2026 Off-Season Thread

[Colts And Orioles]

o


One thing that I am grateful for as a Colts fan is that the last time that they went into a season with virtually no hope at all of contending for a playoff berth was the disastrous 2011 season, when Peyton Manning was injured and Andrew Luck was still at Stanford. Ever since then, there has not been one single season in which Colts fans were thinking to themselves "We are completely fucked ...... we'll be lucky to win 4 or 5 games."

Even the 2019 season in which Andrew Luck abruptly retired right before Opening Day would not qualify for that category ...... aside from the fact that Jacoby Brisset still managed to lead the team to a mediocre (but far from awful) 7-9 record, I don't think that most Colts fans thought that there was no possible way that they could manage to win 10 games and make the playoffs that season, even if it was a long-shot.

We did have the disastrous 2022 season when we went 4-12-1 when Ballard shit the bed and trotted out one of the worst offensive lines in recent memory ...... but even in that forgettable season, I don't think that most Colts fans thought that we were doomed before a single game was played.


So, I suppose I'm asserting that I am grateful that as frustrating as our mediocre Colts have been these last few years, I am grateful and appreciative that they never devolved into a hopeless franchise such as the Jets, who have (largely) been without hope since Mark Sanchez led them to back-to-back AFC Championship games in 2009 and 2010.

o

[Colts And Orioles]

o


I broke my own record for the most floors climbed after the completion of the race ....... after the race, they allow runners to continue running the stairs, and they keep track of it. The record was 250 floors. I did 550 floors (the race, plus 21 additional climbs of the building) ...... I was going to do 600 floors, but the race director had to leave early, so they stopped me at 550.



MEN

Patrick Colon - 550 Flights ll (Course Record)


WOMEN

Michelle Colman - 350 Flights



***********************


11) Stephen Marsalese 2:01.6

12) Alexio Gonzalez 2:19.9

13) Michelle Colman 2:20.3

14) Logan Recchia 2:37.2

15)Patrick Colon 2:46.5

16) Jeff Otieno 3:04.2


https://www.facebook.com/stairlifesi...4858710647164/

o

[BCN#1]

Well done indeed! I was reading this and mentally started getting dizzy with chest pains.... I will stick with walking to my fridge for another cold beer.

[Colts And Orioles]

o


2026 NFL Offseason ...... AFC Teams’ Best and Worst Deals, Picks

(By Bill Barnwell)

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...icks-contracts




INDIANPOLIS COLTS




Best


Signing l Arden Key l to a 2-year, $16 Million contract. GM Chris Ballard has tried to draft and develop edge-rushers with limited success, and the Colts moved on from the likes of Kwity Paye and Tyquan Lewis this offseason. Laiatu Latu took a big step forward as a pass-rusher last year, and the Colts will hope for a breakthrough season from 2025 2nd-rounder JT Tuimoloau, but Indianapolis needed another edge-rusher in its rotation and didn't have a first-round pick to go after one.

Landing on Key was a solid move at the right cost. The 30-year-old journeyman has been a consistently solid rotational player on the edge. He has managed double-digit quarterback knockdowns in each of the past 6 seasons while playing for 4 different teams. In his one year as a full-time starter in 2024, Key racked up 6.5 sacks, 15 knockdowns and 11 tackles for loss. He can be a bit of a freelancer at times as a run defender, which might make him a liability at times on early downs, but Key has able to win one-on-one against tackles and create splash plays. He should be a useful player for 400 snaps in 2026.



Worst


Guaranteeing l Daniel Jones l nearly $50 Million for 2026. It was inevitable that the Colts would keep Jones after his incredible first half in 2025, even if that run ended with him tearing his Achilles and sitting out the final four games of the season. That came with a $37.8 Million transition tag, which seemed reasonable enough for a player with Jones' track record of inconsistency and the uncertainty surrounding his ability to return from the Achilles injury to begin the 2026 season.

But when the Colts eventually came to terms with Jones on an extension, the actual price to get him under contract and onto the field in 2026 had ballooned up. Ballard probably wanted to restructure that $37.8 Million figure to reduce Jones' cap hit in 2026, and had obviously hoped to get him under contract past this upcoming season ...... at least for one more year ...... without making a multiyear commitment.

To get that done, though, the Colts had to guarantee Jones $49.5 Million in 2026. They weren't able to tie more than $510,000 of that into per-game roster bonuses, which would have protected the Colts if Jones was unable to play to start the year, or benched by the end of his 2nd season.

