Spotrac ranks Indy's free agency class...#1

[Lawrence Owen]

There has been a LOT of fans, media, posters on here that have ridiculed Indy's free agency. But according to Spotrac, Indy has  had the Biggest 'bang for their buck' this past year from their free agency class in the NFL.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/research/nfl/grading-notable-2018-nfl-free-agents-by-team-808/

 

RANK   TEAM                                        GRADE

1            Indianapolis Colts                2.6

2            Baltimore Ravens                2.5

3            Pittsburgh Steelers              2.5

4            Los Angeles Chargers          2.4

5            Chicago Bears                       2.33

6            Los Angeles Rams                2.2

7            Washington Redskins         2.2

8            Denver Broncos                   2

9            Kansas City Chiefs               2

10          Philadelphia Eagles            2

 

Indianapolis Colts

By far one of the most successful free agent classes in the league, the Colts took a few low-risk moves on bringing in Ebron & Grant to add weapons for luck, and both have been effective. Denico Autry has been one of the more productive edge defenders in the game, and Matt Slauson has been another positive piece to a finally improved offensive line.

                                         age    years     contract       ave. salary

Eric Ebron           TE      25       2      $13,000,000    $6,500,000

Denico Autry      DE      28       3      $17,800,000     $5,933,333

Ryan Grant         WR     27       1      $5,000,000       $5,000,000

Austin Howard  OT       31      1      $3,750,000       $3,750,000

Matt Slauson      OG       32      1      $2,500,000       $2,500,000

Pierre Desir        CB       27       1     $1,750,000       $1,750,000

[AwesomeAustin]

I loved the Autry and Slauson choices.  I will admit I didn’t mind kicking the tires on Ebron but was very against paying him 6.5million a year. I was totally wrong and he has been solid and a great TE. 

[csmopar]

 

But but but but but he didn't spend all the cap, this has to be wrong... 

[Mr.Debonair]

Everyone else signings must suck because we haven’t got much return from many of those guys outside of Ebron. I guess based on the dollar amount this could be true. 

[NewEra]

Autry, Ward, Slauson, Ebron and others have been playing well. Hunt has been a fricken stud too. Obviously since we didn't get the top tier guys or some of the fans "guys" they will continue to ridicule. This year was never about a playoff run or a winning season. It's about youth and getting those guys up to par for the years to come. 

[Cynjin]

6 hours ago, Lawrence Owen said:

There has been a LOT of fans, media, posters on here that have ridiculed Indy's free agency. But according to Spotrac, Indy has  had the Biggest 'bang for their buck' this past year from their free agency class in the NFL.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/research/nfl/grading-notable-2018-nfl-free-agents-by-team-808/

 

RANK   TEAM                                        GRADE

1            Indianapolis Colts                2.6

2            Baltimore Ravens                2.5

3            Pittsburgh Steelers              2.5

4            Los Angeles Chargers          2.4

5            Chicago Bears                       2.33

6            Los Angeles Rams                2.2

7            Washington Redskins         2.2

8            Denver Broncos                   2

9            Kansas City Chiefs               2

10          Philadelphia Eagles            2

 

Indianapolis Colts

By far one of the most successful free agent classes in the league, the Colts took a few low-risk moves on bringing in Ebron & Grant to add weapons for luck, and both have been effective. Denico Autry has been one of the more productive edge defenders in the game, and Matt Slauson has been another positive piece to a finally improved offensive line.

                                         age    years     contract       ave. salary

Eric Ebron           TE      25       2      $13,000,000    $6,500,000

Denico Autry      DE      28       3      $17,800,000     $5,933,333

Ryan Grant         WR     27       1      $5,000,000       $5,000,000

Austin Howard  OT       31      1      $3,750,000       $3,750,000

Matt Slauson      OG       32      1      $2,500,000       $2,500,000

Pierre Desir        CB       27       1     $1,750,000       $1,750,000

 

So far Ballard's talent evaluation has been good.  It is a refreshing change from Grigson.

