Colts sign veteran punter Ryan Allen to fill in for Rigoberto Sanchez

INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts have found their temporary replacement for Rigoberto Sanchez at punter.

Indianapolis signed veteran punter Ryan Allen to the practice squad on Thursday, adding an experienced leg to fill in for Sanchez, who underwent successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on Tuesday.

The Colts learned of Sanchez’s diagnosis late last week and immediately started the process of finding somebody to fill in for their popular punter. Under the NFL’s current COVID-19 rules, a player must go through six days of testing before signing with a team.

Indianapolis has not ruled Sanchez out for the rest of the season.

“I don’t mind telling you the prognosis is positive for Rigo,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “We’re hopeful, and we’re hopeful it’s not months. I don’t know, this is out of my league, but the reports we’re getting are very positive.”

The move does not preclude Allen from kicking in Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans. Under the NFL’s COVID-19-related roster rules, a team can promote two players from the practice squad to the active roster each week.

Allen, 30, fits the profile the Colts needed to fill Sanchez’s shoes.

“You’re not going to replace a guy that is that talented,” Colts special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone said. “We have to find a guy that is hopefully experienced and has the ability to come into our system quickly.”

Allen punted in New England for six seasons, a tenure that earned him three Super Bowl rings and what seemed like a permanent spot as a Patriot. But at the end of Allen’s second contract in New England, the Patriots drafted Jake Bailey in the fifth round.

Bailey beat Allen out for the Patriots job in training camp in 2019, and since then Allen has been a veteran fill-in, punting in eight games for the Atlanta Falcons last season in place of an injured Matt Bosher and then punting in one game for the Titans this season in place of Brett Kern before Mike Vrabel decided to go with little-known punter Trevor Daniel, who promptly shanked a punt and got another blocked in the first matchup against the Colts.

Allen averaged 50.5 yards per punt in his one game with the Titans this season, but replacing Sanchez is going to require the veteran to do more than just boom it deep.

Sanchez has been a devastating directional punter this season, a key component for the Colts’ coverage units, which have been some of the NFL’s best.

“He’s done a really good job this season in the plus-50 area of being able to pin the ball inside the 5, inside the 10 consistently,” Ventrone said. “In the field, same thing, this guy has been able to control field position the last three years for us.”

Allen will also likely serve as the holder for kicker Rodrigo Blankenship, a role he used to perform for Stephen Gostkowski in New England.

But his primary role is to help the Colts win the field position battle, and it’s important that Allen has been in this position before, brought aboard as an emergency or illness replacement and asked to pick everything up on the fly.

Indianapolis needed a veteran who won’t be rattled by the situation.

“Like I said, you’re not going to replace a guy like Rigo,” Ventrone said. “But hopefully we have the personnel around the new guy to be able to help him as much as we can.”