COLTS

Art Jones on 2014 season: 'Frustrating as hell'

Zak Keefer
zak.keefer@indystar.com

Missing in action: The Indianapolis Colts' $33-million defensive end.

If found, please return to team immediately. Services greatly needed. Especially against a certain rival that resides in the upper Northeast.

No, it's not that Art Jones vanished last season. He was there, albeit playing much of the year on a bad wheel, which means he wasn't capable of doing the things the Colts paid him all that money to do. Having a bad wheel when you're a 340-pound defensive tackle is like a football death sentence.

Try carrying around all that weight on that wheel. Try fighting off double-teams in the trenches. Try bringing down a steady diet of 200-pound running backs.

When it comes to Jones and the 2014 season, the Colts didn't get their return on investment. A high-ankle sprain he suffered in Week 2 that lingered for four months was to blame.

"I was never the same," Jones admits of a regular season he started just three games and amassed 15 tackles. "I didn't have that explosiveness, and that push-off and drive off my ankle."

For Jones, that's everything. And it'll need to change this year. He knows it. The Colts are banking on it. Because if you don't stop the run – the primary reason Jones was brought to town – you don't stand a chance.

Especially in the playoffs. Especially in Foxborough.

"We know we need him out there for 16 weeks," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said recently. "We need him to be available. He's a difference-maker."

Art Jones was the Colts' big-ticket free agent prize last offseason.

That's why they lured him to Indianapolis during free agency in 2014. Jones was the big-ticket item charged with anchoring a defensive line that's been an Achilles heel for this franchise for what seems like forever. After three years in Baltimore – Jones helped the Ravens to a Super Bowl XLVII triumph in his last game in purple and black – he landed in Indianapolis, five-year, $33 million contract in hand, eager to reunite with his former defensive coordinator, Pagano, and former linemate Cory Redding.

Then he got hurt, and forever continued into most of 2014. Especially when the Colts faced the Patriots.

"Frustrating as hell," was how Jones described it last season.

The nightmare began when he crumbled to the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium in a Week 2 loss to the Eagles. Jones missed the next five games. He came back in Week 8 in Pittsburgh, aggravated the ankle and missed three more. He returned in Week 11 and lumbered the rest of the season far shy of 100 percent.

All told, he was healthy for only 69 of the 528 snaps he took last season.

"You play as hard as I do, and you don't really worry about injuries," Jones said. "Freak accidents happen. You just have to be ready when your number is called."

Yet Jones was never himself, never the $33 million investment the Colts hoped – needed – he would be.

He totaled four tackles in three playoff games. In the AFC Championship Game in New England – the very rushing attack Jones was brought in to rebuff – the Colts yielded 4.4 yards-per-carry and 14 first downs on the ground. Indy was run over, out-toughed and out-muscled in the trenches, helpless as ever before.

Jones was emotional in the locker room afterward, the burden of a job incomplete weighing heavy on his shoulders.

"It hurts me more," he said, fighting back tears after the 45-7 loss. "It hurts me more that I couldn't get it done for (the veterans). It's tough to get here. It's tough to win."

Jones apologized to Redding, his mentor, in that locker room. He wasn't sure how many more games left they had together.

Turns out, he was right: Redding signed with Arizona in the offseason.

That leaves Jones as The Guy on a defensive line that is central to the Colts' fortunes in 2015. The offense deepened its talent pool with the likes of Andre Johnson, Frank Gore and Phillip Dorsett. The secondary was steady in 2014, paced by Pro Bowlers Vontae Davis and Mike Adams. The linebacking corps returns a guy named Robert Mathis.

Most uncertain is the defensive line, the first wave of resistance that was so thoroughly humiliated the last time the Colts took the field.

This year hinges on Jones.

"My goal this year is to be out there all 16 games," he said. "I'll be ready to rock and roll."

In a sense, the return of a healthy Jones this year – he assures his ankle is fully healed – is like landing him in free agency all over again. The Colts parted ways with Redding and Ricky Jean-Francois in March, added Kendall Langford (who started four of 16 games on a loaded St. Louis defensive line) and a pair of draft picks from Stanford, end Henry Anderson and nose tackle David Parry.

"The whole run deal, we're going to get that fixed," Pagano pledged after the Colts burned their first-round pick in this year's draft on a wide receiver.

Enter: Jones. Pagano knows how vital those 340 pounds are up front. He witnessed Jones' rise in Baltimore, from fifth-round pick to key cog on a Super Bowl champion. That's why he recruited him to Indianapolis.

He's also got the numbers to back it up: With Jones on the field last season, Pagano notes, the Colts yielded a full yard less against the run compared to with him off it. That might seem trivial. It's not.

No layer of resistance has been more culpable to the Colts' playoff exits the past two years than the run defense. Jones, entering a fresh, healthy start in Year 2, remains the $33 million man the team brought in to make sure it doesn't happen again.

He knows it, too.

"Take care of your body, so your body can take care of you!" he tweeted recently. "It's on this season!"

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.

Roster moves

The Colts signed free agents Chance Casey, a cornerback, and Will Corbin, a guard. They waived/injured cornerback Josh Mitchell.