Was anyone else really going to pay $37.8 Million or more to trigger the transition tag, and force the Colts into a difficult decision ??? If that was a real concern, why didn't the Colts give Jones the $43.9 Million franchise tag, which would have made an outside deal even more unlikely ??? And if there was no market for him, the Colts needed to do more to produce a friendlier contract for their quarterback, either by reducing the guarantee or by putting more of the money into per-game roster bonuses.

The Giants got fooled by one good year from Jones, and made a franchise-altering mistake. The Colts are desperate for a solution at QB after cycling through option after option following Andrew Luck's retirement, but this deal might not afford them any sort of stability or upside.

o

[Dam8610]

How do we feel about the offseason at this point?

I feel like the team has improved overall. I think the offense has been downgraded a little, specifically the pass catching unit with the loss of Michael Pittman and no player on a similar level to replace him, but in exchange the defense has gotten much better.

On offense, the Colts are going to find out if Daniel Jones can be the answer at QB. Yes, he tore his Achilles in December, but every report indicates that he's ahead of schedule on rehab and participating in football activities. I don’t buy into the idea that the injury will prevent him from participating even in training camp until it happens. If he performs on the same level he did in September and October last year, this team will be tough for anyone to beat. Of course, his health is also a major concern. At RB, hopefully the duo of D.J. Giddens and Seth McGowan will be able to take some of the workload off of Jonathan Taylor, who played ~80% of the team’s offensive snaps last year. The Colts lost Tyler Goodson and Ameer Abdullah, but there are several RBs of that quality available to sign at the end of camp or during most weeks of the season. Reducing Taylor's workload without having the offense drop off should be the main goal here. WR is the biggest downgrade of the roster this offseason. The Colts wanted to keep Alec Pierce, and it cost them Michael Pittman Jr., who realistically was likely to not be extended after the 2026 season anyway. I don't understand why the Colts weren't able to get more than a late round pick swap for him, but what's done is done. This is the one area of the roster where I feel like the team did not do enough to improve the talent of the position. The team has to replace 80 catches, and I don't see the group of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Ashton Dulin, Deion Burks, and Anthony Gould getting that done. There should be a way to replace the production in the aggregate, in part by Pierce and Downs getting more targets and therefore more catches, in part by the aforementioned group of WRs taking some of the load, and hopefully in part by Tyler Warren making a big Year 2 leap, but it seems like the WR3 position is going to be a weakness on this team. Speaking of Warren, he pretty much is the TE position for this team. Mo Alie-Cox, Drew Ogletree, and Will Mallory are still on the team, but given the leaguewide shift to heavier personnel and the Colts downgrading the WR position, it feels like not upgrading the TE2 spot was a missed opportunity. The OL lost Braden Smith, but with the addition of Jalen Farmer I feel like it still got better, partially because Jalen Travis played well in Braden's place last year, and partially because I feel like Farmer makes the Colts OL more versatile. Goncalves is capable of playing OT, and will now likely be battling for the RG job. If he loses it, he's still one of the best swing tackles in the league and can back up 4 of the positions on the OL. Braden is also at the age where he's likely to start declining, and he's missed a few games a year for the past few seasons.

On defense, I felt there was a lot of addition by subtraction, starting with the trade of Zaire Franklin. Getting anything of value for Franklin feels like a win, but getting a 25 year old 3T with a ton of room for growth is a masterclass in value acquisition. The Packers misused Colby Wooden last year, playing him at NT in a 3-4. Despite that, he was not completely disastrous in that role, which does not suit his playstyle at all. I'm excited to see what he can do in a role that allows him to play the 1 gap attacking style that suits his game much better, and we also know he's not likely to be a liability against the run as a 3T, which is huge. Starting at the EDGE position, Laiatu Latu is the key here. He was very productive in 2025, and the hope is he will take another step toward becoming an elite pass rusher in 2026. For the rest of the group, the Colts lost Kwity Paye, Samson Ebukam, and Tyquan Lewis, but signed Arden Key and Michael Clemons. For me, Key and Clemons are roughly equal to Ebukam and Lewis, and the Colts seem to think Tuimoloau is primed to step in and become an effective second pass rusher, and there seems to be some late 2025 season statistical backing to that claim. I also like the additions of Caden Curry and George Gumbs Jr. in the draft. I would love to see the Colts sign Joey Bosa before camp, but I think this is a group that can improve either way. On to IDL, this group went from one with depth concerns to one that will likely cut quality players. The Colts can't keep all of the following on the roster: DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Adetomiwa Abedawore, Colby Wooden, Tim Smith, Derrick Nnadi, Jerry Tillery, and Cameron Ball. Three of those players will likely have to be cut. My guess is Nnadi and Tillery end up with rotational spots on other NFL rosters, and Ball ends up on the practice squad. At LB, getting rid of Zaire Franklin was itself an upgrade, but Germaine Pratt was a loss as he played fairly well. The Colts signed Akeem Davis-Gaither and drafted C.J. Allen and Bryce Boettcher. Allen will be a huge upgrade over Franklin at MIKE and one of Davis-Gaither, Boettcher, and Jaylon Carlies should be able to play a solid WILL. At CB, the Colts lost Kenny Moore II and signed Cam Taylor-Britt. Taylor-Britt and Walley are likely better fits in the slot in Anarumo's defense than Moore, and both are younger. On the outside, Gardner and Ward both have All-Pro potential and Jaylon Jones is quality depth. At S, the Colts lost Nick Cross and replaced him by selecting A.J. Haulcy in the draft. Haulcy is not as good of an athlete as Cross, but is again a better fit for Anarumo's scheme and has a knack for creating turnovers. I think he will pair with Cam Bynum to make a strong starting tandem at the position that will allow the Colts to be more flexible than they could be with Cross. Overall, this is a much deeper defense than last year with similar high end talent.