[smittywerb]

Yet, another article that shows Ballard knows what he's doing.  

[HarryTheCat]

What am I missing here? Other than Ebron and some sporadic flashes from Autry, this list isn't very impressive. The best thing about this crop of FAs is that it was cheap and didn't tie the Colts into any long-term cap issues. I guess "bang for the buck" is relative. 

[#12.]

3 minutes ago, HarryTheCat said:

What am I missing here? Other than Ebron and some sporadic flashes from Autry, this list isn't very impressive. 

 

Slauson - out for the season.  Grant -injured, hasn't done much.  Autry has played well, but has also missed time.

 

I guess, though, if you hit on Ebron and Autry, and they were all low risk deals, it's a positive.

[hoosierhawk]

Slauson was a stud before he got hurt. Hard to blame him for being injured especially after he played a half with a broken back.

[Superman]

2 hours ago, HarryTheCat said:

What am I missing here? Other than Ebron and some sporadic flashes from Autry, this list isn't very impressive. The best thing about this crop of FAs is that it was cheap and didn't tie the Colts into any long-term cap issues. I guess "bang for the buck" is relative. 

 

Yeah it is relative. The Giants gave Solder $15m a year and he's been bad. Slauson hasn't done much, but we only gave him $2.5 for one year. Adjusted for value, Solder is a much worse signing. Realistically, though, those deals shouldn't even be compared with one another, IMO.

 

Also, Spotrac considers Slauson a good signing, and I'm not sure why. He played five games at a decent level, not great, and won't play again this year. It's not a bad signing, but they're giving it a high mark and I don't get it. 

[ReMeDy]

First thing that jumps out to me is why is Sam Bradford still being paid so much?

[AwesomeAustin]

15 minutes ago, ReMeDy said:

First thing that jumps out to me is why is Sam Bradford still being paid so much?

 

Not anymore...just received an update that he was cut

[ReMeDy]

1 hour ago, AwesomeAustin said:

 

Not anymore...just received an update that he was cut

 

Yea, same here, lol. I put a curse on him.

 

Now if the NFL is smart they won't give him another starting job.

[wig]

4 hours ago, Superman said:

 

Yeah it is relative. The Giants gave Solder $15m a year and he's been bad. Slauson hasn't done much, but we only gave him $2.5 for one year. Adjusted for value, Solder is a much worse signing. Realistically, though, those deals shouldn't even be compared with one another, IMO.

 

Also, Spotrac considers Slauson a good signing, and I'm not sure why. He played five games at a decent level, not great, and won't play again this year. It's not a bad signing, but they're giving it a high mark and I don't get it. 

 

 

Curious if they take injuries into account. It can be a good signing based on performance over a third of the year AND less than great return based on injury luck.

[Lawrence Owen]

5 hours ago, Superman said:

 

Yeah it is relative. The Giants gave Solder $15m a year and he's been bad. Slauson hasn't done much, but we only gave him $2.5 for one year. Adjusted for value, Solder is a much worse signing. Realistically, though, those deals shouldn't even be compared with one another, IMO.

 

Also, Spotrac considers Slauson a good signing, and I'm not sure why. He played five games at a decent level, not great, and won't play again this year. It's not a bad signing, but they're giving it a high mark and I don't get it. 

It might not be relative to the report Spotrac has given, but even though Slauson got injured, i think it may have been even bigger in returns in the long run.  How much do you think the way the o-line is playing now has to do with how Slauson played, and is now on the sidelines and in the locker room, and on the practice fields?  The guy's toughness and mentality I am pretty positive has rubbed off on the rest of the young guys.  That was also a reason Ballard signed him, and I think right now, because of how it played out, it was pretty darn smart.

