Tag: Darius Leonard

Everything we know about Darius Leonard’s back injury

Here’s everything we know about Darius Leonard’s injury situation.

Indianapolis Colts fans may have been caught a little bit by surprise Tuesday when it was revealed that star linebacker Darius Leonard was undergoing a procedure to correct an injury in his back.

We knew that Leonard had been missing time due to a lingering ankle injury that stemmed from the 2021 regular season. However, the back injury was new to those outside the building.

Here’s everything we know about Leonard’s injury, surgery and recovery time:

Darius Leonard: ‘Surgery went well, feel amazing’

The Maniac gave a statement following successful back surgery on Tuesday.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard underwent a procedure to correct a back injury that had been lingering in recent weeks.

The three-time All-Pro will miss the remainder of the offseason workout program, and there is a chance he misses some time during training camp. However, the Colts believe he will be ready for the start of the 2022 regular season.

Leonard tweeted out an update Tuesday following his surgery, stating that it was a success and that he’s ready to get into recovery.

Leonard hasn’t participated in any of the offseason workout programs, and it isn’t clear if it was due to the previous ankle injury,  the back injury or a combination of the two.

It was reported by Larra Overton that the ankle and back injuries are not related.

Hopefully, this rehab won’t linger too long, but Leonard’s status for training camp and the preseason will certainly be a storyline to watch in the coming months.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=72527,72516,72511]

[listicle id=72518]

Colts’ Darius Leonard undergoes back procedure

Darius Leonard underwent a procedure on his back.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard underwent a procedure to correct a back injury Tuesday, June 7.

While Leonard has been dealing with an ankle injury—one that won’t require a second surgery—he now is expected to miss the rest of the offseason due to this back procedure.

The Colts have been evaluating the ankle injury that was bothering Leonard during the 2021 season, but it appears the more pressing issue is the back.

It isn’t clear how long Leonard will be out after having the procedure, but this will definitely be something to monitor when the Colts arrive back in Westfield for training camp.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=72516,72511,72509]

[listicle id=72507]

10 players to watch at Colts’ minicamp

Here are 10 players to watch as Colts begin mandatory minicamp.

The Indianapolis Colts are set to begin mandatory minicamp Tuesday, marking the first time that players have to be on the field during offseason workouts.

Though the pads are still in storage and no contact is permitted for the three-day minicamp, this added time to work against each other will go a long way leading up to training camp.

Here are 10 players to watch during Colts’ minicamp this week:

Colts continue to evaluate Darius Leonard’s ankle injury

The Colts remain cautious with the Maniac.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard hasn’t been participating in organized team activity (OTA) sessions this offseason as the team takes a cautious approach with his ankle rehab.

Leonard underwent offseason surgery on the ankle during the 2021 offseason, almost a year ago, hoping it would correct the issue. But the injury lingered throughout the regular season, and the team still can’t figure out why it won’t go away.

With OTAs well underway, Leonard still isn’t suiting up, and head coach Frank Reich continued to push the notion that the Colts are being cautious with the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL.

“We’re trying to be cautious so just taking it day-by-day trying to see what exactly we’re dealing with, how can we get it to respond and make some progress,” Reich told the media Wednesday.

Leonard toughed it out during the 2021 season, working through extensive rehab just to keep the ankle strong enough to get through practices and games. Even with the ailment, Leonard still captured his third All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods.

Reich didn’t express any concern—not that he ever does—about Leonard’s progress. But there’s a chance we don’t see much of the Maniac during the offseason workout program.

But it seems like the Colts simply don’t have an answer as to why Leonard’s ankle isn’t progressing.

“Sometimes when you’re going through something and you hit a lull and you can’t get over the hump that you want to get past, you have to stop and pause and say, ‘Why aren’t we getting over this hump?’ That’s a little bit what it is with Darius (Leonard),” Reich said. “We’re just continuing to be cautious with him and want to be smart about getting him ready. In the meantime, he’s locked in doing all his stuff getting mentally – he’s prepared. It’s as if he’s in there. So we’ll continue to evaluate him as we go.”

There is no overstating the impact Leonard has on the defense. He is the heart of the unit and has been since he stepped on the field during his rookie season in 2018.

Hopefully, this isn’t an issue that will be lingering because the Colts will want their star linebacker on the field as soon as possible to prepare for the new defense.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[pickup_prop id=”25076″]

[lawrence-related id=72367,72375,72363]

[listicle id=72379]

PFF names Colts’ top three players entering 2022

Pro Football Focus named the top-three players on the Colts’ roster in 2022.

The Indianapolis Colts are sporting a pretty deep roster going into the 2022 season, showcasing a nice bend of high-end, elite talent with some intriguing depth pieces ready for bigger roles.

In preparing for the 2022 season, Pro Football Focus named the top-three players on each team. For the Colts, it was pretty obvious who those three players are: left guard Quenton Nelson, linebacker Darius Leonard and running back Jonathan Taylor.

