{"id":744464,"date":"2026-02-11T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744464\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:30:33","slug":"how-colts-can-create-21-million-in-added-salary-cap-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744464\/","title":{"rendered":"How Colts can create $21 million in added salary cap space"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 10, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis Colts<\/a> are in a good position salary-cap-wise this offseason. However, there is always the opportunity to create more space, depending on how aggressive GM Chris Ballard wants to be.<\/p>\n

When owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon spoke with the media after the season, she mentioned how\u00a0Ballard adapted<\/a>\u00a0his roster-building approach, which included being more aggressive.<\/p>\n

Ballard then\u00a0seemed to acknowledge<\/a>\u00a0that continuing down that path was going to be the plan this offseason.<\/p>\n

While veteran cuts are perhaps the most well-known avenue for creating cap space, and Michael Pittman<\/a> could be one of those candidates, contract extensions are another way to generate space.<\/p>\n

Although a lot of new money is being added to the contract, there’s also more years being added as well, creating a longer runway for current cap charges to be pushed to — thus creating space in 2026.<\/p>\n

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Two contract extension candidates for the Colts<\/a> are Jonathan Taylor and Quenton Nelson, both of whom are entering the final year of their current deals.<\/p>\n

Taylor put together yet another highly productive season in 2025. He finished the season with 1,585 rushing yards — the third-most in football. He also led the league in total touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The 2025 season was another very good one for Nelson as well. Among all guards this season, Nelson ranked fourth in pass-blocking efficiency and fourth in run-blocking grade.<\/p>\n

Both players were Pro Bowlers, and Nelson was a second-team All-Pro.<\/p>\n

If the Colts wanted to extend Taylor and maximize their cap-savings in the process, OTC projects<\/a> that would create $8.62 million in cap savings. With Nelson, the Colts could potentially create up to $13.36 million in space.<\/p>\n

Now, the downside to this is that both players’ cap charges down the road would be inflated even higher, but this offseason, it would give Ballard more cap flexibility to attack free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 10, 2026, 1:29 p.m. ET The Indianapolis Colts are in a good position salary-cap-wise this offseason. However,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,95903,95901,96013,95895,95906,96930,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-744464","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-tagindianapolis-colts","19":"tag-tagjonathan-taylor","20":"tag-tagmichael-pittman-jr","21":"tag-tagnfl-hub","22":"tag-tagoverall-positive","23":"tag-tagquenton-nelson","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116051302195975474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744464","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=744464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}