Colts’ DE Samson Ebukam’s return still a ‘long shot’ but ‘you never know’

As part of the roster cutdown process, the Colts placed on defensive end Samson Ebukam on injured reserve and designated him to return.

However, while this option does at least give the Colts the option to have Ebukam return down the road this season, as GM Chris Ballard put it, that’s still a long shot.

“It’s a long shot,” said Ballard on Wednesday. “There’s no doubt. But if you’re going to bet on somebody, you bet on Samson. It is a long shot, but you never know.”

Ebukam would suffer an Achilles injury at the start of training camp in late-July.

As far as other examples of players returning from that same injury in a similar timeframe, Joel Erickson of the Indy Star noted that former Rams’ running back Cam Akers sustained his Achilles injury in mid-July and returned to the practice field in late-December.

Of course, the caveat here is that this has been an extreme outlier and not the norm.

But, as Ballard said, you never know, and this alternative at least provides the Colts with that potential option. The only other choice for them was to place Ebukam on IR and not designate him to return, thus ending his season.

The 2023 season was Ebukam’s first with the Colts after signing as a free agent. He made an instant impact, totaling the most sacks on the team with 9.5, along with having the second-best run defense grade as well.