How Pendleton Heights star WR Eli Pancol overcame 2 broken ankles to make Colts practice squad

NDIANAPOLIS – Eli Pancol remembers vividly that February night in 2007 when his childhood legends Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison triumphed in Miami.

Wouldn’t you, if your 6-year-old self and your mom capped the evening in exuberant celebration, jumping up and down on the bed to celebrate a Colts Super Bowl victory?

“It was so fun being a Colts fan growing up,” the 25-year-old undrafted NFL rookie wide receiver told IndyStar on Wednesday. As a kid, Pancol would attend summer training camps just down the road at Anderson University every chance he got. As a teenager, he did his best Wayne and Harrison impressions on the field, starring for Pendleton Heights, becoming a consensus three-star wideout recruit in the 2019 class after snagging 29 combined touchdown passes as a junior and senior and earning a laundry list of area, conference and state honors.

As a true-freshman early-enrollee at Duke in the fall of 2019, he caught one of the first touchdowns of the post-Daniel Jones era in his college debut and turned six catches during his freshman campaign into three scores. But in Year 4, a broken left ankle derailed his 2022 campaign by October. The following summer, the fracture-dislocation of his right ankle ended Year 5 with the Blue Devils before it began

A back injury a couple weeks into his rookie NFL training camp with the Jacksonville Jaguars kept him out of the final two preseason games following his debut that included a 27-yard catch.

During cutdown day with the Jaguars the last week of August, Pancol landed a waived/injured designation, made him a free agent and allowed him to rehab on his own and pursue other opportunities in the NFL. After spending September rehabbing in Durham, a Sept. 30 tryout in Indianapolis brought Pancol back home.

The ACC’s 2024 Brian Piccolo Award-winner – given to the conference’s “most courageous” football player – who capped his college career at Duke with a three-touchdown explosion on Senior Night with scoring catches of 86 and 77 yards thought he’d nearly clinched his first active practice squad spot that day.

All workouts are kinda the same. They all kinda say, ‘We’re not going to make any transactions right now,’ but I’d been told I had a good workout,” said Pancol, who in the last month had also worked out for the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots. “I kinda got tired of hearing the same thing. I’m like, ‘You might as well tell me what I need to work on at this point.’ But my Colts workout was really good. I almost thought they were going to sign me right up,

And so seven weeks of almost irritatingly-repetitive days began. Living in his mother’s home in Noblesville, Pancol would wake up each morning he wasn’t on the road for a tryout and drive 30 minutes to meet with a trainer in Carmel. After lifting for two hours, he’d aim to take a yoga class, followed by meeting with a wide receiver-specific trainer, and then drive back home for an afternoon and evening filled with video games and way, 

“It’s all a really big credit to my mom. She’s the one that kinda kept me going,” Pancol said of his mother, Alison. “I remember it was after a couple of my workouts (Cleveland and New England), and I took a couple days off, and she said, ‘Why aren’t you working out?’ And it was just tough. I said I needed to take a little break. I’d had back-to-back workouts of being told ‘no’ in the same weekend.

“She simply said, ‘You told me you wanted this?’“

Pancol called his trainer that afternoon and got a workout on the books for the next day

“Ever since then, I’ve been relentless, in the gym every single day,” he said. “And that’s why it’s all perfect timing, cause I’m here now and in great shape.”

Tuesday, Pancol was sitting at his mother’s house, playing video games, knowing he needed to be packing a bag to head to the airport. When his mother got back home from walking the dog that morning, she expected to be driving her son to the airport for a fifth NFL workout in less than two months – this time for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Before he could log off the game, his phone had rang. His agent was on the other line.

And so my mom walked in, she was like, ‘Why aren’t you ready to go?’ And I said, I don’t think I wanna go to Pittsburgh anymore,’” Pancol said. “She was like, ‘Why don’t you wanna go? Are you giving up?’

Nah. I think I’d rather play for the Colts.’”

One of the Colts’ newest practice squad members embraced his crying mother. Together, they celebrated jumping up and down once again. With some more of that courage and daily hard work, perhaps that long-awaited touchdown catch from Daniel Jones may come.

Nathan's Article- Eli Pancol, after starring at Duke, landed practice squad spot with Colts

The 7th grade team battled hard but came up short in a 22-0 loss to Delta. Down 8-0 at half, the Arabians failed to string together consecutive series of good play. The offense found sparks behind the determined running of Maddox Gamble and Brody Mong, who both picked up tough yards against a strong defense. Mong also anchored the defense, leading the team in tackles and setting the tone with his hustle and physical play. While the scoreboard didn’t go their way, the group showed grit and toughness that will serve them well moving forward.