Colts face key decision on picking up Kwity Paye’s 5th-year option by Thursday’s deadline

The question is whether the Colts will or won’t pick up former 2021 first rounder Kwity Paye’s 5th-year option by Thursday’s league deadline?

The Indianapolis Colts have until Thursday (May 2nd) to pick up the 5th-year option on 2021 first round pick (and starting defensive end) Kwity Paye—which would be for $13.4 million fully guaranteed in 2025.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard did briefly address Paye’s looming 5th-year option decision following ‘Day 1’ of last week’s NFL Draft, when asked:

“We’ll work through that next week,” responded Ballard on whether the Colts will pick up Paye’s 5th-year option. “Look, Kwity is a really good football player. What did he have like 8.5 sacks last year? Plays the crap out of the run. He’s a great teammate. I think you know our philosophy, we want to keep as many of our own guys as we can. So, we like Kwity a lot.”

He’s also highly regarded by his defensive coordinator, Gus Bradley:

It’s also worth noting that just because the Colts don’t pick up Paye’s 5th-year option doesn’t mean that they cannot still work out a contract extension with the 25-year-old by the time’s he’s otherwise set to become a free agent following the 2024 campaign.

Given his youth, production, and first round pedigree, picking up Paye’s 5th-year option wouldn’t necessarily be a terrible proposition for the Colts, in order to see if he can tap into more of his physical tools and pass rushing upside—especially given the inflated contracts that are being handed out in NFL free agency these days.

(It’s possible that if the Colts passed up on Paye’s 5th-year option, and he hits free agency, another team might roll the dice on him for similar reasons—and for a comparable price.)

That being said, his long-term future with the Colts franchise is a bit murky given the team’s fresh first round selection of Laiatu Latu, as well as the fact that Colts’ 2021 second round pick, Dayo Odeyingbo, is also set to become a free agent following this upcoming season.

One could make the argument that while Paye has been a solid starting defensive end, he hasn’t quite lived up to his first-round draft billing and offers more in run defense than as a pass rusher—which has value, but arguably isn’t quite as valuable in today’s passing league.

Both Latu and Odeyingbo are more regarded for their pass rushing ability, first and foremost—which presumably may be valued more by the Colts, or even others.

For perspective, Paye was PFF’s 36th best graded edge defender last season with a +74.3 overall grade. While he was generally solid for the Colts, that grade is comprised of a +78.1 run defense grade, but just a +62.2 pass rushing grade.

It leads some credence to the idea that Paye’s 8.5 sack output was the result of being a beneficiary of others’ pass rushing pressure and/or being ‘in the right place at the right time’—rather than because of his own pass rushing prowess. He also finished with 2 QB hits and 28 total QB pressures this past season.

Honestly, the Colts could go in a different number of directions on this one, and we should at least learn their decision on Paye’s 5th-year option soon enough.