Feb. 22, 2026, 8:50 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
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 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 Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/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 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 2026Trey Hendrickson: One year, $21MOdafe Oweh: Four years, $77MJaelan Phillips: One year, $15MBoye Mafe: Three years, $49MJoey Bosa: One year, $11MKhalil Mack: One year, $14MJadeveon Clowney: One year, $10MDre’Mont Jones: Two years, $20MArnold Ebiketie: Two years, $16MCameron Jordan: One year, $7.5MK’Lavon Chaisson: Three years, $45MKwity Paye: Two years, $20MDante 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 22, 2026, 8:50 a.m. ET If the\u00a0Indianapolis Colts\u00a0want to address the defensive end position in free agency,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[95878,2005,7,2004,392,2381,6,49915,95900,95882,102562,96771,95892,95903,97561,97838,100767,97373,97541,95895,95897,97372,95883,97375,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-770451","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-tagarnold-ebiketie","19":"tag-tagcameron-jordan","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","22":"tag-tagjadeveon-clowney","23":"tag-tagjoey-bosa","24":"tag-tagkhalil-mack","25":"tag-tagkwity-paye","26":"tag-taglaiatu-latu","27":"tag-tagnfl-hub","28":"tag-tagoverall-negative","29":"tag-tagsamson-ebukam","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-tagtyquan-lewis","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116118202845530182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770451","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=770451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}