INDIANAPOLIS – Eric Fisher wasn’t supposed to be sitting in the stands.
Certainly not at the Super Bowl, the game everyone is watching, the game that just one year earlier he was playing in, blocking the blindside for Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Super Bowl winning Kansas City Chiefs.
But Fisher knows the business of the NFL.
Even former No. 1 overall picks get cut coming off a stretch in which that player felt he was playing some of the best football of his career.
That’s the case for Fisher, who tore his Achilles back on January 24th, in the AFC Championship.
That injury had Fisher watching Mahomes run for his life in the Super Bowl two weeks later.
That injury, coupled with some contractual hurdles, had the Chiefs deciding it was time to cut the 30-year-old Fisher in March, ushering in a new wave of offensive tackles in Kansas City.
And that has brought Fisher to Indy, where he’s happy to be in the Midwest, happy to be next to the ‘best left guard in football’ and happy to prove that once his Achilles is healed, high-level left tackle play will still be there from him.
“That was one of the things that I talked with Coach (Frank Reich) about, because as a player getting to the second half of your career there are a lot of questions, especially coming off of an injury,” Fisher says.
“As soon as I got the call that I was being cut it was an automatic reset in my brain that was like, ‘I’m nowhere near being done.’ I feel like I have a lot of years left in me. So, it’s funny you bring that up because I was thinking about that this morning driving home from rehab. It’s going to be an awesome reset for myself, a fresh slate, keep working and finish the second half of my career off on a good start. So, it’s funny you bring that up. I’ve been thinking about that. I’m excited to kind of have that reset.”
Fisher had been unemployed for about two months, but he also felt like the Colts were the right fit.
There’s the Chris Ballard connection, the Midwest ties and the belief that this is a team in the thick of the AFC’s top squads.
So much of Fisher’s success in Indy will come down to his health.
Any specifics on where Fisher is at rehab wise, will have to come from the top of the organization.
“I can tell you this, I am a big control what you can control kind of guy,” Fisher says. “Obviously, I would like to snap my fingers and have a perfect Achilles again, but I know that’s not the case. Obviously, the club feels good where I’m at. I’m feeling good, but any other questions on my Achilles I’ll leave up to Chris Ballard or Coach.”
When Fisher does make his Colts’ debut, the expectations will be high, which isn’t shocking to him.
This is a guy who has started 11 playoff games in his career.
When Fisher played for the Chiefs in 2019, as they made their run to winning a Super Bowl, they were a perfect 11-0 with him in the lineup (4-4 without him).
In listening to Fisher, you feel some motivation from ‘being fired for the first time’ and some prove-it nature that Justin Houston felt when the Chiefs cut him a few years back.
Once the rehab is compete, it’ll be time for Fisher to prove that.
