WESTFIELD, Ind. – On July 28, 2024, Colts defensive end Samson Ebukam sustained a torn Achilles' during a training camp practice. On July 26, 2025, Ebukam stood in front of a microphone, sweat still dripping from his third practice in four days, grateful for how he's feeling almost one year out from an injury that ended his season before it could begin.
"It's a blessing," Ebukam said. "It's really a blessing. I don't take any of the days for granted. I'm just out here trying to do my best to be in the best shape possible so that whenever the time comes, I can help the team."
The Colts haven't completely cut Ebukam loose – head coach Shane Steichen said they're monitoring his snap count in practice, and he got a veteran rest day this week – but he's already slotted right back in to the Colts' defensive end rotation in full-team periods.
Ebukam said he still thinks about his injury every now and then, but added: "The more I use it, the more I trust it, the more explosive I'm becoming."
And, definitively, Ebukam said: "We're gonna be good for the season."
Getting Ebukam back in the fold is significant, given what he brought to the team after signing as a free agent in the 2023 offseason.
Ebukam led the Colts with 9.5 sacks and had the NFL's 10th-highest Pro Football Focus run defense grade (80.0) among defensive ends in 2023. And he played in all 17 games, continuing a trend of durability and availability – before last year, Ebukam had only missed two games due to injury during stops with the Los Angeles Rams (2017-2020) and San Francisco 49ers (2021-2022).
Only four defensive linemen played in more games than Ebukam's 113 from 2017-2023 (DeForest Buckner, Jerry Hughes, Haason Reddick and Preston Smith).
So Ebukam having to sit out the entire 2024 season came with some gutting context: One, he was coming off a highly productive career year; two, he was known as one of the NFL's most durable defensive linemen for the first seven years of his career.
Now back and fully practicing with the Colts, Ebukam is part of a defensive end rotation that, baseline, has plenty of depth. There's Ebukam, 2024 first-round pick Laiatu Latu, 2025 second-round pick J.T. Tuimoloau and veterans Kwity Paye and Tyquan Lewis. The ability of those five guys to rotate in, each taking a certain percentage of defensive snaps, should allow the Colts to deploy fresher pass rushers in the fourth quarter – an important point for a team that's putting a major emphasis on doing a better job closing out games in 2025.
"Fourth quarter, that's our main focus," Ebukam said. "Get in shape so we can go rush in the fourth quarter and destroy everybody that's in front of us."
