The Indianapolis Colts were more active in free agency this offseason, signing some big defensive backs and one quarterback as well as tidying up some things with some of their own guys. The Colts started out free agency in a healthy position, but a good amount of money has left the building, so how much is left and how much more can the team realistically spend?
The team went into Free Agency with approximately 41M in cap space. The team made the following moves with the associated cap hits for 2025:
- Cam Bynum – 7.01M
- Charvarius Ward – 9.2M
- Daniel Jones – 14M
- Ashton Dulin – 2.78M
- Danny Pinter – 1.67M
- Khalil Herbert – 2M (projected, no details have been released)
- Neville Gallimore – 2M (projected, no details have been released)
After accounting for all those moves, that leaves the Colts with around 9.5M in cap space.
Braden Smith situation
Before Free Agency, the Colts restructured/reworked the Braden Smith contract, which freed up some cap space. While the details of that restructured have not been released, I believe the Colts restructured his base salary and roster bonus into a sigining bonus and then added a void year to spread out the cap hit. The signing bonus is prorated evenly over the length of the contract, and this is how teams are able to save money when they restructure as it lowers the cap hit for the current year and spreads it over the remaining years of the contract. Because Braden Smith only has one year left on his deal, there is nothing the Colts can do to his contract that would add space, unless Smith took a pay cut, which makes the adding void years scenario the most likely. A void year is a “dummy” year that are used to spread out money (specifically a signing bonus) beyond the length of the contract.
If he took a pay cut, then it’s pretty simple, whatever amount he took off his contract is the amount the Colts save. If the Colts restructured his base salary and roster bonus into a signing bonus and added a void year, then the projected savings should be in the range of $8.75M.
This can be calculated by taking his $14.75M and subtracted $1.25M (the veteran minimum base salary) and then add $2M from the roster bonus. From there you’ll get $15.5M, which is the new amount added to the signing bonus. That means that his base salary would be $1.25M and his new signing bonus figure would be $18.5M ($15.5M plus existing $3M). If you add a void year, that only the new portion of the $18.5M (which is $15.5M) is spread over this season and next season, so that means $11M ($3M original signing bonus + $6.75M new signing bonus + $1.25M base) would be on the books for this year and $6.75M for next year. His original 2025 cap hit is $19.75M and after the changes the new 2025 cap hit would be $11M, which means the cap savings would be $8.75M.
If the Colts wanted to add two void years to the end of his contract, the cap savings would be $11M for 2025. If they wanted to add 3 void years, the cap savings would be $12.1M Personally, I believe that adding two years of void is the best way to go as it would not only save the team more money in the short term, but spread the hit over two additional seasons. I opted for 2 seasons instead of 3 or more as the cap savings is reduced after every added season and you don’t want the dead money lingering for longer than it has to be.
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Contract details courtesy of Over the Cap
So if the Colts opted for the most efficient method that isn’t a pay cut, the most they could realistically save is $12M on the Braden Smith contract.
If we add $12M to the $9.5M in projected current cap space, that leaves the Colts with approximately $21M in room. They will need to leave around $6M in cap space for their draft picks and they will leave to need around $3M for their in-season transactions. In typical seasons, you would usually encourage your cap department to look to keep an additional $5-$10M saved for contract extensions, like the one Bernhard Raimann and Nick Cross will likely receive, with the contracts starting in 2026. However, based on the back-loading of contracts, it’s very clear that Chris Ballard is all in on making the playoffs in 2025 to save his job so I’m not sure he cares about the long-term health of the salary cap.
With that being said, I project that the Colts can spend approximately $12M more on 2025 free agents. Ballard structured the contracts of Charvarius Ward and Cam Bynum where the 2025 cap hits are significantly lower than the annual average value of their deals, with Bynum’s 2025 cap hit being 46% of the AAV and Ward’s 2025 cap hit being 45% of the AAV. If Ballard were to get aggressive again, and structure a contract in that same manner, it means he can afford a free agent that is worth $26M AAV.
That still keeps the Colts out of the Trey Hendrickson sweepstakes unless he were to accept decrease in his rumoured asking price, and the rumoured 1st round pick trade price further hurts the chances of the Colts trading for him. It does, however, allow the Colts to go out and target pretty much any of the remaining free agents on the board, such as Teven Jenkins, Dante Fowler Jr, Cooper Kupp, Mekhi Becton, Dennis Gardeck, Brandon Scherff or Eric Kendricks.
It also means the Colts can go after players like Quay Walker, Kyle Pitts, Trey Pipkins, Damone Clark or even Jaire Alexander via trade, all of whom can easily be afforded with the projected cap space they have.
In my opinion, unless a tremendous offer were to come about, I would prefer him to keep that extra money instead of trying to squeeze every dollar of it. It could severely hurt the Colts in the long run and leave them in a situation where they have to cut or trade good players, like we’ve seen with the Bills, Chargers and Saints in recent years. I rather they keep the money and use part of the extra money on the Raimann and Cross extensions, which should cost the team around $25M in cap space in 2026 (based on my projections and of similar players). Nevertheless, if the Colts were smart and got the most out of the Smith cap savings, it leaves them with a decent amount of cap space at this moment.
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