Colts have gotten burned in free agency in the past

The Colts have the most cap space in the entire league to spend in the offseason, but odds are they won’t spend it all. And part of the reason is because they have gotten burned with free agents in the past.

The Colts have opted for a more conservative offseason approach the last few years. Part of the reason for that is that they have gotten burned in the past with some of their free agent signings. They don’t want that to happen again and have them just waste money.

Some of those signings were pretty recent as well. Andre Johnson was one of those. He is the all-time receiving leader for Houston. He did not have anywhere close to that production in Indy. He just ate up cap space and gave very little production in return.

LaRon Landry was the same way. He was signed after having played at a Pro Bowl level with the Jets. But the safety was a bust in Indy, and actually ended up getting suspended for PED’s. He was another waste of cap space and a roster spot.

Trent Cole, Todd Herremans, Gosder Cherilus, Patrick Robinson, Greg Toler. All were bad signings that ate up cap space. None of them were productive, and all of them were signed by former GM Ryan Grigson. Now Chris Ballard is weary of signing a bunch of players.

To be fair to Ballard, it was never his style to sign flashy free agents. He is always looking to build his team through he draft instead of free agency. He wants homegrown talent. There isn’t anything wrong with that, and I see why he would be scared to buy players.

But it is a mistake to not try to sign some of the good players available this offseason. Hopefully Ballard can strike a good balance.