It’s draft first and free agency second for Colts

A lot of national people expected the Colts to use a lot of their cap space in free agency this year. Those people clearly don’t know the team very well.

Chris Ballard is doing his thing. He is slow playing free agency, just like we all knew that he would. I’ve heard fans of other teams asking me why the Colts aren’t using their cap space. They think it’s dumb that a team with so much space isn’t using it at all.

But those fans clearly don’t know much about Chris Ballard. It has always been Ballard’s philosophy to prioritize building through the draft instead of free agency. He continues to show that this year, even though he has the most cap space in the league to work with.

The Colts aren’t done making free agent moves, but they won’t overpay for anyone. It also is getting increasingly unlikely that they get any of the big-name players left on the board, such as Eric Berry or even Justin Houston. It seems like Ballard will stick to his style.

Even though he is sticking to his style, does that make it the right thing to do? The Colts will likely never be in a better position to spend the kind of money that they have available to them this year. It seems like a waste to let that money just sit idly.

The Colts will probably start to turn their focus towards the draft soon. They know that’s where the majority of the building of their team will be. Even though that’s the way it should be, it leaves some fans longing for more free agency activity.