By all accounts, Justin Walley and Hunter Wohler were both on track to have impressive and impactful rookie seasons with the Colts.
Walley, a Minnesota cornerback selected by the Colts in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft, was earning starting snaps in training camp alongside veterans Kenny Moore II and Charvarius Ward Sr., and had even the toughest of critics in Lou Anarumo praising his skills. And Wohler, the Colts' seventh-round pick from Wisconsin, quickly showed his versatility as both a safety and a linebacker and seemed ready to take on a big role on special teams.
Expectations kept rising for both rookies as training camp continued, until injuries struck them both in the first few weeks of August; Walley tore his ACL during the Colts' joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens and Wohler sustained a foot injury (more specifically, a Lisfranc injury) during the Colts' preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Both players were placed on season-ending injured reserve, postponing their NFL debuts another year.
Both men then were left to dedicate themselves fully to their rehab and recovery during the 2025 season, pushing themselves as hard as they could to get back to feeling like themselves.
"It's tough," Wohler said after the season. "No doubt, it's tough. Every week wishing you were out there, but like I said, it's on God's timing. I can make a plan for everything, but it doesn't come down to what I want. And so you show up every day with a great mindset, ready to go, smile on your face and doing everything you can in the position that you're at to make it seem better. You go to meetings, you talk to guys, you have conversations and try to understand what the game plan is that week, what we did right and wrong in the games. Just trying to keep your mind sharp a little bit and still involved with the team without actually being on the field. But having those conversations with the guys is great, and trying to pick up little things as much as I can, just to get me ready for next season, so that way when the time comes we'll be ready."
"I've been here grinding six days a week, continue to grind the same way for the next couple months, and by the time the fall, back on the turf, I'll be ready to go," Walley said in the beginning of January.
Neither player has a specific timetable for their return, but they both are confident they will be able to play next season. And while they might seem to have an advantage going into this coming season, given their standout performances in 2025 training camp, both Walley and Wohler are intent on re-proving themselves once again.
"I feel like I put myself in a decent spot for next year, but it's not what about you did yesterday or in camp, you know, I haven't proven anything on the field yet," Wohler said. "So it's come OTAs, come camp, I'll have to reprove myself all over again and put myself in a spot to hopefully be on the field next year...I think the minute you stop playing with a chip is the minute you kind of fall behind. So I've always played with a chip, and I think this season it'll just be not necessarily more of a chip, but with all the down time and not playing I think you realize things about yourself and where you're at and all that. So there'll be a little extra juice coming in this year, I'm sure."
And Walley, who made sure to seek out other teammates who also dealt with ACL injuries like Ashton Dulin and Daniel Scott, was even able to find the positives in his difficult situation.
"(They said) tearing their ACL helped them out in the long run, put a couple years on the back end of your career," Walley said. "So got a lot of guys that are supportive...Usually when you tear your ACL, you're so intentional on lower body strength your movements are so much more precise that you end up moving a lot better than you were before your surgery."
