The Indianapolis Colts announced on Friday they had signed wide receiver Ethan Fernea to a reserve/futures contract.
Fernea spent the 2021 season with the Colts' practice squad and was flexed to the active roster for the October 23rd loss at the Tennessee Titans. He contributed nine plays on special teams.
The practice squad is disbanded when the season is over and players that teams want to bring to OTAs and training camp must be signed to a contract. The futures/reserve contract fills that need.
Fernea has a good chance to making the 16-man practice squad again at final roster cutdowns in August.
He will turn 25 in March and was a special-teams ace in his six years with the UCLA Bruins. He played running back at UCLA and had a 42-yard touchdown against USC in 2021.
Most teams re-signed the majority of their practice squad players immediately when the season ended. That the Colts have taken a bit longer, including with Fernea, could be because they're a bit preoccupied with finding a head coach for 2023.
The Colts were linked and/or interviewed a whopping 17 candidates and have started to narrow down the search.
The most recent finalist for the position is New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale. The Colts scheduled a second interview with him on on Friday morning.
Dallas Cowboys coordinator Dan Quinn had been considered one of the favorites for the job, but he withdrew from consideration on Thursday afternoon.
In other Colts-related news, former head coach Frank Reich was named Carolina Panthers head coach on Thursday. The Panthers were the first of five head coach openings to be filled.
The Colts along with the Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals, and Houston Texans are still looking to fill the position.
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