Vicksburg native Harris set to make debut with Colts

Published 2:27 pm Saturday, October 17, 2020

DeMichael Harris is getting his shot in the NFL.

The Vicksburg native and former St. Aloysius and Southern Miss star was elevated from the practice squad to the Indianapolis Colts’ 53-man active roster for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. It is the first time this season that the rookie wide receiver has been on the active roster.

The Colts announced the move Saturday. The team also signed wide receiver Marcus Johnson to the 53-man roster from the practice squad, activated defensive tackle Sheldon Day from the Injured Reserve list, waived defensive tackle Eli Ankou and released safety Ibraheim Campbell, and elevated guard Jake Eldrenkamp to the active roster.

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Harris will wear jersey No. 12, and is one of seven wide receivers listed on the Colts’ active roster for Sunday’s game.

Harris signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in late April, after starting 13 games over two seasons at Southern Miss. He was cut by the team at the end of training camp in August, but signed to their practice squad the next day.

Each NFL team is permitted to keep up to 16 players on its practice squad this season, up from 10 in previous years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Practice squad players serve as extra players in team practices but are not part of the main roster.

A player on a practice squad is free to sign with another team at any point, but a team that signs a player from another’s practice squad must add the player to its 53-man roster. There are no practice squad-to-practice squad transactions.

Teams can promote one or two players from the practice squad each week to increase their rosters from 53 to 55 players on game days. Any practice squad player promoted in such a way would revert to the practice squad roster after the game, meaning Harris will only be on the main roster for the game against the Bengals unless the Colts choose to activate him again in the future.

 

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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