Our 2012 class

[a06cc]

I'm thinking beyond this season. How do we sign Luck to a contract and keep Allen, Fleener and Hilton. Do you guys think it's possible to accomplish this?

[cjwhiskers]

Possible? Yes, probable? No. My opinion is we only keep 2 from the combo of TY, Coby, Dwayne. I'd be incredibly happy if we got to keep all 3, but I just don't see it happening. Listening to Dwayne's newest interview, I'm also getting the sense that he doesn't think he will be here next year, which is a shame. 

[COLTS449]

I don't know hardly anything about how the cap works, but I mean I would think we'll be able to keep all of them and still have room for more FA's. I mean the cap keeps going up. It'll be up probably another 10mill next year too. It shouldn't be too hard to keep all of Luck, Hilton, Fleener, and Allen. If one of our young TE's develop though they could actually make Allen expendable I guess. I'd hate to lose him though considering how good of a blocker he is. But we got guys like Doyle, Swoop, and this new UDFA everyone likes (Cant remember his name) One of those guys could develop into a really good TE. But again I love Allen's skill set, so IMO no matter what we need to keep all 4.

[NewColtsFan]

Not only is it possible,  it's entirely probable.

 

Grigson has been talking about it since 2013....  he's been coordinating contracts so that re-signing the 2013 class is very do-able.

 

Remember,  the contracts for Fleener and Allen are not going to break the bank.   They'll be mid-priced.

 

The difficult one will be TYH.    He's hired Drew Rosenhaus, and he typically will try to get his client every last nickle.   I'm not sure we'll get much -- if any -- of a hometown discount.

 

That said,  I still think we'll get Hilton.   It's just going to be more than $10 Mill per,  IMO.

 

Luck's going to get a huge number.   But again,  Grigson has been planning this for years.

 

Honestly,   I wouldn't worry about re-signing the class.    Be more optimistic than pessimistic.    There's good reason to be.     

 

Last thought.....   if Chapman finally turns into the player we thought he'd be and if Ballard gets healthy enough to be retained,   we'll likely get them too!

[COLTS449]

And also if we come out and have this big juggernaut offense like we should have, then we best keep it together at all cost. We'll be deeper at WR and TE than most teams could ever dream to be LOL. We have to lock up Castanzo too btw. It'll help a lot to start hitting on a lot of draft picks. That way we'll have big time contributors playing for smaller contracts.

[bestQBever]

probably not and its probably dwayne that'll be leaving. Although it would suck to see him leave, I would honestly rather have fleener.

[21isSuperman]

I think we'll have to get used to the idea of not having one of either Fleener or Allen back.  It's a tough choice, if you ask me.  Allen is more complete and more versatile, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy.

[BigQandTheManiac]

If we let Tolar and Walden walk next season and franchise tag either luck or Hilton shouldn't that be enough?? I have no idea how contracts work.

[jseg18]

I'm not sure how this works, but it seems Andrew cares more about the team than his own ego. Is it possible 12 gets his good contract, but not crazy top 5 QB money? Let's say he does settle for a team friendly contract, is there any league rule that denies it due to him being a legitimate QB

[BleedBlu8792]

I'm not sure how this works, but it seems Andrew cares more about the team than his own ego. Is it possible 12 gets his good contract, but not crazy top 5 QB money? Let's say he does settle for a team friendly contract, is there any league rule that denies it due to him being a legitimate QB

Last part - without going into full details, yes the NFLPA would step in if it deemed Luck wasn't getting his full value. To go beyond that Irsay and Grigson have already said Luck will be paid his value which will probably be top-3 money. The Colts will have A LOT of money next year due to expiring contracts (Mathis) and contracts they can cut loose (Walden, Toler, Cherilus) if need be.

The Colts will be in position to resignn whoever they want on the team and also be able to dabble in FA next year as well. If there were ever a model or template in how to manage the cap, Grigson is absolutely the capstone in how to do it. I don't think he's the only one out there that could have done it like he has so far, but I'd take a rough guess at maybe 15% of the GM's being able to come in and after 3 years keep a team competitive and have a stable cash flow every year.

