'A possibility' Colts' Robert Mathis returns for Week 1

Maybe Robert Mathis was right all along.

The Indianapolis Colts' sack master has long vowed – beginning last spring, carrying well into the summer and as recently as last week – that the target date for his much-anticipated return to the field was Week 1. That's when the Colts open the 2015 regular season in Buffalo. And that's when Mathis pledged, over and over, that he'd be back out there, no matter how many times owner Jim Irsay, general manager Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano begged for patience.

Now, Mathis playing in Buffalo in nine days appears "a possibility," Pagano said Friday. When given the chance, Pagano didn't immediately rule out Mathis for the season opener.

What this means: The Colts' outside linebacker and six-time Pro Bowler is making significant strides on the practice field.

"He's been practicing and we're getting (him) more reps with every day," Pagano said. "He's going through individual drills and we're increasing his snaps during the course of practice.

"It started out at five snaps and we're increasing that number. We'll increase that number again this week and we'll just evaluate how the week goes. Rob's doing great. He's making great progress."

The Colts will likely use caution, though. Mathis has only been practicing with the team for nine days. He hasn't played in an NFL game in 20 months. He served a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy to open the 2014 season, then missed the rest of the year with a torn Achilles. He's been rehabbing ever since, waiting for the day the doctors give him the go-ahead to return to game action.

Last Wednesday he was back on the practice for the first time in a year. Asked that afternoon if Week 1 – then just 19 days shy of the opener – was still a plausible goal, Mathis didn't hesitate.

"Yes."

Asked if it would happen, he didn't hesitate.

"Yes."

And since that first practice the Colts have slowly ramped up Mathis' participation. The good news: He hasn't stumbled into any setbacks.

That's progress. During an interview on Thursday night's broadcast of the team's final preseason game, Irsay said he expects Mathis to return during the month of September, a stark upgrade from comments Irsay made at training camp in early August, when he said he didn't see Mathis playing in a game until late September or October.

"Robert Mathis is really progressing well on his recovery," Irsay said. "It's incredibly exciting.

"I see him in September, playing," he continued. "I see him in this building, in September, playing. The way his progress is going, I don't see anything slowing him down and you know what a boost that would be."

While there's no guarantee Mathis is back on the field Sept. 13, this is undeniably a step in the right direction. No. 98 will be flying around the field soon enough.

"I know if we left it up to Rob, he'd be out there in two seconds," Pagano added Friday. "But I'm going to make the call on that. I'm going to protect Rob from Rob. We'll do what's best for the team and what's best for him."

Colts won't make cuts until Saturday

Pagano said Friday the team "will use every minute they allow us" regarding final cuts. The Colts are required to shave their 75-man roster down to 53 before Saturday's 4 p.m. deadline.

Complicating things are a number of injuries that have arisen over the course of the last week. A pair of running backs – Boom Herron (shoulder) and Vick Ballard (hamstring) -- left Thursday's game early. The setback for Herron, the team's backup behind Frank Gore, could be significant.

"It was unfortunate what happened to a couple of our runners last night," Pagano said. "I'm sick about it and I know those guys are, but hopefully we get the reports back from our doc(tors) and they're not going to be injures that are going to take a great deal of time to get over … weeks if you will."

Pagano defended the use of Herron, who injured his shoulder on a kickoff return.

“We’re still evaluating everybody. It’s easy to say, ‘Hey, we know what Boom is. We know what this guy is,’ and all those kind of things, but we didn’t play the one runner. We had Josh (Robinson) down. Fortunately we got Vick (Ballard) healthy enough to start the game. It was unfortunate that he had an injury. It’s unfortunate what happened to Boom on the return. That can happen at practice. It can happen at any time. It’s a decision that I made. I’m not going to look back on it, anything like that. Again, it is what it is.”

Starting cornerback Greg Toler remains week-to-week with a neck injury and his availability for Week 1 remains in question.

Most concerting, though, is the status defensive tackle Art Jones. Pagano said Thursday night Jones will undergo surgery on his injured ankle. At this point, anything besides a lost season for Jones would be a win for the Colts. Jones will all but assuredly begin the season on the physically unable to perform list.

"The Art Jones injury is going to keep him out for a while, so we are still trying to figure out exactly how long," Irsay said Thursday. "We are going to need those (Stanford) guys to step up."

Those Stanford guys happen to be two rookies – Henry Anderson and David Parry. With Jones out for what looks to be at least half the season, Anderson and Parry will be counted on heavily.

Colts make trade

The Colts traded a late-round 2016 draft pick to the Oakland Raiders for linebacker Sio Moore.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.