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It's barely over 5 mil for crying out loud. This forum is getting comical with the feeding frenzy of whiny complaintents. One person says something bad and here come the sharks. This is a good signing and will help our D. I can't wait till next season when all these guys pan out and all the whiners are here acting like they knew it all along. Good grief!!!

Many posters here were very upset with the choices Grigson made during free agency this year. Average to above average players that many felt we overpaid for. I was initially upset with how we were blatantly going after mid level players when all the big fish were out there.

Everything changed when I started looking at the numbers more closely.

While most of us were bellyaching about the signings, Grigson was actually building cap room!!!!!!

However, then I started looking at how Grigson has structured the contracts of our new free agents and realized that he had not done the “standard” practiced of pushing much of the cap hits off into the future for a lower cap hit this year. Most of the contracts were pretty even.

Take for example OG Donald Thomas. He signed a 4-year, $14 million deal with $3.5 million guaranteed money which consisted of his $1 million signing bonus and his first year $2.5 million dollar salary. He will make $3.5 million dollar salaries for his 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of his contract so his cap hit will be:

Thomas; 2013 = $2,750,000, 2014 = $3,750,000, 2015 = $3,750,000, 2016 = $3,750,000

So, while we get a small cap relief in year one of the contract, we DO NOT get a balloon down the road that can be painful to accept.

The same was done for many of the other contracts:

Landry: 2013 = $5,750,000, 2014 = $5,750,000, 2015 = $6,250,000, 2016 = $6,250,000 Waldren: 2013 = $3,250,000, 2014 = $4,250,000 2015 = $4,250,000, 2016 = $4,250,000 Toler: 2013 = $4,333,333, 2015 = $5,333,333, 2016 = $5,333,333 RJF = Don’t know, contract info has not come out yet.

The only contract that Grigson did the “traditional” thing of pushing money into out years was that of Cherilus. Gosder signed a 5-year, $34.5 million salary with $15.5 million guaranteed money which consists of his $10 million signing bonus and his first year $5,500,000 dollar salary.

However, his 2nd year salary is only going to be $1,000,000 and his 3rd year salary will be $4,000,000 making those cap hits lower than normal to then push the rest of the money into years 4 and 5 (and allow an easy “break” point if he has not lived up to his contract status). His cap hits:

Cherilus: 2013 = $7,500,000, 2014 = $3,000,000, 2015 = $ 6,000,000, 2016 = $9,000,000, 2017 = $9,000,000

This is the only “escalating” salary that Grigson signed this year.

What this translates into is that the Colts have a pretty static salary cap situation for the next couple of years. At my best guess, for the 47 players currently under contract for the 2014-2015 NFL season, they are only using $86 million in cap space for 2014 leaving about $38 million of free space for next season.

Obviously, there are a few more things that need to come out of that 2014 number like; this year’s rookie 2nd year cap hits, next year’s rookie cap hits, and re-signing our own free agents (which we have a lot).

But, it just goes to show that we could easily re-sign some of our more valuable free agents ( out of: Bethea, Davis, Vinatieri, Donald Brown, McAfee, Angerer, Conner, McKinney, Moala) in addition to adding another player or two from other teams if needed.

Largest Ten 2013 Cap Hits: Mathis =………………..$ 10,750,000 Cherilus = ………………$ 7,500,000 Wayne = ………….…….$ 7,500,000 Bethea = ………………..$ 5,750,000 Landry = ………………..$ 5,750,000 Luck = ……………………$ 5,024,545 Jean-Francois = ……..$ 4,750,000 (estimated since we don’t have exact numbers yet) Redding = ……………..$ 4,391,667 Toler = ………………….$ 4,333,333 Satele = ………………..$ 3,866,667

Largest Ten 2014 Cap Hits: Mathis = ………………..$ 8,750,000 Wayne = ………………..$ 6,500,000 Luck = …………………….$ 6,029,454 Landry = …………………$ 5,750,000 Satele = ………………….$ 5,366,667 Toler = …………………..$ 5,333,333 Jean-Francois = ………$ 5,250,000 (estimated) Redding = ………………$ 4,391,667 Walden = ……………….$ 4,250,000 Thomas = ………………$ 3,750,000

So, right now, after signing a whole host of free agents this year, we only have 7 players scheduled to have a cap hit of more than $ 5 million in 2014. Sure, re-signing some of our own (Davis) will cost more but we are in a very friendly situation already for 2014 and will be in a position to spend to retain our own and add another piece or three next year as required.

