{"id":680727,"date":"2026-01-16T02:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680727\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T02:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:21:25","slug":"contract-projection-for-colts-s-nick-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/680727\/","title":{"rendered":"Contract projection for Colts’ S Nick Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 15, 2026, 1:46 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts’<\/a>\u00a0safety Nick Cross is set to be a free agent this upcoming offseason.<\/p>\n

So what might his next contract look like, and how much could he earn on a new deal?<\/p>\n

According to Spotrac<\/a>, Cross’ projected free agent contract will be for four years and worth $24.26 million in total. The average annual value of this deal is $6.1 million.<\/p>\n

This contract would rank 27th among safeties.<\/p>\n

Cross was moved around Lou Anarumo’s defense, but primarily filled the strong safety role, with Cam Bynum often as the deep safety.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cross was again productive near the line of scrimmage, logging 16 quarterback pressures and the fourth-highest run-stop rate among safeties,\u00a0according to PFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Aaron Schatz<\/a> wrote recently that Cross performed well in coverage by his DVOA metric.<\/p>\n

The Colts<\/a> invested in the safety position last offseason when signing Bynum. However, given Cross’ availability, coupled with his well-rounded skill set, if his next deal does land in this projected ballpark, bringing him back to Indianapolis seems like it would be the prudent move.<\/p>\n

With that said, at still just 24 years old, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cross earns a bit more. And with the Colts already having Bynum, how much more they are willing to spend at safety with other roster holes to fill remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 15, 2026, 1:46 p.m. ET Indianapolis Colts’\u00a0safety Nick Cross is set to be a free agent this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95938,95892,95903,95895,95937,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-680727","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-tagcamryn-bynum","19":"tag-tagespn-inc","20":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","21":"tag-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagnick-cross","23":"tag-tagoverall-positive","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115902394206069535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680727","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=680727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}