Report: Colts “still in the mix” to sign Dontari Poe

Kansas City Chiefs nose tackle Dontari Poe began his free agent tour by visiting the Indianapolis Colts today, but he reportedly left without a deal, now moving on to visit the Jacksonville Jaguars.

When a player visits a team and then leaves without a deal, that’s not a good sign regarding that team’s chances of signing said player. So since Poe left the Colts without a contract in place, the assumption is that he won’t be signing with Indianapolis. But a report by the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder this afternoon suggests we shouldn’t quite make that assumption yet, as Holder wrote that, “a league source indicated the situation is fluid and the Colts are still in the mix to sign Poe.”

It appears the Colts want Poe and made a push to sign him today, so because of that it probably wouldn’t be too wise for Poe to rule them out just yet. It’s likely that the Colts and Poe’s camp have disagreement about the value of the contract, and that could cause Poe to look elsewhere. But he could potentially use the offers he finds elsewhere to negotiate further with the Colts (or perhaps they’re still negotiating), meaning that the hope of Poe signing with them isn’t dead yet - and that’s what Holder’s report seems to confirm. The Colts are still in the mix.

But again, it’s not a great sign nonetheless for the Colts. The Colts are typically really good closers on free agent deals and they typically do a good job of signing free agents in-house, but that didn’t happen with Poe. And normally, when a guy leaves a team after a visit without a contract, he doesn’t sign with that team. That’s why the chances of Poe actually signing with the Colts don’t look great right now, but it should be noted that it’s not over yet. The Colts are still in the running - but Poe will be visiting elsewhere.