Landing two players such as Nelson and Leonard in one draft doesn’t happen often, as both are among the NFL’s best players at their respective positions. Nelson ranks second among all guards in PFF’s WAR metric since 2018, and Leonard ranks fifth at the linebacker position.

Those two are joined above by Taylor, who was the league’s top running back last season. His combination of size, speed and vision led to an 87.0 PFF grade in 2021 — the best at the running back position.

Pro Football Focus also considered defensive tackle DeForest Buckner and right tackle Braden Smith for those top-three spots.

While having a team’s three best players at lesser-valued positions like those three spots may be a bit of a red flag, it seems more of a case that it just so happened the Colts hit extremely well on those draft picks.

We all kind of figured Nelson was headed toward an elite career when he was selected No. 6 overall in 2018. But Leonard has been one of the best surprises in all of football going back to when Bleacher Report called him the worst pick in the draft.

Meanwhile, Taylor somehow fell all the way to the middle of the second round, and the Colts were wise enough to trade up three spots for a player who eventually became the league’s best back.

The Colts will be hoping some players like Michael Pittman Jr. and Kwity Paye might join the conversation for the top players on the roster, but they should be boasting a pretty strong core of players on both sides of the ball in 2022.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=72298,72295,72293]

[listicle id=72302]

Colts’ Darius Leonard (ankle) sidelined at OTAs as precaution

Darius Leonard sat Wednesday as a precaution.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard is hoping to put a nagging ankle injury behind him as he enters his fifth season in the NFL, but the team is taking a cautious approach during the spring.

As the media gathered for the first open practice session at OTAs on Wednesday, Leonard was among the non-participants. While cornerback Kenny Moore II conducts his soft holdout in hopes of a new contract, Leonard was kept off the field as a precaution.

Leonard underwent surgery on the ankle that bothered him for the majority of the 2021 season, and head coach Frank Reich said he was a bit surprised not to see his start linebacker on the field for practice.

There is still a long way to go before the concerns need to start, but this will certainly be a storyline to monitor. Leonard is the heart of the defense even when he’s battling through injuries, but the Colts definitely want him at full strength.

Even with a bum ankle in 2021, Leonard still played 16 games (all starts) while recording 122 tackles (75 solo), four interceptions, four tackles for loss and a league-high eight forced fumbles.

We’ll see if Leonard gets on the field at all this spring but right now, it’s probably too early to be entering panic mode when it comes to the Maniac’s status.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=72248,72246,72240]

[listicle id=72239]

Darius Leonard: ‘I realized I have to work on me as a person’

Colts LB Darius Leonard opened up about struggling with and overcoming mental health this offseason.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard is arguably the most energetic player on any field he steps onto.

His role as a leader and enforcer in the middle of the Colts defense gets his teammates ready to run through a wall. But even the one they call “The Maniac” has bouts with mental health issues.

Those issues arose late in the 2021 season for Leonard. He didn’t feel like himself. Between a nagging ankle injury, and the loss of his cousin while his father and sister battled sickness, it all began to weigh on Leonard.

“I fell out of love with the game. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore,” Leonard told reporters Wednesday via IndyStar.

It wasn’t the same for Leonard. So many things tugged at him, especially back home in South Carolina where he had no way of helping.

“It was just a lot,’’ Leonard said. “I had the surgery (and) the ankle never healed. My dad got sick. My sister got sick. I lost a cousin. And then it was just a lot of things, little small things that kept bugging me. “I just couldn’t get over it. A lot of times when I would come in it was just ‘Do your thing and just get on out.’ I wasn’t really smiling. I fell out of love for the game.’’

We often look to professional athletes, especially elite ones like Leonard, as superheroes. Figures that are larger than life. They do things on the field that we could only imagine.

But beneath it all, they’re human beings. They have emotions. They have doubts. They have those dark times that we may not see because, on television, they look more like figures of grander mythos that we just happen to be spectating.

And for someone like Leonard, who’s so focused on winning and bettering his team in any way, he’s able to push it all down. Play through the pain—both physical and mental.

Even for Leonard, whose willpower is among the strongest in the league, it takes a toll.

“In this profession, sometimes you feel like you don’t have a say so in your personal life just because it’s all football, all football,” Leonard said Wednesday. “When you feel like you have to hold a shade up on your personal life because of your football life, it eats you up. I just wasn’t in a good mental place because I couldn’t be around my family whenever they needed it. So yeah, it was tough, but I learned from it.”

So Leonard used the first two months of the offseason to better himself. He worked on his mental health. He worked on being the best version of Darius Leonard he could be.

It’s a courageous thing to stand in front of the masses and admit to struggling with mental health. While progress is being made, there are still factions of fans who simply don’t care. They only view players for their worth as athletes and not as human beings.

Standing in the midst of that, fearless to tackle a persistent issue like mental health is what makes Leonard stronger each year. Now, he comes into 2022 having found himself in a much better place.

