{"id":799566,"date":"2026-03-08T03:11:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799566\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T03:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:11:10","slug":"colts-de-samson-ebukam-named-free-agent-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/799566\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts’ DE Samson Ebukam named free agent to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 7, 2026, 9:06 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Indianapolis Colts’<\/a> defensive end Samson Ebukam could have a free agent market developing.<\/p>\n

With the NFL’s legal tampering period near, the NFL Network’s<\/a> Tom Pelissero named Ebukam as a “free agent to watch” as the edge rusher market develops.<\/p>\n

Ebukam signed with the Colts<\/a> as a free agent during the 2023 offseason. He then made 17 starts<\/a> that year, logging 48 quarterback pressures — the second-most of his career — and 9.5 sacks.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Ebukam would miss the 2024 season after suffering an Achilles injury during training camp.<\/p>\n

This past year, he took on more of a rotational role at edge rusher, appearing in 14 games with one start. He recorded 23 pressures and three sacks.<\/p>\n

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

Early on in the offseason, GM Chris Ballard mentioned wanting to get younger and faster on defense. That could be a sign that the team won’t be re-signing Ebukam, who is nearing 31 years old.<\/p>\n

Spotrac<\/a> projects that Ebukam will sign a two-year deal in free agency, worth $5.81 million.<\/p>\n

Addressing the edge rusher position will be a top priority for the Colts. More depth is needed with Ebukam, Kwity Paye, and Tyquan Lewis all set to be free agents, as is more pass-rush consistency from this unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 7, 2026, 9:06 p.m. ET Indianapolis Colts’ defensive end Samson Ebukam could have a free agent market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95878,7,6,49915,95900,95882,95903,97373,95896,95888,95895,95899,97372,95883,97375,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-799566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sstssportsnflcolts","12":"tag-sstsncolts","13":"tag-tagamerican-football","14":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","15":"tag-tagkwity-paye","16":"tag-tagnational-sports","17":"tag-tagnfl","18":"tag-tagnfl-hub","19":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","20":"tag-tagsamson-ebukam","21":"tag-tagsports-news","22":"tag-tagtyquan-lewis","23":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116191370848767599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799566","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=799566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}