Colts Activate Shaq Leonard from PUP List

The Indianapolis Colts added a key player to their 53-man roster on Tuesday.

It wasn't surprising, but it was still good news for the Indianapolis Colts when All-Pro linebacker Shaquille Leonard was activated from the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list on Tuesday.

Had Leonard remained on the PUP list, he would have been unable to participate in any on-field team activities until after Week 4 of the season. 

Head coach Frank Reich insisted through the last two weeks that the PUP list was an option the Colts didn't want to use for Leonard.

"From our standpoint, we really want to get him back out there when he’s cleared," said Reich last week. "But even if he’s not ready to play, get him out there."

"And you can’t get out there if you’re on PUP. You can’t participate in anything."

"So we want to get (Leonard) participating, so at some point, even if he’s not ready to play, we have to get him off PUP and get him taking reps even if it takes however many weeks it's going to take to get him ready."

Activating Leonard doesn't guarantee he'll be ready for Week 1 against the Houston Texans on September 11th.

But it's a good sign the Colts don't expect him to miss the first month of the season.

The Colts swung a trade for an inside linebacker on Tuesday with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the move for Grant Stuard looked to be more for special teams depth than any insurance that Leonard might not be ready to play.

Like all teams around the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts trimmed their roster to 53-players on Tuesday, but those are called "initial" rosters for a reason.

The roster will be especially fluid over the next 48 hours as teams place claims on cut players around the league and flush out their 16-man practice squad once the waiver claims are completed by 12 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

We took a look at 10 players the Colts could be interested in claiming Wednesday morning.