Colts release OT Gosder Cherlius

[BOTT]

A foot bone injury from 7 years ago doesn't exactly relate, imo. It doesn't appear the Colts are ready to give up on him and considering the lack of great interior line talent on the team, I think it's a gamble worth taking.

He hurt that foot and barely played for 5 yrs until his short stint with the Pats. The guy has played very little throughout his career and has had 3 season ending injuries. One place I'm not willing to gamble is on the guys who protect the franchise.

[BOTT]

I THINK THIS SEALS THE DEAL

 

IT HAS BEEN AVAILABLE SINCE THE DRAFT, ESPECIALLY WITH ARIZONA.  WE WILL TRADE ONE TIGHT END AND/OR AT LEAST ONE WIDE RECEIVER FOR A SIGNIFICANT OL ADDITION.

Why would AZ trade one of their better lineman when that area has been their weakest link the last few yrs?

[Gavin]

Doesn't designating Cherilus a post June 1 cut free up $4,000,000 this year and give us $13,632,735.00 in cap room now?

[ColtsLegacy]

He hurt that foot and barely played for 5 yrs until his short stint with the Pats. The guy has played very little throughout his career and has had 3 season ending injuries. One place I'm not willing to gamble is on the guys who protect the franchise.

 

From my understanding, the reason for him not playing much after the foot injury, until 2012 with NE, had more to do with him being an unknown 6th rounder rather than lingering issues from the injury. And the gamble has nothing to do with Luck, other than the fact that he'll be better protected if DT pans out. The gamble is whether you spend a roster spot + cash on a guy who has been IR'd for two years straight. If DT is healthy enough to play he's a very good lineman and that's why the Colts are seemingly willing to gamble on him.

[Dark Superman]

Finding out that they tried to restructure Cherilus makes me think they're working on something for Thomas, and maybe are waiting for him and his agen tto figure out what they want to do. 

 

Donald Thomas needs to restructure his contract on a "Prove It" Deal.

[Dark Superman]

I have Stephen Holder added on Facebook and asked him if we have interest in Evan Mathis and he told me no. But he said it could change since we most likely need a guard now.

Is it really him? Or just someone pretending to be him.

[Dark Superman]

Am I the only one hoping Ben Heenan is a diamond in the rough and is our LG week 1.

 

Here's to wishful thinking.

[GoColts8818]

Am I the only one hoping Ben Heenan is a diamond in the rough and is our LG week 1.

 

Here's to wishful thinking.

i am curious to see what he brings, he might have some growing pains but could be the long term answer if he's any good.

[TKnight24]

Am I the only one hoping Ben Heenan is a diamond in the rough and is our LG week 1.

Here's to wishful thinking.

Don't care who the LG is long as the offensive line allows Luck to throw for 400 yards & Gore to rush for 150 against the Bills opening week

[crazycolt1]

Don't care who the LG is long as the offensive line allows Luck to throw for 400 yards & Gore to rush for 150 against the Bills opening week

Don't care about any numbers as long as it is a win.

[ColtsLegacy]

Is it really him? Or just someone pretending to be him.

 

Why on earth would anyone pretend to be Stephen Holder?

[BOTT]

From my understanding, the reason for him not playing much after the foot injury, until 2012 with NE, had more to do with him being an unknown 6th rounder rather than lingering issues from the injury. And the gamble has nothing to do with Luck, other than the fact that he'll be better protected if DT pans out. The gamble is whether you spend a roster spot + cash on a guy who has been IR'd for two years straight. If DT is healthy enough to play he's a very good lineman and that's why the Colts are seemingly willing to gamble on him.

Not sure where you got that understanding. I know when I googled his type of quad injury steroids always came up.

[akcolt]

He played RT in college.

He played RG, LG, LT in college

Started in 38 of 49 career games played. Has played left guard, right guard and left tackle in college career. 2013: Third-team All-American and second-team All-Big Ten pick after playing in 14 games and starting 13 at left tackle.

