Ryan Grigson spoke out on Monday after a slow weekend of news for the Indianapolis Colts. The new general manager addressed media and took dead aim at rumors concerning DE Dwight Freeney, the Colts’ longtime instiller of fear and sacker of quarterbacks, who will command a hefty $14 million salary in 2012 — assuming, that is, that he’s still on the roster in September. That salary, the re-signing of free agent Robert Mathis, new head coach Chuck Pagano’s love of the 3-4, and the general razing of the franchise this off-season have led to much speculation about a possible Freeney trade. Nonsense, says Grigson:
"He’s a Colt. Period … Everything with Dwight is great. He’s going to be here this year. We expect him to be a major contributor and a guy who strikes fear in our opponents and those offensive linemen every week."
Pardon me for looking for exceptions of semantics, but Freeney IS with the Colts now, and it’s 2012. Grigson also didn’t say that he expects Freeney to contribute for the Colts. Grigson’s bases are covered, at least as far as that little blurb go.
Look, the Colts re-signed Mathis for big bucks, which surprised me. They went out into the free agent market and grabbed DE Cory Redding from the Baltimore Ravens, Pagano’s old team. The Colts have pretty much committed to moving to a 3-4 scheme, and that really only calls for two ends (Mathis and Redding). There’s also this: Freeney is 32 now and did have 8.5 sacks last season. But do you know how many tackles he had? Nineteen, barely more than one per game. Is that really worth all those bucks.
I still think it makes a lot of sense to part ways with yet another Colts great.