It's Aug. 29, 2026, and three snaps into his first game since December of last year, DeForest Buckner is facing a double team.

What else is new?

The Detroit Lions, on a first and 10, have their right tackle and center block Buckner on an under center play-action rollout. Buckner works off the double team as Lions quarterback Luke Altmyer throws into the flat to tight end Jackson Meeks. Colts linebacker Jaylon Carlies starts to wrap up Meeks.

Buckner, sprinting to chew up turf from the near hash to the sideline, helps bring Meeks to the ground. For context: Defensive tackles hustling to make a sideline tackle in a preseason game is not something teams take for granted.

For Buckner, though, it's the standard.

What else is new?

"He made a few of them – I mean, the preseason game, but then even in training camp, he made a ton of those plays in training camp, and it was like, 'Oh yeah, he's back,'" head coach Shane Steichen said. "It's great to have him fully healthy and ready to go."

It's Sept. 10, 2026, and the 32-year-old Buckner is, indeed, ready to go for the upcoming season.

On Dec. 31, 2025, that sentence was hardly a given.

Buckner first felt something in his neck in the first half of the Colts' Week 9 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 2, 2025. He figured it was a stinger and, after a trip to the sideline medical tent, he returned to have two run-stuffing tackles in the second half.

By Wednesday, Nov. 5, Buckner had lost all strength in the left side of his upper body, to the point he couldn't even do a push-up. The culprit was a herniated disc in his neck pressing on a nerve. He was placed on injured reserve and began treatment and rehab, with a trip to Panama for stem cell injections and long days spent building his strength back up.

"It was definitely challenging day-by-day," Buckner said last year, "especially early on when I didn't know if I was going to get my strength back or not."

Buckner eventually got his strength back and, after missing five games, was activated from injured reserve for the Colts' Week 16 Monday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Colts had lost four consecutive games at that point, slipping from the AFC No. 1 seed to the AFC No. 8 seed over the course of a month.

Buckner had five tackles and three pressures, but he wasn't quite right. He re-aggravated his neck in the game – in which the Colts gave up 48 points – and was placed on season-ending injured reserve the day after Christmas.

Five days later, Buckner underwent surgery.

The thing you should understand about DeForest Buckner is he's not just a tremendous football player and a pillar in the Colts' locker room. He's a dedicated husband to his wife, Ashyln, and an involved dad to his three kids.

And after his surgery, he wasn't able to be any of those things.

"(I wasn't) able to do a whole lot after surgery, pretty much being in the bed, not being able to move around," Buckner said. "I couldn't even pick my kids up and stuff like that. I couldn't pick up anything heavier than 10 pounds for the first couple weeks."

The mental toll it all took on Buckner was significant. This wasn't just a significant injury, it was a significant injury to a significant part of his body.

"I had some dark days where I was feeling like, man, is it worth continuing on playing – especially dealing with your neck, you know what I mean?" Buckner said. "It had me contemplating some things."

Ashlyn is a tremendous support for him, and especially was in the aftermath of his surgery. Through conversations about Buckner's future – as a player and a person – she encouraged him to take things one day at a time in rehab.

She reminded him he always talked about walking away from football on his own terms.

And this wasn't that.

"You never quit anything in your life," she told him.

"You're right," Buckner replied. "And I'm not gonna start now."

In August, Buckner reflected on those conversations.

"It was a constant reminder of the strong support system that I have in my wife," he said.

Buckner's kids – six-year-old Dominic, four-year-old Jordan and one-year-old Gia – were a source of inspiration through those dark days last winter. His kids are young, but old enough to know when dad's hurt. Buckner said his son, Jordan, at one point was walking around his preschool classroom grunting "ah, my back, my back."

Kids are perceptive, and Buckner knew he wanted them to see him get through this, as difficult a path as it may be.

"They're watching me," Buckner said. "It's one of those moments where I could show them adversity's going to hit. Something's gonna hit you in the face one day, and it's not going your way. It's how you respond.

"Are you gonna overcome it? Or are you gonna sulk?"

On July 27, 2026, DeForest Buckner overcame it. He was cleared to participate in training camp from Day 1.

"It felt like graduation day for me, personally," Buckner said. "... It was frustrating, but I just kept my faith and kept working, trusting doctors and my trainers. There was a lot of teamwork involved with the whole operation and recovery. I'm happy to be at this point."

There still was work left to do, though, from the start of training camp to the end of the preseason. The Colts and Buckner slowly ramped up his activity, which began in individual drills to taking a smattering of 11-on-11 reps early in camp. By the end of camp, Buckner was on the field more and more in those full-team periods.

In an Aug. 9 practice, Buckner had a couple of impressive one-on-one wins; later, he generated a pressure on quarterback Daniel Jones during an end-of-game situational period. Later in August, he was a force during joint practices with the Atlanta Falcons. Then he chased down that Lions tight end in the Colts' preseason finale.

"The way that he came back and is still good, still DeForest Buckner – I call him 'Buck Nasty,'" defensive tackle Grover Stewart said in August. "It's a great thing to have him back out there."

Stewart, too, acknowledged the thing everyone else within the Colts saw: Buckner faced real adversity, the kind that impacted not just his career, but his life. He worked. And worked. And worked some more. Eventually, Buckner got through it – but, again, that short sentence comes with a mountain of things that went into it.

"I got so much respect and appreciation for him – he's one of my favorite players I've ever been around," Steichen said. "Just the person that he is, the worker that he is, the player that he is, the husband that he is, what he does in the community. I mean, he's top notch.

"And to see him come back from that – I'm not surprised, just because the way he works. He's a guy that lives in this building, gets the treatment, gets the rehab he needs. Great teammate, great leader, and to see him back at training camp going full-speed and going about it, I mean, he looks great right now. So, I'm really excited for him this year."

It's Sept. 10, and Buckner is standing at the podium inside the media room on 56th Street. He's about an hour and a half away from the Colts' second of three practices ahead of Sept. 13's season opener against the Baltimore Ravens.

Buckner is speaking about what he went through to get to this point. But he's also looking forward to Week 1, a game in which, yes, he will play. He's talking about stopping Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry – two guys he considers future Hall of Famers – and what the Colts' defense wants to prove.

"We want it as an opportunity to show the world what we can do," Buckner said.

We're back in the routine of the season. This is Year 11 for Buckner, who over the decade-plus he's spent in the NFL has honed his process into a science. He's the ultimate first-one-in, last-one-out football guy. He spends countless hours preparing his body and mind. That's just the work it takes to play at a high level on Sundays: His 71.5 career sacks and 97 tackles for a loss are both fourth among active NFL defensive tackles.

Buckner, since arriving in Indianapolis in 2020, has been a consistent presence on the Colts' defensive line and in the team's locker room. He's a six-time Colts team captain whose been-there, done-that leadership carries immense influence among his teammates. He's a tremendous example for anyone to follow – rookie or veteran, first-round pick or undrafted free agent, starter or backup.

The Colts do not take it for granted that Buckner is back here at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center working toward Week 1. They won't take it for granted when No. 99 gets on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday.

And Buckner won't take any of it for granted, either. From the quiet pregame moments to the deafening crowd during the game, from the double teams to the sprints to the sideline, from the sacks to the tackles and everything else in between, Buckner knows how much went into getting him to Sept. 13.

"I feel like myself all over again," Buckner said. "Excited to get back out there."