Believe it or not, the Indianapolis Colts have a few bad contracts on the payroll right now.
General manager Chris Ballard has singlehandedly turned the Indianapolis Colts around with his tremendous drafting ability thanks to the team he’s assembled in the front office and scouting department.
However, Ballard has also dished out a few bad contracts since taking over in 2017. We know there are a lot of good ones too! We’re not knocking the guy. But it’s important we look at a few that the team might wish they could have back.
Thankfully, none of these have long-term debilitating implications on the payroll, but let’s discuss, shall we?
3. Jack Doyle
Though Jack Doyle has proven to be incredibly talented, the numbers just aren’t there.
Some are going to argue with this, but that’s the essence of this entire topic. What do we consider a “bad” contract. Well, one could say Jack Doyle signing a three-year, $24 million extension last year in December was a bit premature. He recorded just 43 receptions for 448 yards and four touchdowns in 2019.
He played in just six games in 2019, and has been way off the pace set by his big campaigns in 2016 and 2017. Though this move could be viewed as prudent since Ballard foresaw Eric Ebron leaving via free agency, the Colts then added Trey Burton in free agency. He’s no guarantee to contribute given injury issues of his own, but why bring in another starting-caliber player?
Doyle has an $8.5 million cap hit in 2020, which is the same as Zach Ertz, a player whose stats blow his out of the water. The Colts veteran has been in the NFL for seven seasons and really only has two good campaigns to show for it. Though the team has outs in the final two years of his deal, it’s reasonable to see why this may have been jumping the gun…
…even if they had the cap space to make it happen.