{"id":769223,"date":"2026-02-22T15:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T15:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769223\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T15:51:15","slug":"what-will-colts-ballard-spend-to-address-defensive-end-in-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/769223\/","title":{"rendered":"What will Colts’ Ballard spend to address defensive end in free agency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the\u00a0Indianapolis Colts<\/a>\u00a0want to address the defensive end position in free agency, what might GM Chris Ballard have to spend?<\/p>\n

This is arguably the Colts<\/a>‘ biggest position of need this offseason.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

In one respect, the\u00a0Colts<\/a>\u00a0simply need depth here. Samson Ebukam, Tyquan Lewis, and Kwity Paye. Beyond that, as GM Chris Ballard said when discussing the defensive front, the Colts need “more fuel” up front.<\/p>\n

Particularly from the defensive end position, the Colts struggled to generate steady pressure beyond Laiatu Latu. As a unit, Indianapolis finished the season ranked 30th in\u00a0ESPN’s pass rush<\/a>\u00a0win rate metric.<\/p>\n

Latu was the only Colts’ defensive end to rank in the top 50 in quarterback pressures and in the top 65 in pass rush win rate, according to\u00a0PFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In part, the Colts’ overall pressure numbers look okay because of the sheer number of opportunities they had to get after the quarterback with the defense playing with multi-score leads throughout the first half of the year. But from an efficiency standpoint, or when pressure was needed at a key moment late in a game, the Colts weren’t effective enough.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

So, to get an idea of what the defensive end market might look like for the\u00a0Colts<\/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 defensive ends in 2026<\/p>\n

Trey Hendrickson: One year, $21M<\/p>\n

Odafe Oweh: Four years, $77M<\/p>\n

Jaelan Phillips: One year, $15M<\/p>\n

Boye Mafe: Three years, $49M<\/p>\n

Joey Bosa: One year, $11M<\/p>\n

Khalil Mack: One year, $14M<\/p>\n

Jadeveon Clowney: One year, $10M<\/p>\n

Dre’Mont Jones: Two years, $20M<\/p>\n

Arnold Ebiketie: Two years, $16M<\/p>\n

Cameron Jordan: One year, $7.5M<\/p>\n

K’Lavon Chaisson: Three years, $45M<\/p>\n

Kwity Paye: Two years, $20M<\/p>\n

Dante Fowler Jr.: One year, $6M<\/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\u00a0Ballard will take.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: NFL free agency: Defensive end contract projections for Colts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the\u00a0Indianapolis Colts\u00a0want to address the defensive end position in free agency, what might GM Chris Ballard have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[7861,14163,6867,5422,2005,9084,15093,7,4609,194,2004,392,2381,4893,16251,5736,100555,3278,4996,667,6,1822,4993,1503,4989],"class_list":{"0":"post-769223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-arnold-ebiketie","9":"tag-boye-mafe","10":"tag-cameron-jordan","11":"tag-chris-ballard","12":"tag-colts","13":"tag-dante-fowler-jr","14":"tag-defensive-end","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-free-agency","17":"tag-free-agent","18":"tag-indianapolis","19":"tag-indianapolis-colts","20":"tag-indianapoliscolts","21":"tag-jadeveon-clowney","22":"tag-jaelan-phillips","23":"tag-joey-bosa","24":"tag-k39lavon-chaisson","25":"tag-khalil-mack","26":"tag-kwity-paye","27":"tag-laiatu-latu","28":"tag-nfl","29":"tag-odafe-oweh","30":"tag-samson-ebukam","31":"tag-trey-hendrickson","32":"tag-tyquan-lewis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116115084914908488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769223","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=769223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}