Colts 2021 Offseason
 

Starting this up bc we keep extending the game thread.

A couple of points to start the offseason:

Reich has said they will try Nelson at LT extensively to see if he will work there.

Reich has also said he wants Philip Rivers back for the 2021 season.

The Colts seem to have about 60 million in cap space. With the cap reduction of 11% and the Grover Stewert signing, it is smaller than was reported earlier in the year.

I’m surprised to hear that Reich said that about Nelson, not only for the reasons discussed elsewhere here (different skill sets for T and G), but also because it implies that he's not expecting Castonzo back. I’d be curious as to the context of these comments – did you read this in an article somewhere, and if so can you post a link?

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...61805182205952

https://twitter.com/zkeefer/status/1348367240203272193

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"I was watching the Super Bowl with my 92 year-old grandfather. The team scored a touchdown. When they showed the instant replay, he thought that they scored again. I was gonna tell him, but I figured that the game HE was watching was better than the one that I was watching."


Steven Wright, 2000

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I don't think it is a commitment, just they will explore it. It is easier to find a good guard than a good LT. And the best DL are often DE's on teams, they can wreck an offense if you don't have a decent player out there.

Reduce that by $1.7 million, the Colts announced yesterday they signed Dulin and Stallworth to their ERFA tenders.

Nelson played LT in high school and was the number 2 ranked tackle recruit in the country.

https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/...l-signing-day/

There is highlight footage in there as well.

Understood. I hope that Castonzo returns, though, as I really don't like any plan which involves moving Nelson to LT. Not a fan of messing with a good thing.

Veldheer seemed to hold up ok, wonder if he's interested in a normal full season contract? Even if Castonzo returns, it would be nice to have him as a backup.

It appears that Veldheer wants to continue playing this postseason - he has just signed with the Packers.

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/sta...61163170017283

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/sta...62060499390464

Huh. That's an odd one. Either way I'd like to see him back as the backup swing OT next season.

What an opportunist! I did not know this could be done, but I guess it's something that can be done this year only due to COVID:

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/sta...62060499390464

He seems hellbent on getting a ring this year, and it looks like he's got a good agent who's identifying loopholes. If the Pack loses, I guess he'll be moving on to KC next.

He is tough, strong and fearless. He loses 15 lbs and becomes quicker, he will eat light DEs and LB for lunch. He not a block of granite. He is athletic, and ihe can be a dominant OT. He’s a ball player. If you asked him to play as a nose tackle he would bust his ass so he would blow up the first center he faced.

I dont understand why people here cant believe he could play OT. Hes strong, smart quick feet and is an asshole as he drives people into the ground

Nelson would need to completely remake himself to play LT. I'm not saying he couldn't do it, he even did an adequate job filling in when Castanzo went down, but he would need to become much more agile and much less of a mauler to make it work. It seems easier to draft a LT to put next to him and keep him as the best OG in the NFL than to experiment with him and potentially weaken the whole left side of the OL.

Jah, until they meet the Bills.

I don't think it is we don't believe he can do it, but there is the fact he is an elite generational talent at guard and will probably not be that at tackle. I would hate to turn an exceptional G into a good T.

Veldheer was a mauler! Fhack yeah, Chris! Dude pulled it off.!

LTs? Whatever?

We were as fortunate as they come and we could have done it all!

If we only have $60, other teams will likely start the off-season over their cap I wonder what that will do to contracts for free agents, as well as rosters being trimmed of quality guys who cannot be paid what their contract says. Could get interesting.

Edit: This may lead to Rivers retiring.

A lot of teams are way over the cap. Saints, Steelers to name a few. All the teams were expecting the cap to keep rising like it does every year. A lot of players will be restructuring or hitting the market.

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.

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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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Colts Facing Most Important Off-Season in Years, Starting at QB and Left Tackle

(By Mike Wells)

https://www.espn.com/blog/indianapol...nd-left-tackle

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Big Jim chimes in on the Colts' near future ......


With QB Vacancy Needing to be Filled, Colts Owner Jim Irsay says Team is 'Close' to Super Bowl

(By Mike Wells)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ose-super-bowl

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I hope that Cowherd's feelings on this subject wind up being prophetic ......

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He’s not wrong