How Jack Doyle celebrated his $19 million contract

Zak Keefer | IndyStar

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INDIANAPOLIS – Word is, Jack Doyle splurged. New house, fancy cars, lavish trips, bottle service in Las Vegas, the whole nine yards. That’s usually what happens when you sign a $19 million contract, right? You live it up. You let loose.

And who could blame him? After all those years of toiling at the bottom of the depth chart, of swallowing his pride and paying his dues, of climbing the ranks and waiting his turn, he’d finally hit it big. He’d become Tight End No. 1. The Indianapolis Colts had rewarded him appropriately. Three years. A base of $19 million. A chance to celebrate, to savor his success.

... OK, OK, truth be told, Jack Doyle did none of that.

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No new house. No new car. No lavish trips. No bottle service in Vegas. Jack Doyle actually hasn’t done anything with his new money.

“I don’t really have any hobbies, in the sense of cars or things like that,” he said this week. “I’m sure I’ll spend some money some time.”

So, instead, he went back to work like nothing’s changed.

That’s Doyle – the antithesis of this era’s me-first NFL superstar, unmoved by the fattest stack of cash he’s ever received. He’s impossibly low-key, an everyman who reddens in the face when asked to talk about himself. It’s not his style. It never will be. Consider: After the game of his life last fall, he revealed in a raucous postgame locker room that his celebration that evening would consist of heading home to give his infant son a bath and a bottle.

New cars, new house, lavish trips after the massive payday? No way.

“He’s probably still driving a Pinto,” joked Colts coach Chuck Pagano.

Doyle isn’t driving a Pinto, but he is embodying the same throwback vibe he always has. That is: Work hard, keep your head down, and good things will happen. It’s how a kid who caught 21 passes as a high school senior at nearby Cathedral, then went undrafted, then was cut by his first NFL squad, ended up here.

That would be starring – not just playing – for his hometown Colts.

“It’s been a fun journey,” Doyle said this week. “And I’m excited to see where it’ll go.”



No one will ever confuse him for a quote machine. He’s relentlessly polite yet exceptionally vanilla. Consider the eye-popping statements that came from him after Wednesday’s workout at the team facility.

Of the offense: “I’m trying to learn as much of it as I can to give us the best chance to be successful.”

Of how his role changes: “I haven’t really sat down and thought about it.”

Of new General Manager Chris Ballard praising him as everything the Colts want in a player: “Thankful. Thankful that he wanted me back. Thankful to be here.”

Two years ago he was third on the depth chart behind Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen. Last season he was the No. 2, behind Allen. Come 2017 he’ll be The Guy for the first time in his career. Not bad for a longtime special teams grunt.

The central question heading into 2017 is whether Doyle is ready to further cement himself as a focal point of the offense. Everything intensifies as the starter. He’ll carry a heavier load in the trenches – the Colts liked Doyle’s improvement in pass protection last fall; it’s one of the main reasons the team felt him worthy of the extension, and why they were willing to ship Allen to New England.

Doyle will also earn more of the defense’s attention downfield, something he seemed to have no issue with in 2016.

Rewind a year ago, and the question was whether or not Doyle could handle the No. 2 spot. Handle it? He caught more passes (59) than any Colts tight end in six seasons. He owned the NFL’s highest catch percentage among tight ends. And, by every statistical measure, he did more in his fourth season than in his first three years combined. Bigger role, bigger expectations, no problem.

Hello, three-year, $19 million contract.

And make no mistake: Doyle earned this.

“He’s a reliable, reliable guy, and the quarterback has a ton of faith and trust in that guy,” Pagano said of Doyle.

Indeed. No. 84 is where No. 12 looks, often late, often with the game on the line. Doyle snared game-winning catches in the red zone in Tennessee and against Jacksonville last season, and would’ve won a third game all the way back in Week 1 if the Colts’ pitiful defense hadn’t yielded a game-winning drive in the final 37 seconds.

He’s the leader in the tight end room now, ahead of the rising Erik Swoope, newcomer Brandon Williams and hoops-to-football convert Mo Alie-Cox. It’s a role he’s comfortable with. Doyle leads not with his words but with a quiet consistency.

“In college, I was a three-time captain, that type of thing,” he said. “I’ve had to lead before. I didn’t feel like it was necessarily my role (to lead) early in my career, but definitely now. I’m trying to do more to improve in that area and help the team.”

Help the team – that’s all Doyle has done since arriving in 2013. He was a nobody then, a long shot, the hometown kid who might last a season, tops.

He’s gone from special-teams grunt and third-string tight end to The Guy.

Think a $19 million contract was going to change Jack Doyle? Come on.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.