Examining the Colts' Cap Situation After Day Two of Free Agency

Before the Free Agency frenzy began, the Colts had 31.98M (that includes the 2015 draft picks' salaries) in cap space (as seen in my cap breakdown article). The Colts made six signings on March 10 (three being free agent signings, the other 3 being team free agent re-signings). Let's breakdown the contracts (with some help from Spotrac), with some being announced and others needing to be projected.

Mike Adams Signing -- 2 Years, $4,250,000

Here is what Mike Adams' breakdown looks like.

Year	Base Salary	Roster Bonus	Workout Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	$1,000,000	$1,200,000	$525,000	$2,725,000	$1,200,000
2016	$1,000,000		$525,000	$1,525,000

• His roster bonus is all guaranteed (hence the reason why his dead cap hit is 1.2M)
• Essentially a one year contract where Adams could be released after one season and the Colts would be able to save 1.525M. Could save 1.55M by cutting him before this season.

Colt Anderson Signing -- 1 Year, $825,000

Colt Anderson's contract breaks down like this:

Year	Base Salary	Signing Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	$745,000	$80,000	$645,000	$180,000

Here are the main points of his contract:

• Anderson has $180,000 guaranteed in his contract, which explain his dead cap hit.
• The Colts would save $465,000 by cutting Anderson at any time during the season.
• Anderson receives an immediate $80,000 cheque thanks to his signing bonus.

Joe Reitz Signing -- 3 Years, $8,000,000

Joe Reitz's deal breaks down like this:

Year	Base Salary	Roster Bonus	Workout Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	$1,500,000	$1,562,500	$312,500	$3,375,000	$2,750,000
2016	$1,750,000	$500,000		$2,250,000
2017	$2,000,000	$500,000		$2,500,000

Here are the main points about his contract:

• 2.75M of his contract is guaranteed (explaining his dead cap hit in 2015).
• There are bonuses (1M escalator and 31,250 active game roster bonus) in his contract.
• Colts save money by releasing at any time (during 2015 season, after 2015 season, before 2016 season, etc).
• Cap hits can be lived with going forward, so he is not necessarily a "cut" candidate in 2017 as the team can easily afford his contract.

Frank Gore Signing -- 3 Years, $12,000,000

The Gore deal breaks down like this:

Year	Base Salary	Roster Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	$1,000,000	$3,500,000	$4,500,000	$6,500,000
2016	$1,000,000	$3,000,000	$4,000,000	$3,000,000
2017	$3,500,000		$3,500,000

These are the main points about Gore's contract:

• It essentially works out like a 2 year deal. The Colts save 3.5M if they cut him after the 2016 season and could even save 1M if they cut him after this season. If all goes well, he'll ride out the first two years on the contract.
• Gore clearly got intrigued by the roster bonus. Typically, we see a progressive increase in the base salary but in this situation it is $1,000,000 for Year 1 and Year 2 of the contract. Gore was probably sold on having a big role with the team (which he will) and was most likely assured that his bonus would be achieved after season's end. A roster bonus is different from a signing bonus as a signing bonus is immediate, whereas as a roster bonus is only reached or triggered on specific dates (usually around this time, but for smaller players, it could be in July).
• There is no signing bonus in the deal, and that is odd for a highly sought after free agent who was a day away from signing in another city.

Trent Cole Signing -- 2 Years, $14,000,000

Here is the breakdown of Trent Cole's contract.

Year	Base Salary	Signing Bonus	Roster Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	$2,000,000	$1,000,000	$3,000,000	$6,000,000	$8,000,000
2016	$4,250,000	$1,000,000	$1,000,000	$6,250,000	$2,000,000

• He gets 8M guaranteed.
• The Colts can save $4.25M if they cut him before the 2016 season.
• Annual Playing Time Sack Incentive of $1,000,000

Kendall Langford Signing - 4 Years, $17,200,000

The terms to his contract were released and although we know how much he was signed too, we don't know the breakdown.

Here is my projection of Langford's breakdown:

Year	Base Salary	Signing Bonus	Workout Bonus	Cap Hit	Dead Cap Hit
2015	2,750,000	$625,000	$150,000	$3,525,000	$2,500,000
2016	3,300,000	$625,000		$3,925,000	$1,875,000
2017	3,750,000	$625,000		$4,375,000	$1,250,000
2018	4,750,000	$625,000		$5,375,000	$625,000

• Langford gets 2.5M in guaranteed money.
• Workout Bonus of $150,000
• Colts can save 1.05M by cutting him before this season, and can save his entire cap hit for the years after that. They are not tied down to this contract (even though it's my projection, it doesn't seem like they're going to be tied down to real contract).

Andre Johnson Signing -- 3 Years, $21,000,000

How Much is Left?

On paper right now, the Colts spent $24,745,000 on the Gore, Adams, Reitz, Anderson, Cole and Johnson signings. Including my projection of the Langford contract, the Colts spent an additional $3,700,000 on the cap.

Those two totals equate to $28,445,000 for the cap space in 2015. The Colts saved $3,184,062 by cutting Trent Richardson. When the Langford signing is announced, that would also knock off the lowest contract out of the top 51, so we'll account for that too. The cap total takes into account the draft pool (first four rounds only) as well, so that should add 1.392M to the 31.98M we had originally projected.

That leaves the Colts with approximately: (31,980,000 + 1,392,000 + 3,184,062 + 510,000 - 28,445,000) =

$8,621,062

*The entire page will be update if there are any changes and once the Langford contract is official*