{"id":313537,"date":"2025-08-24T10:47:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/313537\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T10:47:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:47:32","slug":"colts-s-daniel-scott-painstakingly-rehabbed-his-dreams-piece-by-piece-for-a-day-like-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/313537\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts S Daniel Scott painstakingly rehabbed his dreams piece by piece for a day like Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI \u2014 Daniel Scott<\/a> fought so hard to get back to this point.<\/p>\n

The Colts<\/a> safety had his NFL dreams ripped away, sweated and worked and gritted his teeth through the pain to get back to a point like this.<\/p>\n

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Then he had it all ripped away again.<\/p>\n

Scott spent almost the entirety of his first two seasons in the NFL in the Indianapolis training room, painstakingly rehabilitating his dreams piece by piece, hoping he\u2019d get to a day like Saturday.<\/p>\n

A day when Bengals<\/a> backup Desmond Ridder fired an ill-advised throw in Scott\u2019s direction, allowing the third-year safety to make the interception, take off up the left sideline, let a pack in front of him clear the way and then step into the end zone for a touchdown that meant an awful lot more than six points.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the right mindset prepared me to get to points like this,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

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A lot of key Colts<\/a> sat out Saturday\u2019s preseason finale win over the Bengals, preparing for the regular-season games that matter.<\/p>\n

But the game still mattered deeply to players like Scott, who tore his ACL weeks after Indianapolis drafted him in the fifth round in 2023, then tore his Achilles tendon at the end of organized team activities in 2024, leaving him fighting for a roster spot in his third season in the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Achilles might be a little bit harder than the ACL, but the back-to-back years, the \u2018Why me\u2019 moments,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIn my darkest days, it was like, \u2018Is this going to be my story?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scott\u2019s fears had foundation.<\/p>\n

Dozens of players feel the elation of getting their names called in the draft each year, only to have those dreams derailed by injury. When a young player goes down with a season-ending injury in training camp, he\u2019s often face-to-face with a possible end to his career, even if he might not want to admit it. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t really prepare for it,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI think it\u2019s more how you respond from those situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott has responded by working hard to get back to the field.<\/p>\n

Unable to impress the Colts coaching staff on the field, the former Cal safety has instead impressed the Indianapolis decision-makers by the way he\u2019s rehabilitated both of his injuries, refusing to miss days and pushing through the pain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo finally get him back out for a training camp, and then the third preseason game, the way he showed up,\u201d Colts head coach Shane Steichen said. \u201cIt was big for him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Scott also made a big tackle on special teams, a key part of his case to make the 53-man roster.<\/p>\n

A significant chunk of the Indianapolis roster that has already made the team sat out Saturday\u2019s game, but there were plenty of players making their final case for the roster before Tuesday\u2019s 4 p.m. deadline, when NFL teams must cut their rosters from 90 players down to 53.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because of that pressure, Scott found it hard to fully revel in his breakthrough moment in the postgame locker room.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI also think about the things I messed up today,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

He has a path to the roster.<\/p>\n

A long shot for the first three weeks of training camp, Scott saw a potential spot open when rookie strong safety Hunter Wohler suffered a Lisfranc injury in his right foot against the Packers last week, opening a spot behind Nick Cross.<\/p>\n

Scott is the next man up, armed with more experience than most of the other players out on the Paycor Stadium field with little-to-no experience in a regular-season NFL game.<\/p>\n

A training camp battle for a roster spot pales in comparison to what he\u2019s done the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt builds resilience,\u201d Scott said. \u201cMental, emotional resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resilience it takes to fight back to a day like today, a day he had to spend two full calendar years scratching and clawing to reach.<\/p>\n

When it finally came, Scott made the most of it.<\/p>\n

Joel A. Erickson<\/a>\u00a0covers the Colts all season. Get more coverage on\u00a0IndyStarTV<\/a>\u00a0and with the\u00a0Colts Insider newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts Daniel Scott’s pick-six final step in recovery from torn ACL, Achilles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 Daniel Scott fought so hard to get back to this point. The Colts safety had his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[228,227,256,2296,2005,9037,10206,7,2676,2004,6,4998,428,1040],"class_list":{"0":"post-313537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","11":"tag-cincinnatibengals","12":"tag-colts","13":"tag-daniel-scott","14":"tag-desmond-ridder","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-hunter-wohler","17":"tag-indianapolis","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-nick-cross","20":"tag-packers","21":"tag-roster-spot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115083348767957482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}