Indianapolis Colts’ defensive end Kwity Paye will play on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
As of Saturday, it didn’t necessarily look like things were trending this way with the team announcing that they were elevating defensive end Genard Avery from the practice squad to provide additional depth in the event that Paye couldn’t play.
Paye was working through a hamstring injury during the week. He played 52 snaps in the opener against Houston–the most on the team at the defensive end position–but did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday and was limited on Friday.
Paye is coming off a solid Week 1 performance, totaling three pressures, including a sack. Among all defensive ends, he ranked 10th in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate metric, winning four of his 13 pass-rush snaps.
However, the Colts defensive front as a whole really struggled against the run last week, surrendering 213 total rushing yards to the Texans.
With Malik Willis under center for Green Bay, slowing Josh Jacobs and the Packers run game will be paramount to the Colts’ success on defense. This will put Green Bay’s offense in obvious passing situations allowing the strength of this defense–the pass rush–to truly flex its muscles.
In addition to Paye being active, so is defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. Something to watch for as the game unfolds is if Paye is on a snap count.
