The Colts are having a crappy August

Things are not going well for the Colts.

Nobody seems to know what’s going on with Andrew Luck’s recovery from shoulder surgery. Safety Malik Hooker, their first-round pick this year, has been dealing with a shoulder injury, and No. 2 tight end Erik Swoope just had knee surgery. They got another round of bad news on the injury front Wednesday when it was revealed that center Ryan Kelly will have to have foot surgery.

Head coach Chuck Pagano said that Kelly will miss the start of the season, but that was as specific as the coach could be about just how long the center would be on the shelf. It’s expected that Kelly will be placed on the injured reserve list with the designation to return. That means he’ll be out at least eight weeks.

Kelly’s injury occurred last Thursday in a joint practice session with the Lions. At the time, the team thought that rest would take care of the problem, and Kelly would only be out a few weeks. Apparently rest wasn’t going to be enough.

Sound familiar? It should. The Colts went through something similar with Luck. After injuring his shoulder in 2015, the team was adamant that its franchise quarterback would not need surgery. Luck ended up having surgery in January.

Losing Kelly is a problem for the Colts, who have been struggling to piece together a quality offensive line for years now. Kelly was a building block in that effort.

So what do the Colts do without Kelly? Backup center Brian Schwenke is on the PUP list, so the next man up might not even be on the team right now. Free agent Jeremy Zuttah was already on their radar. Even if they don’t follow through with Zuttah, this will likely force their hand to bring in another free agent.

There’s still no indication of when Luck will return. Now, the Colts are in the same situation with Kelly. Throw in the other injuries the team is dealing with, and you can probably expect them to contend for the bottom of the AFC South ... unless Blake Bortles has something to say about that.