The Colts move into the offseason with only a few legitimate needs. One of those is a wide receiver opposite T.Y. Hilton. There is one player who could solve that problem, but has a lot of baggage.
Andrew Luck doesn’t have a consistent amount of weapons at his disposal. The only deep threat he has is T.Y. Hilton. His other best threat, Eric Ebron, drops as many passes as he catches. The Colts need to find a number two guy to take pressure off of Hilton.
It just so happens that there is a guy out there who is looking to be traded who might be the best receiver in football. Antonio Brown is looking to be moved after a tumultuous end to the season in Pittsburgh. Brown might be the answer to the Colts’ problem.
But Brown has two things working against him. He is clearly a locker room problem and a distraction, and he has a large contract. The Colts don’t have to worry about the second thing because they will have an estimated league-high cap space available.
But the locker room problem is indeed a big problem. Chris Ballard doesn’t want to bring in guys who will cause problems and throw off the chemistry that has been built here. He doesn’t want any selfish guys in the locker room.
Brown’s play is so good that even Ballard might have to take a step back and consider bringing him on. Brown would bring an unbelievable amount of production to Indy and immediately make an already potent offense almost unstoppable.
If I had to guess, I would bet against Ballard bringing Brown in. The Colts would have to give away some draft capital, which Ballard covets deeply. The Colts also believe in the ability of Deon Cain, who showed flashes of brilliance in training camp before tearing his ACL.
Ballard would be remiss if he didn’t take a deep look at bringing a guy like Brown in. A talent like that doesn’t come available very often. Even I think it could be a good idea, and I’m the guy who said not to bring in Brown’s teammate.
It will be interesting to see what Ballard decides to do wants the offseason officially starts.