[Superman]

2 hours ago, Lawrence Owen said:

It might not be relative to the report Spotrac has given, but even though Slauson got injured, i think it may have been even bigger in returns in the long run.  How much do you think the way the o-line is playing now has to do with how Slauson played, and is now on the sidelines and in the locker room, and on the practice fields?  The guy's toughness and mentality I am pretty positive has rubbed off on the rest of the young guys.  That was also a reason Ballard signed him, and I think right now, because of how it played out, it was pretty darn smart.

 

That's impossible to quantify, so I won't argue against it. But a team could add a guy like that to the locker room at any time, theoretically. I don't think that's how they're grading players, but for me, it should be about his performance on the field.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

19 hours ago, Lawrence Owen said:

There has been a LOT of fans, media, posters on here that have ridiculed Indy's free agency. But according to Spotrac, Indy has  had the Biggest 'bang for their buck' this past year from their free agency class in the NFL.

 

https://www.spotrac.com/research/nfl/grading-notable-2018-nfl-free-agents-by-team-808/

 

RANK   TEAM                                        GRADE

1            Indianapolis Colts                2.6

2            Baltimore Ravens                2.5

3            Pittsburgh Steelers              2.5

4            Los Angeles Chargers          2.4

5            Chicago Bears                       2.33

6            Los Angeles Rams                2.2

7            Washington Redskins         2.2

8            Denver Broncos                   2

9            Kansas City Chiefs               2

10          Philadelphia Eagles            2

 

Indianapolis Colts

By far one of the most successful free agent classes in the league, the Colts took a few low-risk moves on bringing in Ebron & Grant to add weapons for luck, and both have been effective. Denico Autry has been one of the more productive edge defenders in the game, and Matt Slauson has been another positive piece to a finally improved offensive line.

                                         age    years     contract       ave. salary

Eric Ebron           TE      25       2      $13,000,000    $6,500,000

Denico Autry      DE      28       3      $17,800,000     $5,933,333

Ryan Grant         WR     27       1      $5,000,000       $5,000,000

Austin Howard  OT       31      1      $3,750,000       $3,750,000

Matt Slauson      OG       32      1      $2,500,000       $2,500,000

Pierre Desir        CB       27       1     $1,750,000       $1,750,000

 

Where's Mewhort??

Wasn't he classified as a FA?? Or does resigning a player put him in a different category?

[GoColts8818]

A lot of that is because Ebron is having a career year.  None of the other free agent signings have been major impact players.  

[crazycolt1]

When ever a GM can hit on a couple of free agents and a great draft class it's a huge plus.

The most impressive thing for me is how well things have gone once the coaches found the right combination. We still have issues that needs attention but most teams do.

We may not be as bad at the WR spot with Inman and Ishmael plus getting Cain and Johnson off IR next season.

[NewColtsFan]

Personally....

 

If Slauson wants to play next year and he’s not caught up in starting, then I’d love to bring Slauson back as quality depth.

 

I want him on the sidelines...   on the practice field and especially in the OL meeting rooms during the week.

 

Every article about MS was positive.  Never saw a negative word about him. Frankly,  He feels like a future coach.  Can’t gave enough guys like Matt Slauson on your team.  

 

He’s one one of my favorite signings and I hope he returns as a backup next year.

 

[shasta519]

When you sign less expensive players...of course you have a better chance at getting value.

 

I don’t really get this list though. Only Ebron sticks out as truly good value. But he was still paid low-end TE1 money. How do you compare that to another position...cause you can’t just compare dollars. 

[Peterk2011]

10 hours ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

Where's Mewhort?? Wasn't he classified as a FA?? Or does resigning a player put him in a different category?

 

I think thesy included resigings, thats why Desir is on the list for example).

 

In Mewhort's case, however, he signed a non guaranteed deal and never made the preseason. His retirement practically voided his resigning (financially as well).

[DougDew]

Where's Margus Hunt?  I'd think he'd be ranked higher than Slauson. 

 

Bang for buck is certainly important, but none of these guys impact the game that much, outside of Ebron.  They're mid level guys who have played at a mid-level performance, IMO.  Glad we did though.

