Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The Colts have had two full practices so far. At No. 3 this afternoon -- the first in pads -- they'll already feel the effects of the league's stricter training camp roster limits.
At linebacker, Tyjuan Hagler is on PUP recovering from a torn pectoral muscle; Clint Session, who is Hagler's fill-in, has been excused for a funeral; Philip Wheeler didn't finish the morning practice with a knee problem; Gary Brackett was held out.
"So now instead of having nine linebackers you've got five," Colts president Bill Polian said. "We're going to have a full contact practice with five linebackers. Surer than hell somebody else is going to get hurt, you know that. And I can't get a linebacker in an hour and a half."
"That's going to happen all over the league. I'm sure there are good reasons for 80, but it doesn't serve you very well out here."
Brackett should be back this afternoon, which would get the Colts to six for the team's first session in full pads.
[UPDATE: Brackett was back. Polian's forecast nearly came true. Freddy Keiaho stepped out of practice for a time after injuring a leg in a pass-protection drill tangle up with running back Clifton Dawson. Keiaho returned to action in relatively short order.]
But Polian tied his example to the general complaint teams have about the tougher roster-limits. With NFL Europe gone, roster exemptions that were tied to allocations also disappeared. Those exemptions helped teams get into the high 80s or higher early in camps.
Now, if a team is thinned out at a position, practices will have to be scaled back at times. The ultimate result? Polian believes it could could be sloppier play early in the season because teams won't have had as many full-contact practices and be as ready.
"You've got to find a way to get the reps and keep the intensity down, and that's going to show itself before too long," Polian said. "I think the opening weeks of the season are going to be not as good, maybe, as you'd like them to be. That's largely because of the numbers in training camp and the need to protect players."
