The Indianapolis Colts have a lot of questions in the secondary, mainly due to injuries. Starting cornerback Vontae Davis likely won’t be able to play in week one, while starting safety Clayton Geathers probably won’t be able to play either.

Geathers is a very interesting case because he began camp on the non-football injury list and has remained there since. The Colts could free up a roster spot (which would be very valuable this weekend) by moving him to the reserve/NFI list to start the regular season, meaning he’d miss the first six games.

Here’s the dilemma, though: if Geathers can return before that six-week timeline (which is likely), the Colts probably would want him back sooner, right? In which case they’d need to keep him on their active roster.

According to the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder, that’s exactly what they’re going to do. Wrote Holder:

“The Colts, I’m told, intend to place Geathers on the active roster. He might not play immediately, but he’s apparently close enough that they’ll take him off the nonfootball injury list (which would require him to miss six regular-season games).”

What Holder is reporting is that the Colts will place Geathers on the active roster, taking him off of the NFI list before the start of the regular season. The move would indicate that he’s pretty close to returning. Again, he likely won’t play in week one and it’s unclear how long he’ll still be out, but it would indicate that he is definitely expected to miss less than six weeks.

It does, however, create even more difficulty for the team in roster cuts. Geathers will be yet another injured starter the team will need to keep around on their active roster, so they’ll need to be creative in how to fill the spot. T.J. Green will start in place of Geathers for the time being, and we could see some guys like Winston Guy or Darius Butler also play key depth roles at the position.