The Colts have a lot of unrestricted and restricted free agents this offseason. One of those players is someone who struggled early, but came on late.
Chester Rogers had a tale of two halves of the season. The first half of the season was a nightmare for him, as he kept dropping passes left and right. The second half was much better and led to him making some big plays for the Colts.
Rogers finished the season with 53 catches for 485 yards and 2 touchdowns. All were career highs, as was his catch percentage of 73%. He was able to fight through his drops early in the season to emerge as a reliable target down the stretch of the season.
But now he is a restricted free agent. He isn’t making a lot of money, so he would be cheap to bring back. The problem though is his consistency. He was all over the place this season. For the first eight games, it was almost as likely he would drop a pass as it was for him to catch it.
One thing he does have going for him is his age. He is still super young at only 24 years old. Being that young, a team can groom him and help him grow to reach his potential. The problem is that his potential doesn’t seem to have a very high ceiling.
Even when Rogers was catching passes, he wasn’t a huge threat. He isn’t a deep ball guy or a red zone threat. He was in the slot for most of the season. Slot receivers need to have the most dependable set of hands on the team. Rogers did not have that.
With all of this being said, it would be easy for the Colts to replace Rogers. In fact, that is what they should do. Rogers was constantly frustrating with his lack of consistency. The Colts can draft someone or pick up someone in free agency in that slot who can clear that problem up easily.
Rogers should be able to find another team, but he needs to work extra hard in the offseason. He needs to show that if another team takes a gamble on him, they won’t be making a mistake.