Quenton Nelson’s move to Seattle has already turned into a familiar Colts headache.
The Seahawks guard is now missing games because of a knee issue, and according to head coach Mike Macdonald, the problem didn’t start after the trade from Indianapolis. Nelson was dealing with it before he arrived in Seattle.
“I think two things are true,” Macdonald told the media recently. “One, that it was something that he was dealing with coming out of whatever game he was before the trade. And I think it’s been aggravated since he got here.”
Nelson did pass his physical after the deal, but the timeline around the injury remains murky. What is clear is that he needed a minor procedure this week, and it’s not hard to connect that to the way Indianapolis has handled injuries in recent seasons.
The Colts have already watched Daniel Jones play through a fractured fibula last year before he later tore his Achilles tendon in the other leg a few weeks later. The two injuries may not have been related, but the sequence naturally raised eyebrows.
Alec Pierce’s situation has been just as concerning. He played through an ankle injury last season, then had surgery this offseason that was expected to sideline him for 4-6 months.
He got back in five months, only to aggravate the injury and miss most of the season. He did appear in parts of the first two games, but hasn’t played since.
Maybe Indianapolis isn’t pushing players to stay on the field through pain. But the pattern is hard to ignore, especially when the players involved are the ones paying the price.
Nelson’s case fits that trend neatly. He hadn’t missed a game since 2021 and had only missed four in his entire career, yet he played just one game with Seattle before landing back on the injury report with the same issue he had in Indianapolis.
It could all be coincidence. Still, with general manager Chris Ballard now fired, it’s fair to wonder whether the Colts will handle these situations differently going forward.
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