[crazycolt1]

I don't think TY will be going anywhere. If I had to choose between Fleener and Allen it would be Fleener. Not that I think that Allen don't have the potential but IMO Fleener  is going to be a huge part of this offense going forward. I think Grigson has been working on this since day one with very controlled contracts so maybe it will work out. Some seem to overlook how team friendly most of the contracts that has been signed. It sure helps when a few players just want to play on the Colts team and will sign team friendly contracts. Grigson gets a lot of negative feedback but in the big picture he has done a fine job. I know he has made a couple of not so popular picks but only time will answer those questions.

[bananabucket]

if it came down to it, we would regret choosing Fleener over Allen.

[NewColtsFan]

I don't think we'll have to make any choices.

 

A reminder:   The salary cap is projected to go up,  way up,  over each year for the next several years.   Lots more money pouring into the NFL.

 

The money will be there.     We won't have to chose, unless we want to,  not because we have to.   

[Dustin]

Yeah, I'd rather have Allen easily.

[Smonroe]

Not only is it possible,  it's entirely probable.

 

Grigson has been talking about it since 2013....  he's been coordinating contracts so that re-signing the 2013 class is very do-able.

 

Remember,  the contracts for Fleener and Allen are not going to break the bank.   They'll be mid-priced.

 

The difficult one will be TYH.    He's hired Drew Rosenhaus, and he typically will try to get his client every last nickle.   I'm not sure we'll get much -- if any -- of a hometown discount.

 

That said,  I still think we'll get Hilton.   It's just going to be more than $10 Mill per,  IMO.

 

Luck's going to get a huge number.   But again,  Grigson has been planning this for years.

 

Honestly,   I wouldn't worry about re-signing the class.    Be more optimistic than pessimistic.    There's good reason to be.     

 

Last thought.....   if Chapman finally turns into the player we thought he'd be and if Ballard gets healthy enough to be retained,   we'll likely get them too!

 

Grigson has also been preparing (just like any team would) if we should lose any of those guys.  Obviously, TY's bargaining power with us would be diminished if Dorsett turns out to be what we expect.  We may not want to match what he'd get from others.  And I doubt any player would want to give a hometown discount on his first negotiated contract. 

 

IMHO, Coby has the least bargaining power.  Big IF, but we have a couple TE projects who could fill in.  A healthy Allen would be essential though.

 

Guys like Ballard and Chapman are easily replaced.

[lollygagger8]

I see us locking up Castanzo after Luck gets his contract. After that, I think we will offer TY a fair number, but his agent might step in and shop him for more coin. 

 

I unfortunately don't see us keeping Allen and Fleener. I'm torn there because Allen is such a beast, but can't stay healthy consistently. Fleener stays healthy but isn't consistent. 

[ProblChld32]

I'm thinking beyond this season. How do we sign Luck to a contract and keep Allen, Fleener and Hilton. Do you guys think it's possible to accomplish this?

 

Imo i think one of the TE's will end up being let go, i hope Allen has a healthy season because if he doesn't he may be that odd one out !

[Superman]

Let's say the 2016 cap is $150m (which is a very modest projection; I think $160m is more likely). The Colts currently have $121m committed to the cap in 2016. They also have around $10m that could be rolled over from the 2015 cap (things will change between now and the end of the season, but we'll roll over at least $5m, I think). That leaves us with a projected cap cushion of $30-40m going into 2016. That's with guys like Gosder and Donald Thomas still on the books, and it includes a bunch of UDFAs that won't be on the roster after camp. It also includes Luck's fifth year option.

 

Noteworthy free agents include AC, Hilton, Freeman, Allen, Fleener, Chapman, Toler, Ballard, Herron (restricted), etc. We'll need a new backup QB, also. The cap won't be an issue. Any of them could price themselves off the team if they want more than is reasonable to offer. We could choose to move on from anyone who isn't living up to expectations, either due to injury or lack of performance.

 

Short answer to OP's question, which has already been given in this thread, is yes, it's very possible to keep all of our free agents next season.