’t likely to return to the lineup until sometime after the Colts report to training camp. The Colts plan to take a very conservative approach on this front.

• WR Donte Moncrief: Moncrief was sidelined Tuesday and could be throughout the next several weeks. He underwent surgery for a toe injury this spring and was expected to miss some time in the lineup. The good news is this: The Colts don’t expect any long-term effects on their third-year starting wide receiver. Once he’s back, it’s expected he won’t be impacted by this.

Keep in mind, Moncrief played with this injury last season and performed at an impressive level in spite of it. Give him time.

• CB Vontae Davis: This is great news. Davis seems as close to 100 percent as can be reasonably expected. He was lining up with the starting defense Tuesday and going at full speed, just a couple months after undergoing a minor foot procedure.

Davis, you might recall, was really hampered by a foot injury last season. The injury impacted his play much more than the low-key Davis let on. There was more than one game in which he was nearly an injury scratch. Somehow, Davis pushed through and played 16 games.

I talked to Davis on Tuesday and he seemed to be in a really good place. The key now is to stay healthy and return to the form he showed in 2014 when he was, unquestionably, one of the finest cornerbacks in football.

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• Playing it safe: There were a slew of players dealing with assorted bumps and bruises held out of Tuesday's practice with undisclosed injuries. Pagano said most were minor, but that doesn’t mean they don’t warrant our attention.

Among those sidelined Tuesday were guard Hugh Thornton, tackle Denzelle Good, defensive tackle T.Y. McGill, linebacker D’Qwell Jackson and running back Tyler Varga. It's unclear whether the absence of Varga is related to his massive concussion suffered last season.

Receiver Phillip Dorsett, the team’s 2015 first-round pick, left practice early with what Pagano believed to be a hamstring strain. No update on his condition was given, but that one bears watching.

• Pre-existing conditions: The Colts have a pair of rookies who arrived with injuries suffered during the 2015 college season, and neither was practicing Tuesday.

Fourth-round pick Antonio Morrison, a linebacker from Florida, and Curt Maggitt, an undrafted but high-upside pass rusher from Tennessee, have been dealing with knee and hip injuries, respectively.

It’s unclear when either player will return to the lineup.

Follow IndyStar reporter Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.