INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis Colts linebacker Robert Mathis has been pretty silent over the past year since tearing his Achilles while working out.

He’s spoken to the media only a handful of times, preferring to focus on his rehabilitation so that he could stick to his word -- a word that seemed farfetched at the time -- of being on the field for the Colts’ Week 1 game at Buffalo on Sunday.

The Colts and Mathis aren’t saying for sure that Mathis will play against the Bills, but their words makes you think there's a good chance it could happen.

"Stay tuned," Mathis said.

Coach Chuck Pagano said last week that “there’s a possibility” he could be on the field this weekend.

Mathis said he feels like a rookie because he’s getting himself acclimated to playing again since he hasn't played in a game since January 2014.

“It’s never easy, you kind of fine tune everything; get your hand-eye coordination, but football is football, it’s not going to go anywhere,” Mathis said. “Just have to prepare yourself.”

Mathis is practicing at full speed and the Colts plan to increase his workload this week. Mathis said they’re going “100 miles an hour” even though he knows that they can’t simulate what it’s going to be like in a game.

“It’s all good,” he said. “Practice is kind of simulated organized chaos and the game is unorganized chaos.”

It doesn’t matter if Mathis only gives the Colts one snap or handful of snaps this weekend.

The fact that we’re even talking about Mathis, who led the NFL with 19.5 sacks in 2013, possibly playing this weekend is a positive when you take into account that there was talk that it could be as late as November until he played in a game.