The most important offseason issues the Colts have to confront

Colts must figure out a new defensive scheme

Without question the defense needs a scheme overhaul and since Colts GM Chris Ballard said Gus Bradley would return as defensive coordinator, we will have another year of this same defense. Do I think that Gus Bradley can coach this defense at a high level? Yes, I do. They did have some growing pains on defense with all the youth in the secondary, but the scheme must change if they expect the results to improve. Another training camp with these young players that probably played more than they expected with injuries will help them.

The defense had a plethora of issues that can hopefully be rectified with some simple adjustments. The biggest issues were blown coverages in the secondary, inability to shut down opposing team’s top receiver, lack of blitzing and they could not make the in-game adjustments and close out games.

Will there be a new approach to free agency?

You always build your team in the long term through the draft but when you need that quick plug and play roster guy, free agency is where you need to fill those spots. Ballard is notorious for not utilizing free agency like most teams do. He doesn’t believe in potentially overspending and giving out bad contracts and spending all the money in the cap.

Now that the franchise seems to be headed in the right direction and in a win-now mindset, especially with a promising young signal caller on a rookie contract, it allows some flexibility to make some moves in free agency. The Colts will have around $72 Million in cap space to use this offseason which is fourth-most in the league in open space. The majority could be used on our own players that are looking for extensions, but the Colts could alter their plan with Shane Steichen at the helm now.

This franchise is moving from a rebuild to a contender and that should change the way Ballard approaches things, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The youth needs help now and the only way to rectify that is bring in some veteran guys to help fill out the roster. When you are re-building, you can draft young players and take your time, but the speed of this re-build has intensified, and they can now take the chance on a veteran and try adding them to the locker room chemistry.