Bethea for Dansby?

to find away to keep Bethea. He was probably the most consistent player in the secondary Indy had all year and has played every game the past few seasons, IIRC. The Colts need depth in the Secondary, and they need it now.

I’d think it’s more likely that Dansby is plan B for if they can’t get Brackett on a deal they like. Dansby is a big LB and plays 3-4 ILB and 4-3 SAM in the Cards hybrid D. So I guess he could work at MLB or SAM, but I don’t see them shelling out big money on 2 LBs, unless Irsay is throwing open the pocketbook like a big market owner.

Safeties>OLBs in the Cover-2.

Dansby is not a top 10 LB.

Even if Dansby WERE a Top 10 LB the drop from Dansby to Brackett is not anywhere near bad enough to justify the drop from Bethea to whomever.

I think this is more an attempt at leverage with Brackett then anything else.

No way in hell are we giving away Bethea

But remember when Dansby came out of college and was projected by some to be a Colts pick. He seemed to not really shine his first few years and I remember thinking, “excellent non-pick” but nowadays…. I’d consider it.

Part of the equation is “how comfortable are you with Sanders’s health and ability to play 19 games?”

I’m not that confident, ergo, Bethea (and Bullitt) is/are more important than Dansby would be. They’re both younger, and as good at their positions.

There’s some talent at LB – not Dansby level but good enough to stick with. Bethea on the other hand is really a top talent at Safety and with him, Bullitt, and Sanders (if healthy) there’s a lot of great talent there.

Bethea can get better (he’s young so he will) but he’s awesome already so I’m content.

Bethea is a RFA given the uncapped 2010 of the current/expiring CBA. The Colts will either use/pay the 1st round pick qualifying offer ($2.521M) or the 1st + 3rd qualifying offer ($3.168M). More likely the latter to be on the safe side, and both options are more than acceptable given the situation/player in return.

The only way Bethea leaves the Colts is if another team signs him to an offer sheet, and the Colts don’t match that offer, getting the respective pick(s) as noted above in return. Recall the situation with Jason David in 2007.

There’s no sense whatsoever to the Colts trading the rights to Bethea, he is an incredibly valuable player. Sanders, Bullitt, and Silva are more SS than FS, whereas Bethea is the opposite, and Aaron Francisco isn’t as good as Bethea. Like others have stated above, he’s one of the better/best starting free safeties in the league. Arizona would definitely love to have him, that part is correct.

In fact I expect the Colts to franchise tag Bethea next offseason, to keep him for another year until they can either sign him long-term or find a capable successor.

And all the while two years of Bethea could cost close to what Dansby will likely get in his first year of his new deal. I’m not crazy about Dansby myself, I thought Arizona was overpaying him big-time the last two seasons.