After spending the week in San Francisco at the Super Bowl, ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler shared what he is hearing about the upcoming free agency period, and included were a few nuggets about the Indianapolis Colts.
As Fowler wrote — and not to anyone’s surprise — his “sense” is that re-signing Daniel Jones will be a priority, and bringing back Alec Pierce is priority 1B.
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“The Colts should turn up the heat on Jones closer to the combine,” Fowler wrote.
With Pierce, Fowler didn’t rule out using the franchise tag as a means to buy more time to negotiate a new deal. The team did this a few years ago with wide receiver Michael Pittman.
“Though the franchise and transition tags for wide receivers are steep — $25 million to $28 million based on projections — the Colts tagged Michael Pittman Jr. two years ago as a way to facilitate a long-term deal. I’m not taking it totally off the table for Pierce for that reason,” added Fowler.
Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen have made it quite clear that they want Jones back and he has also said he would like to return.
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A potential hurdle could be contract negotiations with Jones, coming off a major injury. He is projected to be a top earner in free agency, but is coming off a major injury.
With that said, Ballard has already stated that he is “confident” in Jones’ ability to recover from the Achilles injury and bounce back.
As far as Pierce goes, he is going to command a big payday of his own, but bringing him back needs to be at the top of the to-do list — and it sounds like it is.
Indianapolis seems to be positioned well salary-cap-wise to be aggressive again in free agency to help fill these needs.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: NFL free agency: What insider is hearing on Daniel Jones, Alec Pierce