Colts LB Shaquille Leonard stunned by release, still shows up for turkey drive

INDIANAPOLIS - Shaquille Leonard had just returned to Indianapolis after the bye week and had finished taking part in the team photo when Gus Bradley approached.

"Let's go have that November meeting that you've been wanting," the Colts defensive coordinator said according to Leonard.

The Colts All-Pro linebacker had asked weeks prior for a sit-down meeting with his coaches to serve as a progress report on where he was in their eyes a year out from a second back surgery and whether that progress would mean more snaps on defense.

What he received in that meeting was a benching. Bradley told Leonard he would be inactive for Sunday's game against the Buccaneers.

The next day, Leonard was called to the team facility, which doesn't usually happen on the players' off day. General manager Chris Ballard told him he was being released.

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"I guess I got my November meeting," Leonard said. "I guess you have to be careful what you ask for."

Tuesday was a startling and emotional day for Leonard, who has long been the Colts' fuel pump of energy. He came back from a bye week to find out he no longer had a team to play for. But he still had a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway to do for 200 families who have cheered his name since he broke on the scene in 2018.

Leonard showed up to the turkey drive and spent nearly two hours meeting with fans, signing autographs, taking selfies and mingling with the friends he can no longer call teammates. Cornerback Kenny Moore II, defensive tackle Grover Stewart and linebackers E.J. Speed and Segun Olubi were among the Colts players who showed up to help.

What they found was a teammate who was still able to crack jokes and flash smiles for a community he's grown to love as well as a hurt inside over the reality that he won't be a part of it for much longer.

"It's been very tough, mentally, physically and emotionally," Leonard said. "But life goes on."

The Colts made a bold decision to cut Leonard on Tuesday, 2 1/2 years before the end of his contract, which will incur $27.7 million in a dead-cap charge. They released a team captain while they are 5-5 and chasing a playoff spot. And they did it for purely football reasons.

What exactly those reasons are and how they came to be, Leonard isn't entirely sure of. He had a long conversation with Bradley about being inactive and another long one with Ballard about getting released, but he couldn't discern what changed from one day to the next or from weeks ago, when the plan was to get to November, to this ultimatum.

"I asked the same question: What transpired from two weeks ago to now to make it seem like they don't want me in the building?" Leonard said. "I don't know, man. It just sucks. I feel like I did everything in my will to be a great Colt and a great teammate. What I've done, it just hurts the way I was pushed out the door."

Leonard knows that the Colts don't see him as near the player he once was, back when he was a first- or second-team All-Pro in each of his first four seasons. That version of Leonard, known as "The Maniac," is the only active player with at least 15 sacks and 10 interceptions over the past six seasons.

And Leonard admitted Tuesday that he isn't that same player right now after undergoing two surgeries to correct a nerve issue in his back, which doctors found in the summer of 2022.

Though he had not admitted it publicly before, a part of him seemed to understand why he had slid behind fellow linebacker EJ Speed in the pecking order.

"I told them a month ago: Yes, I want to play. There's no question I want to play," Leonard said. "But I always told them that if EJ is playing better than me, then I have no problem with EJ being the starter. I told them that. I honestly thought that if I wasn't going to play, I was going to be the backup.

"I did not think I was going to get the boot and get fired on my day off.”

Leonard has been vocal over the past month about his frustration with his lack of playing time. After playing at least 93% of the snaps in each of his first four seasons, he saw that number drop to 64% this season. He was frustrated that the snaps he lost were on passing downs, where he used to make his signature splash plays, like the league-high 15 turnovers he had a hand in back in 2021. And he pointed out how Bradley's scheme funneled many plays to Zaire Franklin for tackles rather than to his spot at WILL linebacker.

In Leonard's eyes, those honest answers in interviews were more matter-of-fact, but he always said he was willing to do the job the team gave him. And he wanted them to be taken in the context of his fire and passion, which is how those around Leonard have often understood his cutthroat comments.

"If anyone has ever said that he's not genuine or not a great teammate, anything like that, that's a lie," Speed said.

The franchise used to hold Leonard up as a model for other players. In 2021, they signed him to a five-year, $98.5 million contract that made him the highest-paid linebacker in the game at the time. In addition to naming him a captain, the Colts made him their Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee last season as well as the recipient of their Ed Block Courage Award.

He's always wanted to extend that leadership to the field on the biggest downs, which has made the past two years difficult. He admitted to rushing back too early from the June 2022 surgery and reinjuring the back last year, when he played in parts of three games. This year, he returned once healthy at the start of training camp, and not seeing the field as much after that waiting has been difficult to process, but he says it comes from a competitive place.

It's even something Bradley encouraged in him.

"I told Shaq, 'Don’t bend. Don’t bend on wanting to be on the field every play,'" Bradley said two weeks ago. "That’s what you need to do and it’s not going to be easy on us as a coaching staff, but that’s OK. That’s what we’re paid to do, to handle that and facilitate what we think is best for the team and best for both of them.'”

Something changed between that comment and the news Leonard received Tuesday, and Leonard wants to know what it is.

"'It's always OK until you step on toes.' I said that two weeks ago and I still stand by it," Leonard said. "I don't know if (saying) it played a part. Do I think it played somewhat of a part into it? Yes, because they could see it as a distraction. I try to be as respectful as I could with my answers. I had to make sure that it was, 'Yes, I'm hurt. I want to play, but it's not my decision. I just want to be the best teammate.'"

Bradley spoke to the media a couple hours before the Colts announced Leonard's release and is not scheduled to talk again until next week. Ballard has not spoken to the media since the preseason.

"I'm hurt," Leonard said, "but my feelings don't win football games."

Leonard said he still has the hunger to play, but he's not sure when that opportunity will come. He is likely to clear waivers, given that he has more than $6 million due in base salary, but then he is free to negotiate a new deal with another team.

He said he has not thought at all about retirement. Instead, he's going to take this setback as the next dose of inspiration to achieve what was never supposed to come for him as a small-school player from a South Carolina town of less than 1,000 people.

"I want to prove them wrong," Leonard said of the Colts. "I want to be sure that they understand that I can play ball.

"I don't like how I was thrown out the door. I gave this organization everything I had, even when I didn't even have it. I gave them everything."

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.