Colts officially sign third round pick Tarell Basham

The Indianapolis Colts today officially signed third round outside linebacker Tarell Basham.

The signing means that the team now has all eight draft picks under contract. Over the past week the Colts have been very intentional about getting their rookies locked up, and that has been made possible by the fact that the rookies were in town last weekend for rookie mini-camp and that they’ve since been participating in offseason workouts.

According to our own Andrew Aziz, Basham’s contract with the Colts is projected to be a four-year deal worth $3,376,826 with a $825,954 signing bonus and a cap hit of $721,840 in 2017.

Basham was drafted by the Colts in the third round out of Ohio, where he impressed as a pass rushing defensive end. With Indianapolis he’ll be playing a pass rushing outside linebacker in their 3-4 scheme, and it’s likely that he’ll start out as a situational pass rusher who plays quite a bit on third downs. The Colts and Chris Ballard think that he can be a three-down player with them, but I wouldn’t expect that to be his role right away.