Vontae Davis was the latest victim of the Colts’ bumbling. Now he’s on the waiver wire

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before... the Colts have mismanaged an injury to one of their most talented players.

This time the unlucky victim is cornerback Vontae Davis. And he’s not just letting it go. He’s mad, and dishing on the situation that led to him getting benched last week. The Colts announced that they cut Davis on Thursday. Davis is subject to waivers, but he’s still having season-ending groin surgery.

Davis did not travel with the team to Houston last week because of a coaching decision. In other words, he was benched because he hasn’t been playing as well lately. The reason he hasn’t been playing well, according to Davis, is because of a lingering groin issue.

“I’ve been here six years. We’ve had similar situations where I played hurt. These things happen,” Davis explained to the media Wednesday. “And I never got confronted and (no one) said, ‘Your play has slipped.’ Nothing. I was playing at a level that was acceptable.

“But now, my play slips and this? They should have come to me way earlier and said, ‘Vontae, you’re not yourself. You’re not playing well.’ I told the trainers my groin was not responding.”

Davis learned of his benching from the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator, not head coach Chuck Pagano, who he thought he had a pretty good relationship with.

Pagano did finally meet with Davis to discuss the decision. While he didn’t go into details about that meeting, it was clear that it had left a bad taste his mouth.

“When I look at the situation, I feel like there was no respect. Knowing Chuck, I figured it would come from him. It really bothered me.”

Davis is a free agent after this season. That came up during the conversation too, and he sounded like a man ready for new environs.

“Right now, change is good.”

Quarterback Andrew Luck is dealing with the fallout from his 2015 shoulder injury. He might be back in 2018, but nobody’s really sure. Owner Jim Irsay apparently thinks it’s more of a mental thing for Luck. Doctors, on the other hand, pinned the problems on Luck playing through a torn labrum for two seasons.

So far, Luck hasn’t said much of anything. His camp shot down some rumors earlier in the year about him wanting a trade, but that’s about it. If he wants out of Indianapolis or is even thinking about it, he’s not letting the world know. Davis is, and it sounds like he’s got a pretty good reason.

The Colts have a massive project on their hands to turnaround a struggling franchise. They may not have any core veterans left, for one reason or another, to build around thanks to sheer organizational incompetency.