NFL.com names Colts among ‘five teams that must make a free agency splash’

Is this the year the Colts make a major free agency splash? I wouldn’t necessarily be holding my breath this time of year…

According to NFL.com’s Jeffri Chadiha, the Indianapolis Colts are among ‘five NFL teams that must make a free agency splash’:

5. Indianapolis Colts

The Colts are projected to have $70.3 million in cap space, which is fifth most in the league. That’s a good place to be for a team that came within one game of making the playoffs in 2023, but GM Chris Ballard still plans to be prudent with his spending when the free agency period begins.

“Everybody gets excited for that (first) week (of free agency) and stamps a future Super Bowl winner off of that,” Ballard said last week at the combine. “But what you’re seeing is, alright, you got the A-level players, well what happens with them, they get tagged. So now you got the next level ones that you end up paying A money. If there’s one on the market that we think fits us — and look, it takes two sides here. There’s times you’ll make an offer, a big offer, to a player and you just don’t get him and he goes somewhere else. That’s part of it. We’ll be as aggressive as we need to be when we think we need to be.”

Ballard made it clear that his priority is providing protection for quarterback Anthony Richardson — who impressed as a rookie despite playing only four games and having his season cut short because of shoulder surgery — and adding weapons to the offense. Ballard plans on keeping free agent receiver Michael Pittman Jr., but don’t be surprised if the Colts add another wideout in either free agency or the draft. The Colts need more depth and explosiveness at that position, and a second-tier free agent like Marquise Brown or Gabe Davis could be an option. Ballard also needs to bolster one of the league’s worst defenses, and there could be help coming in the secondary and defensive line. If the Colts want to add a veteran cornerback – and they might lose Kenny Moore II to free agency — they could look at somebody like L’Jarius Sneed or free agents Jaylon Johnson or Chidobe Awuzie. If they want to improve at safety, then Antoine Winfield, Jr., Geno Stone and Kyle Dugger could be interesting names.

Playing in the same division as C.J. Stroud and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence also means the Colts need more juice in their pass rush. They saw Jonathan Greenard in Houston enough to know he could be a viable option in that regard. Ballard knows his franchise needs to keep pace with the Jaguars and Texans, two young teams that won the AFC South in each of the last two seasons. A big offseason makes that possible for Indianapolis.

The Top 5 list also included the Colts’ AFC South rival, the Houston Texans (#1), meaning both teams may be feeling a little added pressure to surround their promising 2nd-year quarterbacks with a stronger supporting cast—while simultaneously also taking advantage of their current rookie contracts respectively.

The biggest free agent priority for the Colts right now remains either franchise tagging or re-signing lead wideout Michael Pittman Jr., but there’s also some other notable key internal free agents including Kenny Moore II, Grover Stewart, and Julian Blackmon among others.

While the Colts are armed with a projected $70.3M of available team salary cap space, general manager Chris Ballard has been historically pretty prudent in free agency, preferring to sign the ‘Tier 2’ and ‘Tier 3’ free agents over overpaying the ‘Tier 1’ top guys—which it ultimately takes to land them among heated competition.

However, he did open his normally tight wallet a little further last offseason, inking starting defensive end Samson Ebukam to a 3-year, $24 million contract and also making Matt Gay the highest paid kicker in league history.

I wouldn’t hold my breath on the Colts making a ‘major free agency splash’ this offseason. That’s just not the type of game that Ballard typically likes playing. That being said, it wouldn’t be shocking if they target an impact free agent or two to strengthen their starting lineup and in a calculated attempt to surpass the Texans atop the AFC South.