Cautious Free Agency

[Bluefire4]

http://www.indystar.com/story/colts-insider/2014/02/21/colts-to-be-cautious-about-free-agent-spending/5665251/

 

Hopefully last years free agent get better because it seems the FO are leaning on their development.

[SteelDragon]

There's reason for optimism for last year's FA crop, IF they could all stay healthy for a whole season,  But, how often does that happen? 

Things sure would be looking better if we had a complete compliment of draft picks this off-season. I think it makes some more FA acquisitions absolutely necessary. 

Just seems kind of foolish for Grigs to trade away draft picks and preach fiscal responsibility at the same time.  

[Superman]

I didn't get the same read on Grigson's comments. He said similar things last year, he was just being asked different questions. 

 

"We have to be very prudent and fiscally sound in how we move forward. We still have a plan in place and if there's a chance for us to get better at any position, we're going to try to get better, if it makes sense from a fiscal standpoint for the club."

 

To me, that means he's not going to backload a bunch of contracts and not leave cap room in the future to re-sign key players and so on. He's not going to give out a boatload of guaranteed money, etc. Stephen Holder reads it as "the Colts won't spend like they did last season," and I don't know that Grigson was saying that at all. 

 

Just to project to 2015-16, which Grigson mentioned: I don't think Walden, Toler, Landry, Mathis or Wayne will be under contract at that point, and if anyone of them are, it won't be at the level they're signed for now. Because of the way last year's contracts were structured, we're still carrying over good cap space into future years; $55m in 2015, $90m in 2016, and that's without projecting increases in the cap. If it goes up 5% each year, the way it's supposed to go up for 2014, that will be $62m in 2015 and $113m in 2016. Those numbers obviously won't be the same once we sign and draft new players, but the point is that our future cap situation is still in good shape, despite the "$140 million in new contracts" that were signed in 2013. That number is meaningless at this point.

 

I don't think we'll break the bank on anyone, but we didn't last year either. I think Grigson will continue using the balanced contract structure that he's been using, and he'll try to add a big time impact player or two in FA, plus a few other guys who can play complementary roles. Might not be quite as active as last year, but I expect him to do major work in FA this year.

[Dark Superman]

Agreed. ^^

[lollygagger8]

As long as we bring in people to replace Satele, Toler and McGlynn, I'm good. 

[ztboiler]

Holder offers very little strategic insight about how Grigson has created his plan when he calls last year a "$140M spending spree". It may be a real number, but he either doesn't understand it or is negligent in describing its actual meaning for sensationalistic purposes. Gannett shouldn't be surprised that so many people refuse to pay for what they offer at the Star and look for real knowledge about their favorite team from a myriad of more well informed places....some of which they pay for.