Feb. 21, 2026, 7:44 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
If the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> want to address the linebacker position in free agency, what might GM Chris Ballard have to spend?<\/p>\n Addressing the linebacker position needs to be one of the items at the top of Ballard’s offseason to-do list.<\/p>\n As of now, there is very little experience at this position outside of Zaire Franklin, who one NFL analyst named as a potential cut candidate<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to that, a much greater coverage presence is needed here as well.<\/p>\n During Ballard’s end-of-season press conference, while not specifically mentioning the linebacker position, he discussed the need to get younger and faster on defense. That would seem to apply directly to this spot.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n So, to get an idea of what the linebacker market might look like for the Colts<\/a>, using\u00a0Pro Football Focus’<\/a>\u00a0free agency big board, below are some free agent options at this position, along with some contract projections.<\/p>\n Contract projection for free agent linebackers in 2026Devin Lloyd: Three years, $48 millionDevin Bush: Three years, $36 millionNakobe Dean: Three years, $41 millionLeo Chenal: Two years, $12 millionBobby Wagner: One year, $8.5 millionDemario Davis: One year, $8 millionAlex Anzalone: Two years, $7.5 millionKaden Elliss: Three years, $36 millionGermaine Pratt: One year, $1.75 millionJustin Strnad: Two years, $8 million<\/p>\n The Colts are\u00a0positioned fairly well<\/a>\u00a0from a salary cap perspective to again be more aggressive this offseason in free agency, which it sounds like is the approach that Ballard will take.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 21, 2026, 7:44 a.m. ET If the Indianapolis Colts want to address the linebacker position in free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,98045,95882,96000,97757,97195,96041,98245,95903,98538,99280,95896,95888,95895,95897,95883,98101,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-768195","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-tagalex-anzalone","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagbobby-wagner","20":"tag-tagdemario-davis","21":"tag-tagdevin-bush","22":"tag-tagdevin-lloyd","23":"tag-taggermaine-pratt","24":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","25":"tag-tagjustin-strnad","26":"tag-tagkaden-elliss","27":"tag-tagnational-sports","28":"tag-tagnfl","29":"tag-tagnfl-hub","30":"tag-tagoverall-negative","31":"tag-tagsports-news","32":"tag-tagzaire-franklin","33":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116112616263018296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768195","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=768195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}