Insider: Lingering concussion, disappointing performance marred 2017 for Colts' Ryan Kelly

INDIANAPOLIS – The hard part was dealing with the ambiguity of it all.

Concussions don’t hurt the way a high ankle sprain might. They don’t typically have visible symptoms the way a broken arm does.

But they’re there. And, as Ryan Kelly has learned, they aren’t bound to timelines the way conventional injuries are.

“If you have a broken leg, a fractured ankle, a broken wrist, that’s something you can see on a scan,” the Indianapolis Colts’ 2016 first-round pick said Tuesday. “You can’t see a guy’s injury in his head. A CAT scan won’t do it. An MRI won’t do it. It’s tough.”

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So ended Kelly’s 2017 season. On the sideline, dealing with an injury he could not see, while his team’s season continued its dreadful path to a 4-12 finish. Kelly, one of just 11 rookies to start 16 games in 2016, entered 2017 with justified aspirations of building on that prosperous first season. But then he broke his foot in training camp. That cost him eight weeks in the lineup. Even as Kelly struggled to reach midseason form after the interruption, he sustained the concussion in Week 12 against Tennessee.

A week later, symptoms were still present. Two weeks later, after Kelly returned to practice and set his sights on playing in Week 14, symptoms returned.

And they never left.

That’s when it came time to confront a hard truth. Sitting out is hard for a guy who played at the University of Alabama and, thus, is accustomed to winning games by merely rolling out of bed.

“It’s one of those things where (the symptoms) just came back after a certain period of time,” Kelly said. “And being 24 years old, (the doctor) pretty much looked at me and said, ‘Is this something you really want to mess with? Do you want to finish two more games and potentially have a third (concussion)?’ Every single one you get, it’s like a migraine. Some of them might last a long time. Some of them might be a quick hitter, one week and done. It’s something that’s not really talked about a lot, but it’s something that you think about. Football is only a small portion of our lives. We have a lot to live for.”

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With that perspective in mind, Kelly ultimately was placed on injured reserve, ending his season. It wasn’t until “a few weeks” after the season concluded that Kelly gained official clearance from the injury.

He knows ending his season was the right call. And he didn’t second guess any decisions that were made.

But that doesn’t mean what happened last season sits well with Kelly. Players want to play, and Kelly didn’t do that nearly enough in 2017. In the seven games Kelly did play, he did not exactly feel like the dominating interior lineman he showed himself to be at times in 2016.

“My rookie year, I started every game,” Kelly said. “I felt really good coming off that season. When you start out the season after foot surgery and you come back into the rotation after missing camp, after missing five games… As a player, you want to go out there and play and perform to the best of your ability. When you can’t do that, that’s frustrating. To end the season on IR after having done that, obviously that’s not very fun. But as a competitor you’re going to go through those eventually. You’re going to miss time.”

The pace of things at Colts headquarters in recent weeks has helped Kelly move on from 2017. There’s been no mention of last season because preparations for next season are moving at warp speed. The Colts opened a three-day voluntary minicamp on Tuesday, the first time players and coaches were able to be on the field with their full coaching staff. The workouts were mostly closed to reporters, but turnout was impressive and there seemed to be an obvious pulse during warm-ups.

“Between having a new staff, the construction at the complex, learning an entire new offense, (last season) is the furthest thing from anybody’s mind,” Kelly said. “At least my mind.”

The Colts are working on the basics of an offense that is going to feature quite a bit of zone blocking, Kelly said. He added that they’re putting a premium on execution over volume in the new offense, a sort of less-is-more approach.

The ratcheting up of things at Colts headquarters is a not-so-subtle reminder that, indeed, the 2018 season is fast approaching. And perhaps no one is more happy about that than Kelly.

Follow Colts Insider Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.