The Colts should spend their cap money this year

Last season, the Colts decided not to spend a lot of their cap space despite having the third most in the league. This year, they should change their tactics a little bit.

Chris Ballard has preached internal development since he got here. He has said multiple times that he wants to build through the draft as opposed to free agency. But that doesn’t have to be the case all of the time. Especially this year when he has this much cap space at his disposal.

Ballard hit his last draft out of the park, drafting to first-team All-Pro guys in Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard. He also drafted key players in Braden Smith, Nyheim Hines, Jordan Wilkins, and Tyquan Lewis. But he won’t likely get a draft class like that two years in a row.

The Colts should use their cap space to get some dynamic players. They have the most cap space in the league, so they can throw some money at people. They shouldn’t make a bad deal just to make one, but there are several players out there who can help them.

It would be unwise of Ballard to hold on to his cap space for the second year in a row. He doesn’t even need to spend all of it. Just enough of it to get a couple of really good players and some complimentary pieces around them. Add a draft class to that, and that’s a really good offseason.

Ballard has earned some trust based on his performance so far. He has shed bad salaries and drafted immensely well. But as a GM, you should use all of the tools available at your disposal. This cap space is a really good tool to use to help build this team.

It will be interesting to see what Ballard elects to do. He could sign a lot of players to short-term deals like he did last season. But it would be great to see him try to hit another home run in free-agency like he did in last year’s draft.