“This offseason I stayed away from ball for probably two months, and I realized I have to work on me as a person,” Leonard said. “I have to work on me showing my emotions and not allow peoples’ comments to hurt me as much as it did. A lot of things there, but feeling good, feeling great.’’

Leonard is a valuable piece to the Colts defense and an even more valuable piece to their locker room as a leader and a person.

The fight against mental health is not an easy one. It’s not one that can be overcome in one fell swoop. It’s a constant battle.

And after rediscovering himself off the field, The Maniac is ready to take on that challenge head-on.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=71763,71761,71755]

[listicle id=71753]

Colts’ Darius Leonard still rehabbing ankle

The Maniac hopes to put his ankle injury to bed.

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard was hampered by a nagging ankle injury throughout the 2021 season, and he’s on the mend rehabbing it while the team returns for offseason workouts.

Speaking to reporters for the first time this offseason, Leonard has already undergone two surgeries on the ankle. One of them kept him off the field while the team returned for training camp before the 2021 season.

As for how he feels now, Leonard said it feels better than it did at the end of the season.

“It’s attached, it’s there,” Leonard told the media Wednesday. “It feels a whole lot better than what it did, coming from the end of the season. A lot of time to rest, trying to make it stronger. I feel better coming into this season than I did last year, I can say that.”

Even through that ankle injury, which clearly limited his explosiveness, Leonard had a solid season. He finished his fourth season having earned the third Pro-Bowl and All-Pro nods of his career.

In 16 games, Leonard notched 122 tackles (75 solo), four interceptions, four tackles for loss and a league-high eight forced fumbles.

Leonard is hoping these offseason procedures will be enough to keep him from dealing with this injury again.

“I hope not,” Leonard said. “I think we did enough cleaning it up the past two times. Now, it’s more strengthening up, controlling every movement I possibly can and making sure my body is taking that beating early so whenever I come to training camp, my body is used to cutting.”

The Colts made some big moves on the defensive side of the ball this offseason, including the addition of defensive end Yannick Ngakoue and cornerback Stephon Gilmore.

If Leonard can be healthy with these additions to the defense, the Colts can be lethal on that side of the ball.

Like Colts Wire on Facebook
Follow Colts Wire on Twitter
Follow Kevin on Twitter (@KevinHickey11)

[lawrence-related id=71755,71750,71739]

[listicle id=71753]

Longtime Colts insider says Carson Wentz trade was ‘owner-driven’

Longtime Colts insider Mike Chappell dropped some good information on Carson Wentz’s one season in Indianapolis on the “Al Galdi Podcast.”

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbykgy681k112p8 player_id=none image=https://washingtonfootballwire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Hey, Commanders fans, a wise man hears both sides of a matter.

This wise saying was proven true again Wednesday when Colts insider Mike Chappell of FOX59/CBS4 Sports in Indianapolis was a guest on the “Al Galdi Podcast.” Chappell has covered the Colts since 1984 and certainly dropped some good information Wednesday.

MC: “Wentz was not the only reason this team imploded at all. If the defense makes one stop in the second half against Baltimore, just one stop and stop a two-point conversion, they are in the playoffs.”

MC: “He played awful the last two games.. and GM Chris Ballard has mentioned how Wentz did not make the layups he often could have made. Too often there were plays that could have been made and too often he did not make the layups.”

“They thought they could fix him from what was wrong his last year in Philly and it didn’t work. The caution I would give for Washington is it didn’t work with Frank Reich with whom Wentz had his best years in Philly.”

“This was owner-driven…for him to drive this is unusual it really is…For them to move on from Wentz after only one year, told me volumes of at least what the owner wanted to do. He wanted to have anyone but Carson Wentz as his quarterback.”

“Irsay called in Ballard and Reich the night of the Jacksonville (season finale loss) game. He never does that. In his mind (Irsay) this had to be done. I am guessing Frank Reich didn’t go to that meeting expecting to be told that they were done with Wentz.”

“At the end of the day we are going to get a united front (of Irsay, Ballard, Reich) but this was one of those rare times the owner stepped in and said, ‘This is what we are doing’…They were just done with him. If you don’t trust your quarterback, what do you have? Enough people with votes didn’t trust him.”

“Jeff George (former Colt and briefly Washington QB) had one of the greatest arms I’ve ever seen, but he just didn’t have the ‘it factor.’ They just didn’t think Carson Wentz had the it factor. But having said that I know there have been a couple of players come out in support of Wentz like Jonathan Taylor (running back).”

“I tell you, something we will never hear for a lot of reasons, his not being vaccinated, bothered the owner…A problem they had was a lot of the team leaders were not vaccinated. Darius Leonard, Braden Smith, Quenton Nelson, Ryan Kelly and these were the leaders…Maybe the owner thought, “If my quarterback had been more of a leader and gotten vaccinated and done this with the team, maybe…”

“I am convinced on some level the fact that so many players tested positive late and the way they faded, I believe the two are connected.”