Free agency biggest piece of offseason for Colts

While everyone loves talking about the draft, free agency comes first. Who they sign deeply affects who the Colts will draft in late April.

The Colts haven’t spent big in free agency in Chris Ballard’s tenure as GM. That isn’t breaking news. He has made it clear that he wants to build through the draft and build internally. But make no mistake about it: this is the biggest offseason he has overseen so far.

That is the case because of Andrew Luck‘s retirement at the beginning of last season. They need to figure out as an organization how they are going to approach the quarterback situation. Free agency will give us the first clue at how they grow this franchise long-term.

Signing a Tom Brady or a Philip Rivers indicates that they think they can win now with this team and will figure out the long-term plan at quarterback later. If they sign Teddy Bridgewater, that’s their long-term plan. If they sign none of them, they will either roll with Jacoby Brissett or draft a QB.

Even if they don’t sign a quarterback, we can learn clues about their long-term plans based on their other free-agent signings. Ballard signing interior defensive linemen and a wide receiver indicates they might be rolling with Brissett and still think they can win now.

March 16th is the first date in which teams can contact other free agents. That will be the date that we learn a lot about what the Colts are doing. It will give us a great indication of where they think they are in the pecking order of the NFL.

We will keep you up to date on all the latest rumblings and rumors regarding the Colts and pending free agents!