Jan. 9, 2026, 7:39 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
As the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> attempt to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020, free agency will have to be a big part of that equation.<\/p>\n The Colts will have money to spend this offseason. According to\u00a0Over the Cap<\/a>, the\u00a0Colts\u00a0have $45.77 million in available cap space. Compared to the rest of the NFL, this is the ninth-most in football currently.<\/p>\n As GM Chris Ballard said on Thursday, salary cap-wise, the Colts are in “good shape.”<\/p>\n The Colts also have the ability to create more cap room<\/a> if needed.<\/p>\n Last offseason, we saw Ballard take a much more aggressive approach in free agency. From the sounds of it, he will “continue down that path” this offseason.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n There are always reasons to address just about every position group over the course of an offseason, but two specific areas Ballard mentioned<\/a> on Thursday were the defensive front and getting faster on defense as a whole.<\/p>\n So, with a focus on the defense, specifically the front seven, here are the top available free agents this offseason at those positions.<\/p>\n Best available 2026 NFL free agents on defense for Indianapolis Colts<\/a>DE Trey HendricksonDE Jaelan PhillipsIDL John Franklin-MyersLB Quay WalkerLB Devin LloydDE Odafe OwehDE Boye MafeLB Nakobe DeanDE Joey BosaIDL Travis JonesDE Khalil MackLB Demario DavisDE Kyle Van NoyIDL Teair TartIDL DaQuan Jones<\/p>\n *This list was compiled by rankings from Sports Illustrated<\/a>, The Ringer<\/a>, and Bleacher Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 9, 2026, 7:39 a.m. ET As the Indianapolis Colts attempt to get back to the playoffs for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,97615,95903,95896,95888,95895,95906,95902,96716,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-670697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-colts","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-indianapolis","12":"tag-indianapolis-colts","13":"tag-indianapoliscolts","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","16":"tag-sstsncolts","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagdaquan-jones","19":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnfl","22":"tag-tagnfl-hub","23":"tag-tagoverall-positive","24":"tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","25":"tag-tagsports-illustrated","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115880626681684463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}