Cap Space & Extending Brissett

[VeveJones007]

According to the NFLPA website (via Holder), the Colts have $54.5MM in cap space for 2019 now that Luck's base salary is off the books. While this opens the door to possible extensions now for other players (e.g. Castonzo, Ebron, Doyle), I think extending Brissett is worth some consideration.

(This is of course reliant on the Colts internal assessment of Brissett (do they really think he's a top 20 QB) and Brissett's willingness to agree to some form of a team-friendly deal.)

There are a couple main reasons to explore this:
1) The ample cap space now could be used to reduce the impact on future seasons.
2) The free agent crop of QBs isn't very good.
3) If Brissett plays well, he'll only get more expensive.

We can use Garoppolo's contract with the 49ers as a template:

5 years, $137MM, $74MM guaranteed, BUT the deal was seriously frontloaded w/$55MM paid in the first two seasons. After year two, the 49ers can cut Garoppolo at a modest $5MM cap hit.

I don't think Brissett can command quite that deal at this point in time, but that's the basic structure that could work for the Colts. Frontload a Brissett deal to minimize the cap impact in 2020 and beyond and give yourself an out if he doesn't prove to be the guy. This kind of deal would have several benefits:

1) Reduce cap hit on possible extension/tagging (if Brissett proves capable)
2) Give yourself an out after 1-2 years (if Brissett isn't the guy)
3) Even if Brissett isn't the guy, whoever the Colts get in the 2020 draft may not be ready day 1. Brissett can serve as a stopgap in 2020 until that player is ready to hit the field (e.g. Alex Smith in 2017 for the Chiefs).