The Colts didn’t keep Luke Tenuta on the 53-man roster for long, but the move that pushed him out may wind up mattering a whole lot more than a simple waiver claim usually does.
Indianapolis released Tenuta one day after naming him its presumed swing tackle, then added cornerback Kapena Gushiken off waivers from Philadelphia. Tenuta was brought back to the practice squad, and there’s a strong chance he’ll be elevated again at some point this season. The immediate reason for the swap is straightforward: Cam Taylor-Britt will serve a one-game suspension in the first week of the 2026 season, and Gushiken gives the Colts some insurance in the slot.
The bigger picture is what makes this interesting. Chris Ballard isn’t just filling a short-term need here.
He’s also trying to strengthen a secondary that showed plenty of soft spots in preseason, especially among the backup corners. Johnathan Edwards got roasted in the first preseason game and still made the roster, largely because other depth options looked even worse in later games.
Gushiken is not being brought in merely to stand around and wait his turn. He has a real shot to grow into something more.
His path is unusual, starting at Saddleback Community College. That might not sound like the typical launch point for an NFL corner, but the Bobcats have sent some notable players into the league, including offensive lineman Kyle Long and Colt Brennan, who went on to become one of the most prolific quarterbacks in NCAA history. Emari Demercado, now with the Cowboys, also played there, and Colts fans have already seen another Saddleback alum in recent seasons in linebacker Segun Olubi, now with Las Vegas.
Gushiken, though, fits a different mold. The comparison that jumps out is Ty Okada, the starting safety for the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, who was also a Bobcat in college, though at Montana State.
Okada is a bit bigger, but the similarities are easy to spot: both are undersized, both are exceptional athletes, and both came into the league without being drafted. Okada arrived three years before Gushiken and has already carved out a meaningful role.
That’s the kind of trajectory Ballard is hoping Gushiken can follow.
The athletic testing backs up the optimism. Gushiken’s reported RAS ranges from 9.16 to 9.20, which is borderline elite and right in the same neighborhood as Okada’s number when he entered the league in 2023. He’s been clocked at 4.33 in the 40, posted an excellent 3-cone time, and logged 17 bench presses, a solid sign of upper-body strength for a corner.
The issue is size. Gushiken stands just under 5-foot-10 and weighs just under 190 pounds, so the obvious question is whether he can hold up against NFL receivers and the kind of backs who can outweigh him by 30 to 40 pounds.
The Colts plan to use him mostly in the slot, where smaller corners can survive and even thrive if they’re sturdy enough to battle bigger bodies. That’s where Kenny Moore II comes to mind.
He was an undersized UDFA too, and he turned that profile into more than 100 starts for Indianapolis over nine seasons.
Gushiken’s biggest physical concern may be even more specific than his frame. His arms come in at under 30 inches, almost two inches below the norm. Moore was small as well, but his arms were more than three inches longer than Gushiken’s.
Still, every prospect has something to overcome. That’s part of the job in the NFL.
Okada barely played early on, appearing in just nine games over his first two seasons and spending most of that time on special teams. Before 2025, he had only 33 defensive snaps.
Then Julian Love got hurt last season, Okada got his chance, and he ran with it. The Colts are hoping Gushiken can do something similar if the door opens.
There’s reason to think he can. After Saddleback, he put together three productive seasons at Washington State and Ole Miss, and he showed he could tackle well despite his size.
He also returned an interception 88 yards for a touchdown in his first season at Washington State. The athletic tools are there.
Now Indianapolis wants to see whether time and opportunity can turn those tools into a real defensive contributor.
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