Duron Carter now officially a free agent

Shortly after the regular season ended, the Indianapolis Colts signed six of their practice squad players to reserve/future contracts.  Interestingly, however, wide receiver Duron Carter was not one of them, and he has now become a free agent.

The contract situation for practice squad players is different than for those on the 53-man roster.  While players on an active roster who are set to become free agents won't have their contracts expire until the start of the new league year, the contracts of practice squad players expire once the team's season is over.  At that point, the team has a week to sign them to a reserve/future contract, and after a week has passed the player becomes a free agent.  The idea behind future/reserve contracts is, essentially, to work around the differences - it is something that allows the player to stay under contract with the team even though his deal expired at the end of the season rather than at the new league year.

A week has now passed since the Colts' season ended, and wide receiver Duron Carter was not signed to a reserve/future contract, making him a free agent.  This is very interesting, considering he was on the team's practice squad for the entire season, which is uncommon (changes happen often).  It is very possible that the Colts offered Carter a reserve/future contract but that he declined it, though we don't know for sure which side opted not to sign a contract.  According to the Indianapolis Star, Carter has drawn interest from other teams throughout the year, though none were willing to sign him to their 53-man roster - something that could change with the expanded 90-man offseason rosters.

Furthermore, according to the Winnipeg Free Press' Ed Tait, Carter has also drawn interest from the Winnipeg Bombers of the Canadian Football League now that the receiver is a free agent.  Carter played in the CFL for the Montreal Alouettes before signing with the Colts last offseason.  So it's expected that Carter will find a landing spot either in the NFL or the CFL, though it may not be with the Colts.

Carter, the son of NFL Hall of Fame wideout Cris Carter, was a notable free agent signing by the Colts last offseason out of the CFL.  He was one of the top stars of training camp as he showed off his talent-level and great skills, though his preseason wasn't nearly as remarkable as he caught just nine passes for 126 yards in the four games.  He wound up on the team's practice squad, where he remained for the rest of the season.