We all knew this was coming from Ryan Kelly’s camp as he was in a contract year. His representatives reached out to the Indianapolis Colts front office and asked for an extension. General manager Chris Ballard, however, denied the request, and the decorated center will now have to play out his contract year without an extension.
Ballard and his staff could be taking a few points into consideration for this decision. Let’s discuss them and why the franchise's potential reasoning is sound.
The Colts' finances don't allow for too many offensive line extensions
The Colts have the luxury of not paying a franchise quarterback right now, but that won’t last forever.
Kelly is already on his second contract, and it's currently paying him $50 million over four years. But he's in the final year of that contract this upcoming season. Left guard Quenton Nelson and right tackle Braden Smith are also getting paid immense amounts right now.
Looking to the future, left tackle Bernhard Raimann looks to be a franchise piece and will need to be paid accordingly. Right guard Will Fries, who has exceeded expectations and is in a contract year as well, might be up for an extension next offseason as well. Paying Raimann, Nelson, Smith and Kelly is not feasible anymore, and Kelly, based on his age (31), will most likely be the odd man out.
Colts are already drafting their linemen of the future
Ballard has already drafted two potential starters on the offensive line with Pitt swing lineman Matthew Goncalves and potential Kelly successor Tanor Bortolini out of Wisconsin.
While Bortolini can play guard, he was drafted to be this franchise's next center. The Wisconsin football team has been an offensive lineman factory as of late, and it appears the Colts believe Bortolini is the next in the line.
Developing connection with Anthony Richardson
While we have yet to see the full potential of quarterback Anthony Richardson, the outlook so far looks promising.
The lack of extension for Kelly lends itself to the belief that the front office wants to move forward with Bortolini as the future center. To give some context of what Kelly has seen during his Colts tenure, he hasn't yet seen a quaterback under center for more than two consecutive seasons.
While Kelly is worthy of an extension based on his play, Bortolini is the future of the team. Extending Kelly would just stunt the growth of the offensive line and hinder the team’s financial flexibility going forward.