The Indianapolis Colts today announced that they have waived backup quarterback Ryan Lindley.
Lindley was signed the week before the team's regular season finale last year and saw playing time against the Titans, coming in for the two-minute situation at the end of the first half (and briefly in the second half) and completing 6 of 10 passes for 58 yards and a touchdown. Clyde Christensen had came up with the idea to have Josh Freeman start and Ryan Lindley learn the two-minute situation in practice, which ended up working out very well for the Colts as Lindley threw a touchdown pass in the situation to Andre Johnson. In his career, he has played in ten games (nine with the Cardinals and one with the Colts) and started six of them, completing 140 of 274 passes (51.1%) for 1,372 yards (5.0 yards per attempt), three touchdowns, and 11 interceptions for a passer rating of 52.4. In the 2014 season, Lindley - the Cardinals' third string quarterback - had to start the team's playoff game and didn't play well, resulting in a season-ending loss.
In waiving Lindley, the Colts now three quarterbacks under contract for 2016. Andrew Luck, of course, is entrenched as the team's starter when healthy and it's likely that he'll be given a massive long-term extension this year. In addition to Luck, Josh Freeman and Stephen Morris are both under contract with the Colts for 2016, and both of them could be options for the backup quarterback position. Matt Hasselbeck and Charlie Whitehurst are both set to become free agents, and it's unclear whether the Colts will bring either back (it'd likely be Hasselbeck if they do bring one of them back). Freeman showed potential in his one start last season, however, while Morris was signed for the sole purpose of seeing what he could do for the Colts in the future. I'd expect both Freeman and Morris to be with the team in training camp competing for a backup spot in 2016, but there's still a long way to go before that happens.