Why haven't the Colts signed a big-money outside free agent? Chris Ballard explains

PHOENIX — When Carlie Irsay-Gordon took over as the Colts ' principal owner, she urged general manager Chris Ballard to change his approach. And he has been different the last two years. Ballard signed cornerback Charvarius Ward and free safety Camryn Bynum to big-money contracts in 2025, traded two first-round picks to get Sauce Gardner at the deadline in the fall and traded away two long-time veterans, wide receiver Michael Pittman and linebacker Zaire Franklin, before the end of their deals this season.

But there have been no big-money outside splashes like Ward and Bynum this offseason, in part because of the money the Colts spent on starting quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce, two deals that are worth more than $200 million over the next four years. “Priority 1 and 2 was getting Daniel and Alec done,” Ballard said. “After getting those two big ones done, we had to be pretty (careful).

There’s other guys we looked at; it just didn’t work. Then once we moved past that, it was, OK, we can build depth and get good football players that can help us. ” Indianapolis structured the Jones and Pierce contracts in a way that the Colts have roughly $26 million in cap space, plenty of space to make at least one more big move.

The Colts pursued defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who ultimately signed with Baltimore on a four-year deal worth an average of $28 million per year, a risky proposition for a player on the wrong side of 30. Beyond Hendrickson, though, the Colts were not able to pivot to another big-money deal, partly because of timing and partly because of their cap situation. One of the reasons Indianapolis traded away Pittman and Franklin was that the Colts needed more cap space.