Discuss...

Some of you guys call yourselves Colts fans? You call yourselves FOOTBALL fans?! If some of you think you can do a better job scouting, drafting, coaching, by all means walk into the Indianapolis Colts facilities and personally tell our GM Ryan Grigson and coach Pagano that you can do a better job than them. To those of you who do nothing but complain ask yourself, why are you sitting at home on a Colts forum and not in a football organizations front office? It's one thing to have an opinion, its another thing to completely disrespect the people working to build a great football team. I'm out. GO COLTS.

45% of the Indy fans polled wanted Te'o??? No thanks!

Erm. I'm a Colts fan, not a Broncos fan, so Colts. Why is this even a question? 

6...u forgot the playoffs and SB

I'd be happier than Paul revere with a cell phone.

I love this pick. Thornton is big strong and can manhandle his opponents. Much better pick than Barrett Jones as some have suggested and is a much better scheme fit for a man blocking scheme. Day 1 starter at RG.

I hope whatever the Colts do in the draft, The Broncos do better. Peyton Manning for King of the World!!!!

 

Many folks on here, it appears are clamoring for the old days where the only stat that mattered is sacks.

This defense is geared to first stopping the run
This defense is geared to first stopping the run

Repeat it, if you are unsure of the new team philosophy

We had many years of great personal stats for sacks (Freeney and Mathis )
But our defense was pushed up and down the field.

It was a defense that only shined when we had a lead (Having Peyton made a huge difference)

We need a defense that can win games for us.

The old adage is defense wins championships.

We had probably the best QB ever in Peyton, but in all his years here, we won only one championship, which is a crying shame........... Biggest problem?  Poor defense!

It's a new mindset.

It's a new approach.

It's evident with all the negative posts on Walden.  
Walden brought in first and foremost as a run stopper "EDGE-SETTER" per Grigson from the OLB
position.

Walden may come off the field on long downs where we will have a pass rusher come in.

Grigson has been quoted many times as needing to stop the run as the FIRST priority



This defense is different.

It is geared to getting rid of the constant 3rd and 1 yard plays that this defense has seen the past 15 years

It's geared to stopping the run for a loss or minimal gain

It's a different approach than what we are used to......   But.... We will be better!

He's probably somewhere lifting a truck or something

We are a way better team as a whole than we were as an 11-5 team last year by far!

As I am watching the draft, Bruschi just said " I love the guys they have been drafting and bringing in. I love the mentality. I believe the Colts will win that division this year"

Thanks Teddy! I'm in total agreement sir....

uh oh...lol  this thread is going to be epic

Lol best part about this night is watching all the GM wannabes get upset the guy they liked didn't get picked.

Clutch factor even??? Luck is the most clutch rookie the leave has ever seen. Game management should be even at least.

Because we already have Hilton, Heyward-Bey, Allen, Fleener, and Wayne, we have enough targets for Luck, Werner was a good pick

No thanks. I don't want any curse on him or the team.

I think ten wins is a reasonable estimate; if you want to call that a step back so be it. But our record was probably four games better than it really should have been last year. We got a lot of wins on smoke and mirrors, some good luck, and a lot of emotion. The record doesn't really indicate the talent level of the team.

 

I expect us to be better, well rounded, more balanced, all that, this season. No question. But I don't think it's going to be evident just by comparing the records.

What about The Natural Bjoern Killer?