I thought he was the RT of the future when we drafted him. it would be nice if Thorton could put it together.

[akcolt]

If you keep doing what you are doing, expect to keep getting what you are getting.

Changes have to be made in order to get better results on the line.

Changes are being made Mewhort to RT Herrmmans at RG a camp battle at LG

[SteelCityColt]

A good move that needed doing IMO, interesting though that it seems like it was't a straight cut, they tried a bit of horse trading with him first. Shows they still  have some confidence in his abilities, just probably not his durability. Especially at that sort of price. 

[SteelDragon]

The Colts should be likely to sign another lineman to take GC's roster spot?

I guess the thousand dollar question: is Mewhort a better guard or tackle?

[NagelHausForge]

he tore a ligament reading the news

 

Careful... I have had my * ripped by members on here for making sarcastic comments about injuries... You don't want that kind of negativity in your life...

[Valpo2004]

Wow surprised by this move this late in the game.  But if his health isn't there then it isn't there.

 

Guess Mewhort's tenure at RT starts now.  Hope he is ready for it.

 

Having Donald Thomas would be nice but I don't think we can count on him.  

 

So we could get Evan Mathis. . . or I suppose Reitz is an option if Thomas can't go.  

 

I really think we should go after Mathis if we are going all in on this year like it seems like we are.  As long as we can keep the deal 3 years or under we will be good.  We have to be able to cut ties with these guys in 2017 if they start to slow down.

 

For those wondering by my calculations the numbers work out like this.

 

This year 1.1 M in cap savings with 2.9 Mil in dead money.  His salary was 4 M - 2.9 M for his pro-rated bonus = 1.1 M.

 

Next year 1.2 M in cap savings with 5.8 M in dead money.  His salary was 7 M - 5.8 M for prorated bonus for 2016 and 2017 = 1.2 M

 

A little, but not much savings for this year and next year.  My guess is the injury questions where rather serious to let him go for such little in savings on the cap.  

[Chucklez]

Not sure why you face palmed. Yes, admit defeat

The 2013 FA class was awful

Landry & Cherilus headline it. Grigson admits defeat by getting rid of them

Thought they'd work here and paid them handsomely to do so but neither worked out

True he did pay them handsomely, but to be fair to him he did build in the contingency plan to offload them rather cleverly. Cutting him saved us just over $4m this year and next. Give him credit for that.

[SteelCityColt]

True he did pay them handsomely, but to be fair to him he did build in the contingency plan to offload them rather cleverly. Cutting him saved us just over $4m this year and next. Give him credit for that.

 

That's a fair take I think.. Cherilus was the "worst" of the contracts handed out and perhaps with his injury history the most questionable but he had been a solid player in Detroit and for all the people moan about our O line, it's not like they haven't tried to address it. 

[Grigs build the lines plz.]

Don't care about any numbers as long as it is a win.

With all of the offensive firepower on this team, the numbers had better not be average

or it's gonna be a long season. This team is banking on big production from the offense.

 

I agree with your win statement though.

[lollygagger8]

Dang, I loved Mewhort at LG, but since he is most likely moving to RT.......

 

I love Reitz at LG, but he can't stay healthy enough to be a starter. He's terrific depth though. 

 

Thomas is a HUGE question mark. I personally don't count on him staying healthy. 

 

Thornton just isn't that good. 

 

Hopefully Ben Heenan is a beast, and him and Herremans can be our starting guards. 

 

I wouldn't be upset with this O-Line: 

 

Castanzo 

Heenan

Holmes

Herremans

Mewhort

 

(lol Triple H in the middle) 

 

I wouldn't mind signing Evan Mathis, but we need more depth at Tackle more than Guard. 

[chad72]

It is safe to say Landry, RJF, Cherilus and TRich have been costly trades/signings that did not work for us.

 

Vontae Davis and Greg Toler, our 2 starting CBs are the free agency moves that have worked best for us.

