Agreed; it will be odd if we don't go fishing in the free agency pool.

Colts are sitting on around $53.600m in free cap space. Back out around $8m for rookie class, practice squad, spots 52/53 on the active roster and in-season "churn" space and they have around $45m in order to sign free agents.

That could be increased by $10.700m if they decide to cut Arthur Jones and D'Qwell Jackson for near $56m in cap space to sign free agents.

Of our own impending free agents, only Walden, Doyle and perhaps Butler will be paid "starter" money by someone in the league.

Other guys like: Akeem Ayers, Robert Turbin, Jordan Todman and perhaps Darryl Morris might get paid more than veteran minimum in 2017 but probably not much more.

So, if the Colts want to retain Butler (for safety?) then it will probably cost them around $4m a year. Doyle is a little harder to figure but will probably be retained for between $3.5 - $5.5m a year but Walden is the issue now that he is a double digit "sack master." Even though we all know that he will probably never hit double digit sacks again in his career (this is only the 2nd year out of 9 seasons that he has had more than 3.0 sacks in a season) he will still get paid for his double digit sack season because pass rushers are so sought after.

My over / under on Walden is $7.00m a year. I think there is an excellent chance that he will want more than that and if he does, then even though our LB cupboard is BARE, I think we should let him walk and sign someone else to play the OLB[EDGE] slot.

So, if we decide to retain all three guys, the Colts will pay around $16m in 2017 cap hit for those guys (lots of ways to do this but I am figuring straight line) so that would leave around $29m (or $40m if we cut Jones/Jackson) in order to sign new free agents.

Three new defensive starters at $8m a year average then allows the Colts to sign a couple of "quality backup" guys like Turbin, Todman or Ayers to round out the roster after seeing what the draft brings.

Anyway, I will be shocked if we don't sign a couple of high quality defensive guys to help boost our draft class. One at each level (D-Line, LB, CB) would be pretty brilliant although I will not be opposed to multiple LB signed.

Cheers,

Thad

We need to bring in at least 3 guys with proven starting experience to the defensive side of the ball, preferably 4 or 5. This would then improve the depth of the roster considerably.

We could do with a truly dominant defensive lineman, and then at least 2 linebackers, although i suspect we will try to draft a couple of guys to fill this position of need, and then either or possibly both a CB and a S.

If we could have a defensive line rotation of Anderson, Langford, McGill, Ridgeway, Parry, Kerr plus the stud addition of someone like Donatario Poe, then we would be set at this position.

Linebackers, the cupboard is pretty much bare, we need to cut D'Qwell Jackson, and Walden, going forward i don't see them contributing to the values of the contracts they will command and neither have exactly set the world alight with their play of late. Walden isn't a guy who you think is ever likely to reproduce another 10 sack year, i don't feel like he produced anything like that calibre of play this year anyway. We need to sign 2 mid level free agents and draft 2 guys within the first 3 rounds.

The defensive back situation is possibly slightly less of a major concern, but could very easily be upgraded....Vontae Davis is still a No. 1 corner, but Robinson is a nickle back and not really a 2nd corner. But he would be an excellent third guy. The safety position is ok with Geathers, assuming he is healthy, and then T.J. Green might become a decent backup or even reduced to a 4th safety if Butler moves there on a permanent basis. Adams is probably done and to bring in someone like Eric Berry would be an enormous upgrade. A DB group of Davis, Claibourne, Robinson, Butler, Melvin, a mid round draft pick, Berry, Geathers and Green would give us as good a group as i could realistically hope to see the Colts put out on the field.

After listening to Ballard yesterday, I'm seriously wondering if they're REALLY looking at 2017 as a rebuilding year, where they'll focus most resources on the Draft and pick up guys that fit the system in free agency, without blockbusters.

Then, they could roll over some cap space into 2018 (Sherck can correct me on the details regarding the floor that they must spend to on 2017 and how much of an advantage it'd be to roll over whatever they can) and then REALLY try to hit it hard on 2018.

The upside to this is that if 2017 is a rebuilding year and the team again misses the postseason, then at least Ballard would have ample reason to fire Pagano and bring in his new guy and have another offseason, this one in which he might make some more win-now splashes.

Irsay stated he is fine with some down seasons if they lead to championships. ballard said his overall philosophy is to build from the draft. this is what should have been done from day one of the last regime. we had too much early success and they "went for it" only to fail, now we are set back several years from when we drafted luck.

It pains me to think if irsay had gotten someone like reggie mckenzie instead of the grease ball 5 years ago. at least it sounds like they will attempt to do it right this time.

I like how the Giants have done it recently, honestly. Mostly build through the draft. Mostly re-sign their own or ignore free agency. But if a year comes up when Snacks Harrison, Janoris Jenkins and Olivier Vernon are available ... yes, you go look at those guys and make some moves.

That seems fairly similar to how Denver built their defense that won them the Super Bowl last year.

Buil primarily through the draft with guys like Von Miller, Malik Jackson, Derek Wolfe, Chris Harris, etc.

But then also bring in guys like Aqib Talib, TJ Ward, and Demarcus Ware.

Hey, looks like we've found a winning formula!

I can see how it'll take a little while to retool based off of that. We'll need a defense heavy draft this year at the very least to set ourselves up for something like that for the next offseason.

By the time these clowns get it right, Luck will be in the twilight of his career!! Pagano has to go now, he can't afford any more rebuilding years!!

Yep, should have hired McKenzie. Blew that one.

I wonder if Poe might be a target at NT.

I'll probably get skewered for this but with all our defensive needs acknowledged.....we need another wr. Moncreif and Dorsett aren't thrilling me.

son of a bitch

it never ends with colts fans