Despite free agent moves, Colts have a lot of cap space still available

The Indianapolis Colts have been really busy in free agency so far this year, signing ten players and re-signing three of their own. Despite making those 13 moves, however, the Colts still have a lot of salary cap space remaining.

According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the Colts still have the fifth-most cap space still available in the NFL with $30.7 million.

The Colts were projected to have around $53 million in cap space to work with this offseason, but moves such as the retirement of Pat McAfee, the release of Art Jones, and the release of Patrick Robinson have all added to that total, while obviously the free agent signings have subtracted from it.

But here’s the very interesting thing about those free agent signings (which we’ve mentioned before): they’re not big-money moves. In fact, of the 13 signings (15 if you want to include ERFAs Erik Swoope and Quan Bray) only three will have a cap hit of more than $2.5 million in 2017: Jabaal Sheard, Jack Doyle, and John Simon. Most of the moves the Colts have made have been smaller deals, which has led to them still having a lot of cap space.

What does that mean? Well, it means that they’re pretty much open to do whatever they want still without being limited by money. Factoring in about $10 million for draft picks and late signings, the Colts would still have quite a bit of space. So they could perhaps make another free agent move or two, since they have the money. But also keep in mind that teams are able to carry over unused cap space from year-to-year, which could be especially intriguing for a rebuilding Colts team. So even though they have a lot of cap space left, I wouldn’t assume they’ll make a big splash with it. More likely, they will use it on the draft, some later free agent signings, and roll a significant sum over to next year. They might still make another move or two, but those will probably still be in line with the other moves they’ve made: low-money deals for competition purposes.