Matthias Farley should be Colts next extension as free agency nears

The Indianapolis Colts and the rest of the NFL are only a few short days away from free agency kicking off. While there is some obvious excitement from Colts’ fans as the team holds a ton of cap space heading into the 2019 season, GM Chris Ballard has already taken care of re-signing a few important players internally in recent weeks.

The Colts signed extensions with Mark Glowinski, Ross Travis, and Margus Hunt thus far and there are a few others who might still be scooped up previous to free agency officially getting underway. Glowinski went from a virtual camp body to a pivotal starter throughout the course of the season, Travis offers a very interesting skill set to the tight end room and looked extremely promising previous to a year-ending knee injury. Hunt was a part of Ballard’s initial free agency process and has grown into his own with the Colts for the first time in his career.

One of those Colts who is set to become a free agent as the new league year kicks off is safety Matthias Farley. Now the Colts also have cornerback Pierre Desir and safety Clayton Geathers in the mix for possibly being re-signed. 32-year-old Mike Mitchell doesn’t seem to be quite as likely a candidate to come back, and the team has already stated that they won’t offer Corey Moore a return to Indy either.

Additionally, the Colts have some interesting options around the league to bring in to plug in at safety if they aren’t to agree on extensions with their respective teams and there’s an interesting field at the position in the draft as well. Aside from Malik Hooker and George Odum — an UDFA in 2018 — there isn’t much in the cupboard under contract for 2019.

Farley adds quite a bit to the safety corps for the Colts and it makes sense to bring him back via an affordable contract which Farley would likely manage regardless of whether he comes back to Indy or is allowed to test the market. Re-signing Farley certainly doesn’t hamper the Colts’ plans for the position regardless of where they would possibly look to add top-end talent to the position.

We’ve seen year in, and year out that quality depth is not only good to have, but pertinent to having the ability for absorbing injuries, poor play as well as adapting to various team’s offensive systems.

Farley has been good in coverage for the Colts and fits well in a Cover 2 shell moving forward under Matt Eberflus. He only played in 5 games last year for the Colts, but defended 4 passes, added an interception, and 19 total tackles. He continued to be a powerful hitter, and the versatility to sit atop the coverage or move down into the box under any assignment given to him.

In 2017 Farley was very important to the team’s efforts finishing third on the team in total tackles (95), and was second on the team in passes defensed (7) as well as third with 2 interceptions. Farley, for my money, in this 2017 season, proved that he was not only an excellent rotational option for the Colts at safety, but also capable of being a reliable starter when called upon.

Farley doesn’t bring the top-level money value to the free agency period this year, as he’s coming off of a short year due to injury. But, he’s familiar and works well within the Colts’ defensive system, they absolutely love his leadership and knowledge he brings to the back end of the Colts’ defense, he’ll only be 27 this year, and the Colts constantly talk about keeping their own in the building.

I definitely believe that Farley has done enough in every aspect of what the Colts are looking to do, in order to be brought back to bolster the Colts defensive depth moving forward.