Colts Release LaRon Landry; Waive Xavier Nixon and Andrew Jackson

The Colts announced some pretty significant roster moves today that will surely make fans happy: they have released safety LaRon Landry and waived offensive lineman Xavier Nixon and linebacker Andrew Jackson.

Landry was signed by the Colts as a free agent two offseasons ago and did not impress in his two years with the team.  He played in 23 games (18 starts), making 144 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and 2 passes defensed, but really struggled overall as the team's starting safety.  This year, he followed up a terrible 2013 season with an even worse 2014 season: he struggled early on, then was suspended four games by the league for PED use, then lost his starting spot when he came back before re-gaining it at the end of the year, struggling once again.  Landry had a cap hit of $5,750,000 this year and the Colts save $2,250,000 in cap space by cutting him (per Over the Cap).

The Colts also made a couple of other significant roster moves, waiving Xavier Nixon and Andrew Jackson.  Nixon was a guy the Colts really liked entering this season, as they used the injured reserve with a designation to return on him to start the year.  He struggled with injuries for much of the season, but more than that he was terrible when he played - most notably in his only start of the year (against the Cowboys), when he turned in what was perhaps the worst single-game performance by a Colts lineman this year.  He played in eight regular season games (two starts) and two postseason games for the Colts over the past two years.

Andrew Jackson was drafted by the Colts in the sixth round of last year's Draft and was used as a backup linebacker, fullback, and special teams player in 2014 (recording seven tackles, a sack, and nine special teams tackles), and it seemed like he might be able to stick around with the team.  But a couple of DUI arrests in the past year, including one a few weeks ago, is a lot for a sixth round pick to overcome.