No, I get the cap casualty possibility. More of a broad comment about this sentiment I keep reading lately that Smith needs to be replaced due to his play. Not necessarily on this site too much...

I take in a lot (too much?) Colts content and I browse discussions to see what general thinking is... Smith has been underrated for years, really.

My thinking is that Braden Smith is not a liability, and for the most part is playing pretty well. He's had a few hiccups vs TJ Watt though. No shame in that.

As for the salary cap implications. We are in a difficult situation for 2026. We gotta re-sign Jones, Pierce and Cross. That will not be cheap. But, someone will have to go to do that. The top two expensive candidates would be Smith and Zaire Franklin. Smith would have to sign a team friendly contract to stay.

We will certainly not re-sign Kwity Paye though. Believe it or not I would like to see MOC come back.

I would rank Braden Smith ahead of Alec Pierce in terms of who the Colts need to resign the most. The reason for that is there are more starting caliber WRs available in free agency than starting caliber RTs, plus the Colts have 2 starting WRs without Pierce. Ideally, I want both resigned, but if I have to pick one, it's Smith. Jones and Cross are 1 and 2 in priority for me.

I would not get too hung up on cap implications.

I know that Ballard has been very concerned with the cap through his time as GM thus far....however:

A. It appears that he thinks the time is now. Trading two 1st round picks for a blue chip player at the trade deadline is SO FAR outside Ballard's normal MO that you know something is up.

B. Ballard has seen what the league is doing with void years most prominently done by the Eagles. He knows that the league has figured out how to push money into the future in a way that the piper will not come due for upwards of a decade. In the old days before void years, the piper came due in 3-6 years. Now, it is a lot longer.

C. If he believes the window is open, and evidence shows that he does believe that with the Sauce trade, then I think he has an owner in CIG that will allow him to manipulate the cap however he needs to in order to keep the "core" of the team in place for a run now over the next couple of years.

We will wait and see but when I look at our future cap and player contracts, I see zero reason to believe that we cannot retain whoever we want and sign just about whoever we want in the next 2-4 year window. The only real limitation is the amount of cash CIG has to hand out in up front bonuses and with selling Jim's collection.... :)

At some point in the future, there will be a reckoning but if you have a SB ring or two, that is the price you pay.

The Over the Cap website has a fun and informative tool they call the cap calculator that allows you to manage every aspect of the cap, including resigning internal free agents, signing external free agents, trading players, and renegotiating and restructuring existing contracts.

I've run several scenarios on the calculator where market value extensions are given to Jones, Smith, Pierce, and Cross and still have room to bring in pretty much any free agent the team might want on a market value deal, so I know it's possible.

Gotta disagree with you here. Ballard has shown he knows how to draft offensive lineman and lineman that can start immediately. We have proven we know how to develop those lineman with our coaching staff. Pierce is a unicorn. He can take the top off a defense better than anyone in the league. He is young and improves every year. Agree about Cross and am almost there on Jones (I want to see how he handles the rest of the season first).

The Colts have already locked in to Jones by trading their next 2 firsts for Sauce. I would say Cross is the next most important piece. Smith is ahead of Pierce for me because the team is locked in to Jones. Jones does not hold up well under pressure, so having the best OL possible is a necessity. I'm not denying Pierce is valuable, but Pittman, Downs, and Taylor are currently free agents in 2027, and that's if you roll with Pittman’s $29 million cap hit for 2026. I want to keep Pierce, but not at $20+ million AAV, which could be his price tag.

I hope things work out that way. I guess we shall see.

o


(vs. JAGUARS, 12/07)


It's up to you, boys ...... your work is cut out for you, as clear as can be.

o