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'No sleep last night, once again': Colts LB Shaquille Leonard on starting preseason opener
Joel A. Erickson
Indianapolis Star


ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It was only six plays.

Five runs. One pass. The contact Shaquille Leonard wanted, craved, still needs to feel never came, the result of plays that went the other way.

But those six plays represented a huge step forward for the Colts superstar, the three-time first-team All-Pro who is tantalizingly close to putting the spinal injury that hung over the past three seasons behind him.

Leonard started with the rest of the Indianapolis defense in Saturday’s 23-19 preseason loss to Buffalo, another milestone in a training camp that has been marked by Leonard checking off signposts without much trouble, from being medically cleared to full-contact work on the practice field and now to the game.

Aug 12, 2023; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Indianapolis Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard (53) warms up before a pre-season game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
“It was big,” Leonard said. “That was one thing that I was kind of nervous about, going out there and playing against other people, and today was another box that I can check off to say, I can go out there confident and be the best version of myself for this team.”


One of the hardest parts of coming back from a serious injury is regaining confidence in a body that felt so uncertain for so long.

“Any time you’re coming off an injury, and anybody that’s ever played the game is going to say this, you have to kind of remove the doubt,” Colts assistant linebackers Cato June, a former Pro Bowler himself, said last week. “Remove the fear.”


Leonard has been remarkably open throughout this process.

And he’s admitted there have been some nerves with each step he’s taken, each milestone, nerves that kept him tossing and turning in the team’s Buffalo hotel on Friday night.

“No sleep last night, once again,” Leonard said. “Being anxious all day, a little nervous.”


He spent so much time last season on the sidelines, trying to infuse his special brand of energy into the Colts defense from outside the lines, a frustrating experience for a player who’s used to being in the middle of the action. When he did get on the field for three games, Leonard knew he wasn’t back to full strength.

But the moment he got out on the Highmark Stadium field Saturday, he felt some of that old energy, the juice that electrifies Leonard on game day.

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“Finally just running out of the tunnel, feeling the hate from the other fans, that’s getting me juiced up,” Leonard said. “And then once the ball was snapped, it felt like riding a bicycle again.”

Leonard felt no pain, no physical setbacks in his six snaps.

What he felt was familiar, the rush and burst that defined his first four seasons in a Colts uniform.

“I wanted to make sure I still had the speed to make plays, and I wanted to make sure I could still see the game from the linebacker perspective,” Leonard said. “Today I was out there calling plays, moving well, just being in the right position.”

And even though Leonard didn’t make any plays, it’s a shot in the arm for the Colts to see their emotional leader on the field without a setback, the kind of setbacks that kept hitting him in his bid to return last fall.


“To see him out there, a guy that’s worked so hard, has been a tireless worker, to get back on that football field, so happy for him,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. “I know he was fired up.”


After all this, after all the pain and two surgeries to relieve the pressure two discs in his spine were putting on the nerves leading to his left calf, only a few steps remain.

An actual tackle, in a game, against an opponent.

“I didn’t touch anybody today, unfortunately,” Leonard said. “A lot of runs were away, unfortunately. … Can’t wait to feel that contact going to the ground. Don’t know when it’s going to come. Hopefully, it’ll be soon.”

Then the start of the regular season, and then, hopefully, the first forced fumble, first interception, first game-changing play at the right moment.

He’s hit all the other steps so far. Only a few remain.