[krunk]

Report: Gosder Cherilus is healthy; Colts attempted to restructure contract before releasing him

 

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2015/7/26/9042651/report-gosder-cherilus-is-healthy-colts-attempted-to-restructure-contract-before-releasing-him

[krunk]

It is safe to say Landry, RJF, Cherilus and TRich have been costly trades/signings that did not work for us.

 

Vontae Davis and Greg Toler, our 2 starting CBs are the free agency moves that have worked best for us.

 

Walden hasn't been bad either.

[horseshoeblue22]

It's not a refund. We didn't pay him $6.9m. We don't have to pay him $4m, and the $2.9m remains on the books for this year.

I'm pretty sure you get it, I'm just a stickler for cap stuff. I didn't understand how it worked partly because people use all these terms interchangeably as if they all mean the same thing, so I try to use the correct terms the correct way.

Long story short -- and we're way past that -- Cherilus cap hit shrinks by $4m this year, and by $4.1m next year, and then disappears totally in 2017.

Yeah, I get it. The refund bit was an attempt at a metaphor to explain it in layman's terms. I was referring to cap space, not actual dollars. Sorry if my post was misleading.

Think of it this way. We go to the store and purchase an item for $6.90 (cap space) We decide the purchase was a poor one, go back to the store and get "refunded" $4 in cap space. Due to $2.90 in signing bonus (Cash we paid out, but never paid in cap) we don't get the full "refund".

So we have 4m cap space we didn't have last week, but our "cap budget" is short 2.9m due to the sign then cut exchange.

Just pointing out that cash dollars and "cap" dollars (for the purpose of salary cap) are too different things. Hope this better explains what I am trying to say.

[John Waylon]

This move gives us cap room (I think) to potentially sign Evan Mathis to a deal. 

 

Ehhhhhh, I doubt it sadly. I think he wants too much money. Philly tried to trade him, no takers. They released him, and he's been a FA ever since. 

 

I wouldn't mind it though. I am simply not ok with Louis or Thornton as a starting guard going into this season. I'd like to see what Heenan can do, but even that is foolish to count on as an answer at this point.

 

Cherilus was prolly heading for the PUP list to open camp, and Grigson just decided to cut the losses. He wasn't as bad as some made him out to be, but he wasn't as great as other made him out to be, either. He was an improvement over Justice, but I think Mewhort will be an improvement over him. 

 

I'm still wondering what we will do with the center position this year. With the way they've botched the handling of it since cutting Satele, I wouldn't be surprised to see us open camp trying to force Harrison into the spot again. Holmes didn't do bad by any means in his time last year, but they were DETERMINED not to give him a shot until they had absolutely no other choice. 

[Nrcheek16]

I honestly like that Grigs isn't afraid to move on from bad moves... which.. cherlius was very good when he was healthy.. so this is different than landry and t rich to me.

 

regardless its better than polian hanging on to guys like gonzo and ugoh because of his ego

[John Waylon]

I honestly like that Grigs isn't afraid to move on from bad moves... which.. cherlius was very good when he was healthy.. so this is different than landry and t rich to me.

 

regardless its better than polian hanging on to guys like gonzo and ugoh because of his ego

 

Ugoh was actually pretty good at first. His rookie season was very, very good. 

 

I think he just got lazy, and fell into the "live it up" lifestyle instead of continuing to work hard at being good.

[ColtsLegacy]

Not sure where you got that understanding. I know when I googled his type of quad injury steroids always came up.

 

Because he played 933 snaps and started 12/16 games, and played in every game, for the Dolphins the season following the injury and he played pretty well. That tells me the injury didn't have much lingering effect.

 

As for his quad injury, steroid certainly could be the cause, or not. We don't know. But it's unrelated to a lisfranc fracture (bone injury) from his rookie year.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

I have no idea what staff will do(Stating the obvious), Im just thinking out loud

If you go by last year, staff may not have any idea of what they will do.lol

Will this year be like last year where they will have a revolving door at OL?

