As Will Fries was loaded on to a cart with a leg injury on a cloudy, rainy afternoon in Jacksonville, every single Colts player, coach and staffer came off the visiting sideline at EverBank Stadium and over to the mauling right guard, offering a pat on the chest and words of encouragement.
Fries, over his four years with the Colts, earned the respect of everyone who, in that moment, was coming to grips with a sobering reality: His season was over. Those folks saw the work he put in to earn a spot in the league as the 248th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. They saw how he seized a starting gig in 2022, then held on to it in 2023, playing 1,125 snaps for a team that came a few yards short of making the playoffs.
And they saw how in 2024 Fries grew into not just a reliable part of the Colts' offensive line, but into a physical force – the kind of guy who caught the eye of offensive line guru Brandon Thorn with stuff like this:
So as the cart rolled Fries off the field – to a Jacksonville hospital, to immediate surgery and to a challenging recovery process – he raised his fist in the air.
Months later, Fries reflected on that gesture, one that almost felt defiant to his reality.
"I just wanted to let them know," Fries said, pausing to collect himself, "that I was good."
Then again, Fries' career has been defiant to the reality of being one of the last guys selected in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Players picked in the mid-200s face steep odds to even see an NFL regular season game. Fries played in 41 games before his injury in Week 5 of the 2024 season; when he got hurt, he was Pro Football Focus' ninth-highest-graded offensive linemen, sandwiched between first- and second-team All-Pro right tackles Penei Sewell and Lane Johnson.
"He has come such a far way since he got here just all by hard work and determination and consistency every single day giving everything he has to this organization, everything he has to all of us," left guard Quenton Nelson said back in October. "We're certainly going to miss him just the player he is and his style of play on the field."
The first few weeks after Fries' surgery were arduous – he wasn't able to move much, and as a 300-pound offensive linemen, that made things challenging just to be around his house. He had support from his fiancee – "she was the best," Fries said, "all hours of the night with me, through the rough nights" – and his parents came into town.
And Fries' support from his team didn't end as he was whisked away from the field at EverBank Stadium.
"The thing that really stuck out to me about it was all my teammates and all those guys stood around me and had my back," Fries said. "Obviously it was not a fun thing to go through, got taken to the hospital that night for surgery and all that stuff. But the guys that came to my house right after that happened and were always checking up on me — those guys in the O-line room are the best dudes in the world. You're not gonna find better guys ever.
"Every single one of them brought me food, came to see me. Tony (Sparano Jr.) was always checking up on me. Those guys are the best and I'm forever grateful for the way they treated me and how much it really meant for them to have my back through that tough time. Going through the injury process wasn't easy but knowing that I had a goal to try to come back and play for those guys — and whether that was realistic or not, I was gonna give it my all. So really, credit to those guys for helping me get through it."
With that support, Fries began attacking his rehab with the goal of healing as fast as he possibly could. And whenever he's ready to get back on the field again, Fries doesn't expect to just pick up where he left off. He believes he'll be an even better version of himself.
"Everything's going good," Fries, who is set to be a free agent in March, said. "I'd like to think I'm ahead of schedule and I want to try to beat that, whatever is in my head. I'm going to do everything I can to do that.
"... I know I'm gonna be the same player that I was. I have zero doubt about it. There's going to be no problems at all. That's my plan."
