The Indianapolis Colts will enter free agency with the most cap space to sign players this offseason thanks to a recent trade.
After the big-time trade by the Indianapolis Colts to send Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders, Indy has opened up even more cap space than anticipated.
The Colts will have about $70 million to negotiate contracts starting Monday when legal tampering begins. Some of this money could be used for a quarterback, but is that the best thing to do if you are in Indianapolis?
This might be a very unpopular opinion, but Indy should not reach for a quarterback that any team is looking to move on from right now. With Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers off the market now, there is no upgrade from Wentz out there.
In fact, every quarterback is just a short-term rental or lateral move. This means players like Jimmy Garoppolo and Derek Carr should not come to Indianapolis this offseason.
The Colts now have a whopping $70M in cap space available this offseason, the most in the NFL.
— Indy SportsOne (@IndySportsOne) March 9, 2022
What do the Colts do at quarterback?
This isn’t an easy pill to swallow, but Indianapolis has two options that would best suit their needs this offseason. Either roll out Sam Ehlinger and hope he is what you need this year or draft a quarterback in the mid-late rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft.
At the moment, Ehlinger is not a starter in the NFL, but he is the top quarterback on the Colts roster. If you load him up with weapons, you could build a new style of offense with him.
In fact, Wentz played best when teams were scared of Jonathan Taylor running the ball. With no wide receivers and mediocre quarterback play, the Colts were 9-8 and just missed the playoffs.
The second option is to draft a quarterback in the later rounds. This is something that a player like EJ Perry could solve for Indianapolis this year. He might not be a generational talent and is likely not going to stay in the league long-term, but he would be a very cheap option for the Colts.
So if we don’t spend money on the quarterback, that gives Indy a lot of money to spend next week. So which players this offseason help the Colts get into a position to win for years to come?