[csmopar]

Wow surprised by this move this late in the game.  But if his health isn't there then it isn't there.

 

Guess Mewhort's tenure at RT starts now.  Hope he is ready for it.

 

Having Donald Thomas would be nice but I don't think we can count on him.  

 

So we could get Evan Mathis. . . or I suppose Reitz is an option if Thomas can't go.  

 

I really think we should go after Mathis if we are going all in on this year like it seems like we are.  As long as we can keep the deal 3 years or under we will be good.  We have to be able to cut ties with these guys in 2017 if they start to slow down.

 

For those wondering by my calculations the numbers work out like this.

 

This year 1.1 M in cap savings with 2.9 Mil in dead money.  His salary was 4 M - 2.9 M for his pro-rated bonus = 1.1 M.

 

Next year 1.2 M in cap savings with 5.8 M in dead money.  His salary was 7 M - 5.8 M for prorated bonus for 2016 and 2017 = 1.2 M

 

A little, but not much savings for this year and next year.  My guess is the injury questions where rather serious to let him go for such little in savings on the cap.  

 

 

Sorry but your numbers are wrong.  His cap hit before getting cut was 6.9 this year, we save 4 million this year.  Even more going forward.

[Coffeedrinker]

Ugoh was actually pretty good at first. His rookie season was very, very good. 

 

I think he just got lazy, and fell into the "live it up" lifestyle instead of continuing to work hard at being good.

Yeah, Ugoh showed a lot of promise as a rookie, he was pretty thin for an NFL LT but he showed some incredible strength his first year.  but there were questions before the draft about whether or not he really loved football and I don't think he loved it enough to put in the offseason work to improve.

[Valpo2004]

Sorry but your numbers are wrong.  His cap hit before getting cut was 6.9 this year, we save 4 million this year.  Even more going forward.

 

Actually I looked at it and you are right on that.  And next year should be 4.1.  Not sure why I thought you just directly subtracted pro-rated bonus from salary.  I'm normally pretty good at figuring these.

[Coffeedrinker]

I believe it was Superman and I were predicting this was going happen way back in Febrauary/March.  It's a big reason why I wanted the Colts to draft Havenstein from Wisc (he was drafted before the Colts 2nd round pick so it was a moot point anyways but in march he was projected as a 4th rounder.

 

As to the reports that he he healthy... yeah he's healthy now but he has a degenerative knee issue, the question is how long will it hold up during the season?  And if last year is an indication, he won't make it an entire year.

 

GC was a solid RT but he is not irreplaceable.  I think if Mewhort moves over he will probably do as well as GC with potential to get better (I don't think he has the lower body agility or quickness off the snap to be anything other than a solid RT but that's me)  Or if they put Reitz in that position I don't think there will be a noticeable drop-off is production and I think Reitz may be able to provide some 5-6 years at RT now that he doesn't have to worry about gaining weight and can focus (like he did last year) on using the weight he has.

 

It will be interesting starting next week.

[csmopar]

Actually I looked at it and you are right on that.  And next year should be 4.1.  Not sure why I thought you just directly subtracted pro-rated bonus from salary.  I'm normally pretty good at figuring these.

 

 

It happens and if it makes you feel any better, the reason i knew you had wrong numbers is because I did it the exact same way till I saw Superman's posts about it..................

[Valpo2004]

Interesting, Stampede Blue is reporting that Cherilus is healthy and ready to play.  

 

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2015/7/26/9042651/report-gosder-cherilus-is-healthy-colts-attempted-to-restructure-contract-before-releasing-him

 

If that's the case I don't really like this move so much.  He may not have been worth his salary but unless he's just flat out terrible we've weakened our line by letting him go.  Sure you can move Mewhort over to RT but now we have a problem at LG and our options are Donald Thomas (Taken up residency on IR), Thornton (has not played well in 2 years in the league), or Lance Louis (never been that good), or Joe Reitz (Solid backup but you don't want him as your starter, plus rarely makes it through the fully season healthy)

 

Again my impression is that the Colts are in SB or bust mode.  And in that case you should forgo releasing players who could potentially start but are overpaid.

