Colts’ JuJu Brents, Grover Stewart grateful to return in time for playoff push

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INDIANAPOLIS — JuJu Brents had been waiting for this moment. When the Indiana native saw the Indianapolis Colts were slated to play a game in Germany, he marked his calendar because it represented a milestone. After he emerged as a prep star on the east side of Indianapolis, football took him around the country when he continued playing collegiately at Iowa and Kansas State.

Now, it was going to take the rookie cornerback across the Atlantic Ocean.

“I was looking forward to that because I’ve never been outside the country,” Brents said. “I had just got my passport. I’m geeked up to go out of town.”

However, when his teammates boarded an overnight flight to Europe on Nov. 9, Brents wasn’t with them. A quad injury he sustained in Week 7 sidelined him for several weeks, including Week 10 when the Colts faced the New England Patriots at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany. Brents chose to stay home and focus on his rehabilitation.

He remembers the practice facility and locker room being eerily quiet on Nov. 12 when he came in “early as hell” to continue rehabbing before tuning in to the action at 9:30 a.m. ET. Brents was proud to see his team pull out a win without him, but he’d be lying if he claimed he didn’t feel a little left out.

Fortunately, the waiting game will finally end Saturday when Brents rejoins the action against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lucas Oil Stadium.

“My family has been doing a good job of just keeping me in tune,” Brents said. “Every game we had a little watch party at my dad’s house, which is like 10 minutes around the corner (from the Colts’ practice facility). Just watching the game and still trying to keep me around the team and in that type of atmosphere.”

Brents commended his loved ones for encouraging and uplifting him as he gradually worked his way back, and his return comes at an opportune time for the Colts. Indianapolis had its four-game winning streak snapped in a sloppy loss last week at Cincinnati. Brents was questionable to play against the Bengals before being ruled out the day before the game.

This week, there is no question. He’s playing. Brents’ focus now is helping Indianapolis get back on track for its first playoff appearance since 2020. The Colts sit in the seventh and final playoff spot in the AFC, and Brents is eager to prove the flashes he showed earlier this year weren’t a fluke.

After being inactive the first two games of the season as he worked his way back from a hamstring injury, Brents made his NFL debut in Week 3 at Baltimore and forced a fumble that helped Indianapolis escape with an overtime win. Two weeks later, he snagged his first interception in a loss at Jacksonville.

Despite being out for seven straight weeks, Brents said he hasn’t lost any confidence in his ability to be an impact player. The tug-of-war he’s fought within himself while rehabbing is whether or not he was not doing enough versus doing too much too soon.

“I like to just say I gotta have a pissed-off focus,” Brents said. “So yeah, it can be a little funk that I’m in right now, but still be focused enough to know that I can still progress forward every single day. … You definitely gotta give yourself some grace, man. You put a lot of hard work in and sometimes things happen.

“But it‘s not about what happens to you. It’s about how you respond to it.”

That’s a message Grover Stewart was repeating to himself when he was suspended six games for violating the NFL’s PEDs policy. The Colts starting nose tackle did not disclose what drug he took or how it happened, but he emphasized he would never cheat the game he loves.

However, his intentionality wasn’t going to absolve him of his punishment, so Stewart accepted it as best as he could before finally being reinstated last week at Cincinnati.

“It was great being back out there,” said Stewart, who played a season-low 39 snaps against the Bengals. “I couldn’t even breathe on some plays just because of how happy I was.”

Stewart, who expects a bigger workload this week, said he watched all of the Colts’ games from home during his suspension, and he could hardly sit down. After every play, good or bad, he was yelling at his TV. On non-game days, the veteran lineman kept himself busy by working out on his own, and halfway through his suspension he was allowed to reenter the team facility and continue his training in a team setting.

Although he was grateful, Stewart said it felt like a gift and a curse. Being closer to the game but not being able to practice or play just made his circumstances sting more.

“It was kind of like I was just window shopping, and they was teasing me a little bit,” Stewart said. “It means a lot that the guys held it down until I got back, and now it’s up to me to hold my part up and give them that extra push to go to the playoffs.”

Before his suspension, Stewart had missed just five games in his pro career. Brents has missed eight this season alone. Neither of them plans to miss any more, and while Indianapolis found a way to stack wins without them, they’re both eager to play a big part in the next Colts victory.

“Man, I was sitting at home like, ‘What in the world?’” Stewart said. “When you’re out, you just have a lot on your mind. I kept thinking, ‘I can’t let this happen again. I can’t let this stop me.’ This is what you’re here for. The organization still loves you. Your teammates still love you.

“And you can still help them do this.”

(Photo of JuJu Brents, center, celebrating his interception Oct. 15 against the Jaguars: David Rosenblum / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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