Now that we officially need a LT, perhaps the cap-related purge of high-priced players will provide us with an opportunity to use our cap space to our advantage and get a solid veteran in here. Castanzo's retirement opens up another 16M in cap space in 2021.

That’s what I’m thinking. This is a bad year to be a free agent or a high priced veteran.

If a sure fire LT isn’t available in the draft I hope we can sign Alejandro Villanueva away from the Steelers.

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We could use an LT.



https://cdn.britannica.com/s:1500x70...aylor-1994.jpg

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The first to go will be dead weight not performing up to their contract. Next will be rookies/projects likely not performing. Then the decent FA's will be let go. A good LT is very valuable though, so I would see them being one of the last to be let go. Also there are a few teams with a lot of space. Jets, Jaguars, WFT, pats, Bengals, they will be signing people.

First number is their current number over the cap, second number is their projected cap space once they sign 51 players. These teams are all over the cap in millions, also the Bills will go over once they hit 51 players. Our projected cap space is 51 million after signing 51 players. That 20 million of projected cap space is really going to fuck with things bc a lot of teams were counting on it.

• Bears ($89,572) ($10,649,572)
• Raiders ($7,622,096) ($15,542,096)
• Vikings ($9,105,171) ($11,085,171)
• Chiefs ($13,627,129) ($23,527,129)
• Texans ($17,886,275) ($17,886,275)
• Steelers ($21,009,219) ($31,569,219)
• Rams ($22,053,472) ($26,013,472)
• Packers ($22,220,619) ($28,160,619)
• Falcons ($24,394,641) ($37,594,641)
• Eagles ($51,663,371) ($51,663,371)
• Saints ($95,050,739) ($99,010,739)

Looks like a good time to have saved a few cap dollars. Some of these teams will lose players they are considering as part of their core.

So how much we have might be up in the air still. Sport tac says we have 68 million. Is this Castonzo off the books?

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/2021/

We are also the youngest team in the NFL currently.

I believe Veldheer's postseason will end with the Packers. The reason why the Packers could sign him was because he was on the Colts practice squad and not the active roster. With the COVID-19 rules, teams can "elevate" extra players to the active roster for game days and carry more active players than the normal 53 man limit. Those elevated players revert back to the practice squad the day after the game. Teams can only elevate a player two times - if the Colts would have won the game vs the Bills, they would have likely needed to promote Veldheer to the 53 man roster because they had already elevated him twice - the only other "workaround" would be if someone on the 53 man roster was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list - then a practice squad player could be elevated as the designated replacement.

With the Packers poaching him off the Colts practice squad, Green Bay will need to place him on their active roster - not their practice squad - so this should disqualify him from signing with another team this postseason if/when Green Bay is eliminated.

He did play a few games for the Packers last season so he will already have some familiarity with them.

o


The Colts are at the bottom of the page in this article regarding the 10 eliminated playoff teams ...... I've edited the final 2 sentences in regard to Anthony Castonzo, because for some reason Mike Wells still had his status of retirement as undecided.



What Went Wrong, What's Next for the 10 Eliminated Playoff Teams

(By Mike Wells, ESPN's NFL Nation)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...-playoff-teams



How the Season Finished: ) It's hard to say something went wrong when you finish with double-digit victories for just the second time since 2014. But the Colts didn't give quarterback Philip Rivers a one-year, $25 million contract to simply lead them to the first weekend of the playoffs. Owner Jim Irsay wants to win "multiple Lombardis", but they haven't won any since the 2006 season and have not been to the Super Bowl since 2009. They had the talent to make the post-season, but the 2020 season proved there was little room for error. And Indianapolis nearly had one error too many. The Colts didn't qualify for the playoffs until the final week of the regular season when they beat Jacksonville and then got help from Buffalo beating Miami.


Biggest Off-season Question: ) Who will be the Colts' starting quarterback and left tackle in 2021 ??? After spending the first 16 seasons of his career with the Chargers, Philip Rivers proved critics wrong by showing that he could still compete at the highest level. But he's 39 years' old, and has a high school head-coaching job waiting for him in Alabama when he retires. The risk of keeping Rivers ...... if all sides want that to happen ...... is his production falling off, which would force the franchise to hunt for a new starter in 2022. 4th-round pick Jacob Eason spent this season as the team's 3rd-string quarterback, learning behind Rivers and Jacoby Brissett. It's unknown if Eason is ready to push for the starting job next season. The Colts could re-sign Brissett, who will be a free agent, or look for a starter via free agency or a trade (Carson Wentz or Matthew Stafford both come to mind.) Starting left tackle Anthony Castonzo has retired, leaving a vacancy at his position. The only player currently on the roster who might be able to fill in at that spot is All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson.

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Small sample size alert (1 playoff game.)



Colin Cowherd: ) "How good are the Colts ??? In terms of mobility, Philip Rivers moves about as well as that chair ...... and in the playoff game against the Bills, Rivers threw for 309 yards and he literally wasn't touched by the Bills' defense. Not including the kneel-down to end the first half, every Colts' possession ended up in Bills territory ...... all 9 of them. If I'm Carson Wentz or Sam Darnold, I am dying to play for the Colts, and structuring my contract to whatever the team needs it to be. A solid QB walking into this situation is/was like Matt LaFluer walking in on the head coaching job in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers and company in 2019."

(A similar comparison to Cowherd's point about Lafluer walking in on the head coaching job in Green Bay in 2019 might be Jim Caldwell walking in on the Colts' head coaching job with Peyton Manning and company in 2009.)

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