 

And its much better than signing a big name guy that busts.

 

BTW, I wonder, would another team who busted on a Ebron type signing get weighed down if the rest of their signings were very good?  I assume so since its a team grade.

[Lawrence Owen]

4 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Where's Margus Hunt?  I'd think he'd be ranked higher than Slauson. 

 

Bang for buck is certainly important, but none of these guys impact the game that much, outside of Ebron.  They're mid level guys who have played at a mid-level performance, IMO.  Glad we did though.

 

And its much better than signing a big name guy that busts.

 

BTW, I wonder, would another team who busted on a Ebron type signing get weighed down if the rest of their signings were very good?  I assume so since its a team grade.

We signed hunt last year, not this past year.

[DougDew]

10 minutes ago, Lawrence Owen said:

We signed hunt last year, not this past year.

Ok.  Must have been a two year deal then?  I was thinking it was a single followed by another single.

[Peterk2011]

31 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Bang for buck is certainly important, but none of these guys impact the game that much, outside of Ebron.  They're mid level guys who have played at a mid-level performance, IMO.  Glad we did though.

 

I'd agree on this, if there were a number of expensive free agents, who were impacting the game in their respective team right now. But they are mostly don't. If we dig deep, we find a few good signings (like AP to the Redskins, Jonathan Joseph and Honey Badger to the Texans), but not many. Actually, very few. This year's free agency looks quite poor honestly, seeing how those big time free agents perform with their new teams.

 

Which is, another strong point on Ballard's side that there is no other way to rebuild a team than drafting. As it seem, free agency is just as much of a gamble, as drafting, except, in free agency, you gamble on older, much more expensive players.

 

(This year's trades however, look much more impactful. Numerous traded players are playing well right now in ther new teams. Cooks, Talib, Peters, Landry, Ogletree, Mack, etc. Not sure if this is only a coincidence, or there is something behind it.)

[DougDew]

10 minutes ago, Peterk2011 said:

 

I'd agree on this, if there were a number of expensive free agents, who were impacting the game in their respective team right now. But they are mostly don't. If we dig deep, we find a few good signings (like AP to the Redskins, Jonathan Joseph and Honey Badger to the Texans), but not many. Actually, very few. This year's free agency looks quite poor honestly, seeing how those big time free agents perform with their new teams.

 

Which is, another strong point on Ballard's side that there is no other way to rebuild a team than drafting. As it seem, free agency is just as much of a gamble, as drafting, except, in free agency, you gamble on older, much more expensive players.

 

(This year's trades however, look much more impactful. Numerous traded players are playing well right now in ther new teams. Cooks, Talib, Peters, Landry, Ogletree, Mack, etc. Not sure if this is only a coincidence, or there is something behind it.)

I think the point of the ranking is to show bang for buck, which is very important. 

 

I was just thinking that it might even be more interesting to show all players on all teams to see if one player was dragging down other good signings.  I think many of us have always thought that teams should approach FA by not signing big name players and that deeper layer might show that better.  I'm not sure what "Ballard's side" means.

[Peterk2011]

1 minute ago, DougDew said:

I'm not sure what "Ballard's side" means.

 

Sorry. I was referring to the ever going debate of whether the Colts should sign (shouldve signed) high profile free agents (Norwell, Hitchens, a wide receiver, etc.) at this stage of the rebuilding or not, and "Ballard's side" was the "shouldnt".

[DougDew]

Ok, referring to this past spring where some folks wanted bigger names. 

[DougDew]

11 minutes ago, Peterk2011 said:

 

Sorry. I was referring to the ever going debate of whether the Colts should sign (shouldve signed) high profile free agents (Norwell, Hitchens, a wide receiver, etc.) at this stage of the rebuilding or not, and "Ballard's side" was the "shouldnt".

