INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts might not have realized it this offseason.
But the offensive line, widely considered one of the team’s strengths, probably needed somebody like Mark Glowinski all along.
A veteran capable of providing a steady hand in case the team’s sizable contingent of young, developmental offensive linemen faltered, or a rash of significant injuries threatened to overwhelm the offensive line through sheer attrition.
The Colts needed somebody to stop the dam from bursting.
A familiar face finally plugged the hole against New England. Glowinski, a 32-year-old who hadn’t played all season and signed to the practice squad the week before, took over for undrafted rookie Dalton Tucker and played all 62 offensive snaps in the win over the Patriots, sparking the Indianapolis running game with his signature brand of nastiness at the point of attack.
“I’ve heard about Glow before — he was here and stuff,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “But just the toughness that he brings, tremendous. He prepared the right way, and to go out and play as many snaps as he did there was phenomenal. I thought he played a hell of a game.”
A player like Glowinski might not have been on the Indianapolis radar for most of the offseason.
Under Steichen and offensive line coach Tony Sparano Jr., the Colts front five largely rebuilt its reputation in 2023, identifying a pair of rising stars in left tackle Bernhard Raimann and right guard Will Fries while serving as the bedrock for an offense that lost its starting quarterback five weeks into the season and dealt with an injury-plagued season from Jonathan Taylor.
All five of those guys were back. Blake Freeland, the team’s fourth-round pick in 2023, returned after playing more than 700 snaps as a rookie. Indianapolis still had backup center Wesley French, who played 270 snaps last year, and brought back long-time depth piece Danny Pinter.
Then the Colts drafted tackle Matt Goncalves in the third round and center Tanor Bortolini in the fourth, making it seem like Indianapolis was set up for both the present and the future.
Until the injuries started to hit.
First, it was French, a loss that seemed manageable at the time. Then center Ryan Kelly went down in the third week of the season, followed by Fries two weeks later, then Raimann three weeks after that, and now that Raimann is back, right tackle Braden Smith is unavailable due to a personal matter. Bortolini and Goncalves have largely been what the Colts expected them to be, but the sheer numbers forced Tucker into the starting lineup, a tough task for any undrafted rookie.
Indianapolis needed somebody to stop the bleeding.
Glowinski was waiting for the call.
“Even though I wasn’t playing, I was getting after it in workouts,” Glowinski said.
Indianapolis might not have been able to get Glowinski this offseason.
A handful of teams tried, offering Glowinski opportunities that he turned down, intent on signing only if he saw the right opportunity. The 32-year-old veteran of nine NFL seasons realized he needed a break at the start of this season, a chance to rebuild the fire that’s long burned within him.
“I think a lot of it was a mental refreshment,” Glowinski said. “I wasn’t saying I was done playing football. … I was just taking a little break in the aspect that it was more on my terms, not on everybody else’s terms, which I haven’t been able to do in a long time. From college all the way up, it’s always in the ballclub’s hand.”
But he always intended to play again, and every day, he’d leave his home in Zionsville, drive to Carmel and put in three-hour workouts designed to keep an offensive lineman ready for the NFL grind. Glowinski rotated his days, doing a full-body workout, upper and lower-body workouts, circuits, days focused on fundamental movement.
“The way the workout was planned out, I think it got me to the position where I was able to go,” Glowinski said.
By planning to sign with a team halfway through the year, Glowinski knew he’d likely be asked to step into action right away.
When the Colts decided to put him in the lineup in place of Tucker, though, there were still a few doubts that he was ready for football, doubts that went away quickly through his week of practice.
Glowinski’s workouts had prepared him for the fight.
And he still craved it, craved the physicality of the position. When Glowinski was a starter in Indianapolis from 2018 to 2021, he was known as a player who brought a nasty, mauling disposition to the offensive line, a key part of running games that were strong throughout his tenure.
“Everyone knows Glow,” Pinter said. “Everyone knows what he’s about.”
The hardest obstacle to overcome was unforeseen.
Glowinski always had a close relationship with Smith, an ability to know what the other was thinking, but the personal matter Smith is facing ended up pairing Glowinski with Goncalves instead. In the days leading up to the New England game, Glowinski was hard at work building a rapport with the rookie.
“It’s definitely been a little bit of a process … but I’ve got a ton of confidence in him, he has a ton of confidence in me,” Goncalves said. “When we got out there, the preparation helped out. … The communication was awesome.”
A veteran, somebody who’s been through plenty of wars before, can do what Glowinski did two weeks ago, step off the sidelines and into the lineup seamlessly, because he’s played so much football in the past.
There is value in experience, in the ability to answer the bell at a moment’s notice.
Value the Colts offense ended up needing more than they ever thought.
“The toughness, the grittiness that he played with was huge,” Steichen said.
Indianapolis might not have realized it needed a player like Glowinski this offseason.
The Colts know now.
