Retired Twice and Coaching High School Football, Offensive Tackle Jared Veldheer Gets Colts Call to Step in and Play

INDIANAPOLIS — If he were still retired, Jared Veldheer would be spending Saturday as an offensive line coach for East Grand Rapids High School in the Michigan state playoffs.

Instead, he’ll be playing in the NFL playoffs for the Indianapolis Colts in a 1:05 p.m. Saturday kickoff against the Buffalo Bills at Bills Stadium.

When the Colts were forced to place 10th-year offensive left tackle Anthony Castonzo on injured reserve last week and other options were hurt or ineffective, Veldheer received a call.

Despite the fact he had retired twice, most recently in September after 10 seasons, the 33-year-old Veldheer still had the itch to suit up. The call came from Colts offensive line coach Chris Strausser, for whom Veldheer had played in Denver in 2018.

It’s just like last season, when Green Bay added him before the final two regular-season games.

“It was something that I took a couple seconds to think about and really was kind of looking forward to the opportunity to be here in Indy,” Veldheer said Tuesday. “It is close to home. I’m from Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a good organization, a good team. I liked playing for coach Strausser and had heard nothing but really good things about this organization.

“It seemed like a good fit and I had stayed in good enough shape to where I would be able to help a team out towards the end of the season if some team was looking for help and I had some familiarity with them.”

Veldheer was cleared for two practices before protecting quarterback Philip Rivers’ blind side in Sunday’s 28-14 home win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That’s not much time to get acclimated, but he proved he could handle it.

“That was probably a first, having to learn a lot of – pretty much a new playbook in that short amount of time,” he said. “But I went to a good school, Hillsdale College, and they taught me how to study. I went through all their pre-med courses and there was a lot of challenging stuff. I got pretty good at being able to learn how to learn. I had to kind of rewind a decade and get back into that mode and just cram for finals really. That’s what it came down to but got out there and it was good.

“It was to the point on Sunday where I had prepared enough mentally to where it wasn’t a play being called and, all of a sudden, I’m blanking and having to figure it out as the ball is being snapped. I never had that feeling, so that was good.”

At 6-8 and 321 pounds, Veldheer prided himself in staying in peak physical condition, so he was pleasantly surprised to come out of Sunday without any issues. That’s a credit to unique training.

“I do a lot of training just out of leisure, it’s kind of a hobby of mine, not to sound like a meathead or anything, but I was a biology major in college and I’ve always tried to push myself to whatever physical performance limit that is,” he said. “I always try to stay strong, but the last few months in particular I’ve really tried to address some mobility stuff, especially hip mobility, ankle mobility, a lot of that stuff. That has helped tremendously to be able to not only get older and be mobile and strong, but I think that plays a big role in being able to come back and get in those positions that o-linemen have to get in and then to be powerful in those positions.

“Then I tried to do a lot of different cross-training stuff on top of strength training – heavy hikes with weighted backpacks, a lot of endurance things. That way, I knew my aerobic capacity would be pretty high. It’s not the same as a football game, but I had tested myself enough to know that my wind was going to be OK, knew I was going to be strong enough.”

The Oakland Raiders drafted Veldheer in the third round in 2010 and he spent four seasons there before another four with the Arizona Cardinals. He’s started 114 of 121 career games. He’s twice been on teams that reached conference championship games, so just being back in the playoffs is meaningful.

“I can’t speak for anybody else, but I know personally that whenever you can get into the tournament, into the playoffs in the NFL, it’s an amazing thing,” he said. “Everybody that I’ve ever been around who’s been a part of that appreciates it to a great level.

“It’s a special thing. These guys have been working their tails off all season to earn this chance. To be able to be a part of it, it does mean a lot to me. I’m very excited and feel very grateful to have this opportunity to take the field in the playoffs for the Colts.”

The only drawback is missing that East Grand Rapids playoff game.

“I think they’re at 1 o’clock,” he said with a smile in reference to the same kickoff time for the Colts-Bills. “It’s going to be tough to watch that one.”