Report: Colts exploring top free agent guards, backup quarterbacks

There are a lot of needs for the Colts to address, and those needs are primarily on the defensive side of the football. That doesn’t mean they won’t address the offensive side, however, and Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson today provided an update on some offensive areas the Colts might go after.

According to Robinson, the Colts will be one of the teams to pursue a top guard in free agency, while they’ve also been exploring the backup quarterback market.

Robinson clarified later that the top four guards in free agency are viewed to be Kevin Zeitler, T.J. Lang, Ronald Leary, and Larry Warford. Any of those guys would be able to help the Colts talent-wise, especially since things are still uncertain on the right side of the line. Chris Ballard has been pretty clear about the fact that he likes Anthony Castonzo, Jack Mewhort, and Ryan Kelly up front, but he’s been less committal about the right side. He’s mentioned that they need to shore up that side of the line and has had some positive things to say about Joe Haeg and Le’Raven Clark, but nothing that would give the impression that they’ll for sure be starting. A lot of that surely depends on who the Colts add this offseason, which might be why Ballard hasn’t really been committal yet.

The Colts have money to spend in free agency, and especially if they’re committed to a defensive focus in the draft we could see them add an offensive lineman or two in free agency. And instead of just signing a few average guys, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to think they might pursue one of the top guys, which it sounds like they very well may do.

It’s a bit more interesting to hear that the Colts are reportedly exploring the backup quarterback market. Note that Robinson says those teams are doing “varying homework” on backup quarterbacks, which of course means that some are surely more aggressive than others on that search, while Robinson also didn’t specify through what means that player would come (whether trade or free agency). The Colts have Scott Tolzien under contract for another year and Stephen Morris still around, however, and those two seemed capable-enough as backups. If Andrew Luck goes down for an extended period of time the Colts will be in trouble no matter what, but Tolzien and Morris at least seem like capable backups to Luck.

Ultimately, it’s too early to tell whether anything will come of this or not, and it’s also too early to tell just how serious the Colts’ interest is in adding a top guard or a backup quarterback this offseason. But Chris Ballard really wants to improve the talent-level and the competition-level of the roster, so we shouldn’t rule anything out.