Colts sign LS Luke Rhodes to contract extension
 

https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/sta...16827257794726

https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...21291519725687

Congrats to Luke of The Luke.

Taylor is probably fuming. Ha

It does seem to undercut the argument that since A) we sucked so bad last year and B) we have a new coach and system we will not give out contract extensions.

Kind of I guess, but the role and fit for a long snapper doesn't really change no matter who the head and ST coaches are.

At his press conference Ballard, when asked why no new contracts said "We won four games". That seemed to be the main point. Agreed that if you are a long snapper you don't really have a scheme.

Luke Rhodes couldn't carry Justin Snow's jock!:cool:

To be fair, if JT wants to sign a contract extension that averages just over $1.6m a year, I am all for it!! :)

I also should point out that Rhodes is already making $1.2M this season and the vet minimum for next year for someone with his service time is pretty much the same. I would guess his salary increases each year in his new deal, but not seeing the annual breakdown of his contract anywhere. So assuming a simple average he'll jump to a ~$1.6M annual cap hit in beginning in '24. $400K against the cap isn't shit.

Or even the 25% increase on what JT's currently making.

There is a vet minimum salary table here:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cba/minimum/


If you tally up the amounts for the next several seasons based on Rhodes' increasing number of years of service, it rolls up to about $5.1M.

Compare that with the numbers Pelissero reported - $6.46M total with $1.1M as a signing bonus. Without seeing the actual contract numbers yet, it would appear that the premium above the vet minimum is mostly going to his signing bonus.

So it's actually ~$340K/yr above the vet minimum which is even better.

It's funny a friend of mine was all pissed off about this and calling me a Ballard homer b/c I disagreed with him. And I was like:

- LS isn't that important unless you don't have at least a decent one. Then it's a big issue.

- If you don't "pay" Rhodes then you're going to have to bring in someone else and pay them at least the rookie or vet minimum. Even with the extension the amount Rhodes is making over either of those is so insignificant that it's worth not taking the risk you take on from trying to replace him.

Its not just snapping. On punt coverage, the center is not cover, so he is the middle field gunner. Busting ass once the punt is gone he can force a fair catch or early tackle.

Can anyone here recall the last bad snap on a field goal or a punt? If the answer is no, thats why he is getting paid.

Absolutely.

I don't think anyone who is reasonable would think that Rhodes is overpaid. I am glad they redid him. The timing is just weird. You are in the middle of tough negotiations with JT and have said that you don't want to redo his contract because of some weird reason (because he is a running back?). I have to believe that they wouldn't have done this this early if they were not going to offer JT something. They could have agreed to this with Rhodes and announced it after the JT situation was resolved. As it is this, if they keep telling JT that they won't redo his contract after redoing so many others (Rhodes this year and many others over the last few years) I think he has a beef. Time will tell if the Colts have a plan or if they just don't give a shit about JT at this point.

If my kid plays ball I’ll tell him to develop his long snapping skills. Every team needs one and probably a lot less competition for it than other positions.