All that said, it seems like the national NFL media generally seems to think the Colts got worse this offseason. I think that could be as simple as those people looking at a long list of 2025 starters leaving while not seeing much in the way of talent outside of the draft (where most people seem to think the Colts did exceptionally well) being added to the roster and drawing the conclusion that the team will be worse from that. To be fair, I can absolutely see a scenario in which the 2026 Colts are appreciably worse than the 2025 Colts, but I think that involves either an injury or a decline in performance from Daniel Jones. Assuming Jones is healthy and performs well, this is likely a playoff team and possibly a division winner that could make a deep playoff run.

[ChaosTheory]

I mentioned in another thread the 2011 Top-100 Players list when Manning was ranked 50th. It made me realize that the perception of the Colts going into 2026 strikes me the same way.

If you thought Manning's neck was his demise, he was omitted from your ranking. If it wasn't, you probably ranked him top-5 as he always was. I doubt anybody seriously ranked him like 17/20 on their cards. With that formula... he ends up at 50th which is a nonsense ranking.

Juxtapose that with the perception of the Colts going into '26. Most expect a 7-8 win season. Some say it's because they're uncertain about Jones returning to form from the Achilles. But in that case... shouldn't the projection be bottom feeders?

And others think that even if he does return to form... still an 8-win team. Which implies that the 0-7 finish was more-or-less expected. Regardless of Jones' broken leg and eventual Achilles or Buckner missing the second half of the season or Ward and Gardner being fucked up, etc.

I mean, to me, that seems like a goofy ass take, but what do I know? I do think people pretend we played the Titans 8 times to start the season and didn't light up the #2 and #5 defenses in the NFL... not to mention, despite Adonai Mitchell's two suicide plays, LAR still needing our 6th option at CB to trip on his own feet and allow a WR his sole catch of the game to be an 88-yard game-winner.

-----------

I agree that Pittman is probably the biggest impact we'll feel. All things considered, that's probably the best spot to absorb a big hit because we still have Pierce, Downs, and Warren.

Even though I like Travis and it was the right move... I also feel worse about losing Braden Smith than most people. Particularly in the run game, where he was a monster, that's just an oak solid RT we're losing. People have talked about him approaching that point of diminishing returns for a couple of years... I hope that the Texans get that version.

Before we drafted Haulcy, Nick Cross would have been my biggest impact loss. Haulcy is still my favorite pick of the draft. I loved Cross, so I'm surprised I feel as good about Safety as I do. But fit-wise, Haulcy will allow Anarumo interchange responsibilities with Bynum more and disguising will have more potential.

I know Walley is unproven, but it's hard to deny the word of mouth from the coaches. Between him, Allen, and Haulcy + Buckner, Ward, and Gardner returning... I'm excited to see the defense.

[Mr. Session]

I'm higher on our TE room than most I guess. I think they offer the organization a nice skill set and I'm a sucker for the run game and I appreciate all of those guys are completely find with force feeding a defender some turf. If Warren goes down they might be fucked though, so I concede that.

I am wondering what's going to happen with Taylor's contract. The team/organization doesn't need that drama imo, just pay that guy in a way that's good for us or that makes it easier to trade him. I really don't want to see his agent talking shit again.

I think that a health Downs is going to replace Pittman's production. I don't think he'll block like Pitt but I think he'll put up #'s in the pass game.

To me, the Defense still has the most question marks. Anarumo facilitating growth in that regard, to me at least, is highly important. If there is regression that is going to be awful, awful, awful for Ballard. I am excited to see what LB's we trot out there next year. We should see a whole new crew at this piont.