Official 2024 Colts FA Signings
 

Since FA starts this week I thought I'd kick off a thread w/ the annual Chris Ballard inspiration pic.

https://bestteestore.net/wp-content/...ents-shirt.png

These kind of agents are anything but free.

Bargain bin Ballard won't do much. He is just taking it slow in his 10 year rebuilding plan.

Colts are bringing back Tyquan Lewis per Rapoport.

He is a nice depth option - so I am good with that as long as the contract terms aren't too bad.


https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1767268488027005428

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...69431711764603

https://twitter.com/RomeovilleKid/st...70774446948739

Tyquan Lewis contract info: 2 years, $12M with $7.7M guaranteed.


https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/s...92308649545989

Happy with re-signing MPJ, Grover, and the Franklin extension. Bringing Lewis back is good too, but I think we overpaid there.

Just need Kenny and Blackmon now, then hopefully they'll pursue one of two of the higher end external FAs. But likely they'll just look in the middle tier and draft.

What about Rigo? Isn't he a FA too?

Wonder why we wouldn’t have signed Van Ginkle for 20 mil instead. Top 10 edge rusher last season. That was 2 years 14 guaranteed


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U thinking Sneed? Or Hunter?

Stampede Blue speculating that Justin Fields could end up in Indy as AR’s backup.

I gotta say, that’s a good idea provided they don’t give up a lot to get him. Fields would be the ideal backup for AR.

I want Hunter, don't think they'll do it.

It'd be nice, but I doubt we do it. Certainly not going to hold my breath.

More contract details:

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...77236066242642


https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/indianap...n-lewis-25163/

Colts are finalizing a new deal with Rigo per Garafolo:


https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/sta...75232292982914

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...76305795481748

https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/s...15894304231792

Holder reports that the Colts are among the teams who have touched base with Hunter.

https://twitter.com/HolderStephen/st...49050499657769

Not getting my hopes up too high yet, but this is a good sign.

Signed with Texans …. Fuck that guy

Well that sucks :mad:

Hunter lived just outside of Houston for most of his childhood - that is where he played high school ball.

The Texans had an opening for a pass rusher since the Vikings poached Greenard away from them.


https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1767679353465249846

Texans sure have been aggressive making moves. I guess they are interested in winning. Ballard on the other hand is not very aggressive & okay with status quo. That's fine. Some people are like that.

I wouldn't call the Texans that aggressive. They are mostly being reactive - trying to fill holes after their own free agents such as Greenard and Singletary signed elsewhere.

The Colts re-signed Ronnie Harrison for another year.


https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/sta...37156847137240

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/sta...69565986754923

o


Good info ...... he hasn't played since 2022, though.

He did have 4.5 sacks and 40 combined tackles in 16 games in his rookie season of 2018.

o

Maybe something cooking?
https://twitter.com/FloridaHoosier5/...71965745545626

Captain Colt
@FloridaHoosier5
Take it for what it’s worth and bookmark this post and roast me if it doesn’t happen but I’ve been told Sneed will be a Colt. Trade compensation has been agreed to but Colts working on contract extension to make everything final.

https://twitter.com/NateAtkins_/stat...57052605190604

Looks like we’re trying to land this guy
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...430e39249f.jpg


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I was hoping to bring Blackman back but Diggs and a fourth rounder might work.

Why? He's 31, Blackmon is 25 and more productive. Don't overthink it, bring back Blackmon.

Because 30+ guys are in the bargain bin & Ballard is a dumpster diver.

Gotta be a reason they seem to be out on Blackmon

I get the feeling that JB wants to play for another team. No reason; just a gut feeling.

Dolphins get Kendall Fuller two years at $16.5 million.

Two rich for Bargain bin Ballard.

Kendall Fuller?

Yes. Sorry.

So serious question. I feel like I've been a fan of the NFL for ages but the salary cap eludes me.

The last number I looked said the Colts have like $29 million of cap space, but perhaps it's not accurate given Rigo is showing as no cap hit and they just re did his contract.

But let's say the cap was at $20 million. What exactly is the advantage of hording that cap money? Like does it keep rolling over to the point that Ballard will get a high quality FA? And if Ballard doesn't believe in high quality FAs, does it have a benefit in signing their own players? And if it has that benefit but there's money left over, does it have any benefit at all? Like does he get some sort of bonus from Irsay or does Irsay get richer or something?

I'm not trying to make this a Ballard bash fest, or say that they need to be out there spending or whatever, I'm just legitimately trying to know if that cap space is being maximized in any way.

It does continue to roll over year over year. For example, the current NFL Salary Cap is $255,400,000, however the Colts' team salary cap is $259,832,808 because the Colts had $4,432,808 of cap space at the end of the 2023 league year. So, if the Colts end up with $20 million of cap space at the end of this season, using the current projected 2025 cap number of $260,000,000, the Colts team cap in 2025 would be $280,000,000.

First of all, Ballard is not "hoarding cap money." That is a myth. He is spending it. He has doled out about $200M in contracts just in the last few days.

But yes, if a team does not use cap money during a season, that money is rolled over to the next league year. The unused cap for the Colts last year was like $ 4 - 7M (different websites show slightly different estimates) and it has been added to this year's cap space. So only 2 or 3 percent of the cap last year went unused. And that is a fairly typical number - it is usually somewhere under $10M. Again, not hoarding.

I realize that fans want him to spend more on external free agents. It is obvious that he doesn't like doing that - and I can understand the philosophy to a certain degree. I think he is more comfortable using the cap space on the Colts own free agents and "betting on them" because he knows so much more about them. However, his philosophy hasn't always worked out for him because sometimes the re-signed Colts underperformed vs the second (or third) contract. In those cases, it was usually injury-related - Leonard is a good example.

So, the issue is not necessarily that Ballard is "cheap" or not spending the money - he is spending the money. The question should be is he spending the money wisely?

Each team also has to spend at least a certain percentage of the current years salary cap, no idea what this number is though. So you couldn't get away with only paying your players $150m, and roll over an enormous amount of money to the following year.