Speaking of that, I wonder how the two Gs everybody talked about last spring, Norwell and Jensen, are impacting their respective teams in this ranking system.  Apparently not very well.

[Dingus McGirt]

Guys want to get paid...once they do - Meh.

[Peterk2011]

17 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Speaking of that, I wonder how the two Gs everybody talked about last spring, Norwell and Jensen, are impacting their respective teams in this ranking system.  Apparently not very well.

 

I can only tell you pff grades. Norwell is in the middle of the pack (36th out of 77), well behing Nelson, Glowinski and Slauson. Jensen is playing center for  the Bucs, so it's not the same as if he'd been here playing guard, but anyway, he is almost rock bottom amongst centers.

 

Pugh is also bad, he is 60th out of 77.

[coltsfeva]

  One thing Ballard brought up on his mid-season assessment on 1070 was having cap space for Colts players coming off their rookie contract or FAs they’ve already signed for a year and will want to resign. THAT is part of the genius of Ballard. 

[Mr.Debonair]

1 hour ago, coltsfeva said:

  One thing Ballard brought up on his mid-season assessment on 1070 was having cap space for Colts players coming off their rookie contract or FAs they’ve already signed for a year and will want to resign. THAT is part of the genius of Ballard. 

Makes sense but there isnt many re-signings that need to happen next year. Not sure about the rookie contracts 

[coltsfeva]

43 minutes ago, Mr.Debonair said:

Makes sense but there isnt many re-signings that need to happen next year. Not sure about the rookie contracts 

  This list shows 31. Some, might be worth getting paid.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/indianapolis-colts/

[Stephen]

7 hours ago, Lawrence Owen said:

We signed hunt last year, not this past year.

What about glowinski 

[wordofmouth]

4 hours ago, coltsfeva said:

  One thing Ballard brought up on his mid-season assessment on 1070 was having cap space for Colts players coming off their rookie contract or FAs they’ve already signed for a year and will want to resign. THAT is part of the genius of Ballard. 

That’s a huge part of it.

This is a salary cap league. Nothing gets you in trouble quicker and keeps you in trouble longer than over spending on free agents.

as it is now, he picks up a few players for cheap that can help on the field as well as in the locker room, which can’t be dismissed, and still has money to take care of our future resignings as well as money for strategic additions when we are closer to competing for the Super Bowl.

In addition we should have two compencitoty picks next year.

 

Well played Mr Ballard! 

 

[Jeremy Waldon]

On 11/3/2018 at 3:15 PM, Superman said:

 

Yeah it is relative. The Giants gave Solder $15m a year and he's been bad. Slauson hasn't done much, but we only gave him $2.5 for one year. Adjusted for value, Solder is a much worse signing. Realistically, though, those deals shouldn't even be compared with one another, IMO.

 

Also, Spotrac considers Slauson a good signing, and I'm not sure why. He played five games at a decent level, not great, and won't play again this year. It's not a bad signing, but they're giving it a high mark and I don't get it. 

I believe slauson was got to help be a vet and bond these young guys on O line together and teach them, IMO it was money well spent as i see this line turning into a dominant force. I think they must look at all positives a player gives a team. They say slauson still goes to classes and practices helping the young guys progress

[superrep1967]

On 11/3/2018 at 9:44 AM, NewEra said:

Autry, Ward, Slauson, Ebron and others have been playing well. Hunt has been a fricken stud too. Obviously since we didn't get the top tier guys or some of the fans "guys" they will continue to ridicule. This year was never about a playoff run or a winning season. It's about youth and getting those guys up to par for the years to come. 

Exactly, that's what I've been saying myself. This is a rebuilding year nothing more if we get to the playoffs it's getting there much faster than expected. I totally believe in what Ballard is doing it just takes patience by the fanbase. I know we want it to happen immediately but that's not going to happen it wasn't supposed to happen this season because it takes time. Believe me when I say Ballard knows what he is doing. Even if we go 3-13 he still knows what he's doing it just takes patience.