[Superman]

Interesting, Stampede Blue is reporting that Cherilus is healthy and ready to play.  

 

http://www.stampedeblue.com/2015/7/26/9042651/report-gosder-cherilus-is-healthy-colts-attempted-to-restructure-contract-before-releasing-him

 

If that's the case I don't really like this move so much.  He may not have been worth his salary but unless he's just flat out terrible we've weakened our line by letting him go.  Sure you can move Mewhort over to RT but now we have a problem at LG and our options are Donald Thomas (Taken up residency on IR), Thornton (has not played well in 2 years in the league), or Lance Louis (never been that good), or Joe Reitz (Solid backup but you don't want him as your starter, plus rarely makes it through the fully season healthy)

 

Again my impression is that the Colts are in SB or bust mode.  And in that case you should forgo releasing players who could potentially start but are overpaid.

 

Let's see GC make it through the next six months with no knee issues before we declare him "healthy." His agent's statement is predictable. 

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

I only view Reitz as a backup, utility player here. I think the Colts would have rolled the dice on Gosder to keep Mewhort at guard if they were  planning on sticking with Reitz as the starter. I really wouldn't be surprised if they cut Donald Thomas, and sign Evan Mathis on a 1-2 year deal. Just my two cents.

Reitz is good enough to start, his problem really is staying healthy!

[Superman]

I believe it was Superman and I were predicting this was going happen way back in Febrauary/March.  It's a big reason why I wanted the Colts to draft Havenstein from Wisc (he was drafted before the Colts 2nd round pick so it was a moot point anyways but in march he was projected as a 4th rounder.

 

As to the reports that he he healthy... yeah he's healthy now but he has a degenerative knee issue, the question is how long will it hold up during the season?  And if last year is an indication, he won't make it an entire year.

 

GC was a solid RT but he is not irreplaceable.  I think if Mewhort moves over he will probably do as well as GC with potential to get better (I don't think he has the lower body agility or quickness off the snap to be anything other than a solid RT but that's me)  Or if they put Reitz in that position I don't think there will be a noticeable drop-off is production and I think Reitz may be able to provide some 5-6 years at RT now that he doesn't have to worry about gaining weight and can focus (like he did last year) on using the weight he has.

 

It will be interesting starting next week.

 

The release prompted me to go back and watch the two games last season where Mewhort played RT. I don't have an issue with his quickness and agility. Sometimes he was a tick late off the ball, looked like he was reacting to the guard's movement rather than the snap, which is something he'll have to clean up, but he played plenty of tackle at Ohio State and knows how to react to the snap from tackle. Probably just a residual from playing next to the center all season, then kicking out to tackle on the opposite side. His footwork was quick enough, solid kick slide.

 

My issue was with some technique, mainly his base and his hand placement. His hands/arms were consistently too low, probably trying to generate as much punch as he could. And his base was all wrong, with one foot sometimes way too far behind the other, and not just the outside foot every time. Maybe he was overcompensating to get back off the snap, but those two things -- hand placement and footwork -- led to him not having proper leverage to set the edge in pass protection and rushers getting into his chest. He lost on the edge a lot in pass pro, particularly when he was going backward at the snap.

 

Neither of those were issues in run blocking or more aggressive pass pro where he attacked the rusher. I could argue that those are just issues with playing guard all season and then going to the opposite side of the center and playing tackle. I don't think he had either of those issues with technique when playing tackle in college. But he could be trying to make up for a slower than ideal kick, and in the process be losing his technique. 

 

Like you, I don't think GC is any great loss. He was really good in pass pro in 2013, but when he's not 100% -- and he never was last season -- he's a liability in protection. And his run blocking isn't anything great either; I think Mewhort is the better run blocker right away.