{"id":834098,"date":"2026-03-26T02:35:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/834098\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:35:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:35:18","slug":"espn-ranks-colts-current-2026-free-agency-class-among-nfls-bottom-tier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/834098\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN ranks Colts current 2026 free agency class among NFL\u2019s bottom tier"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak, the Indianapolis Colts currently have one of the NFL\u2019s bottom tier free agency classes, coming in at 27th overall, which was highlighted by the priority re-signings of both quarterback Daniel Jones and wideout Alec Pierce: <\/a><\/p>\n

27. Indianapolis Colts<\/p>\n

Key acquisitions and returning players:\u00a0Daniel Jones,\u00a0Alec Pierce,\u00a0Arden Key,\u00a0Colby Wooden,\u00a0Micheal Clemons,\u00a0Cam Taylor-Britt,\u00a0Akeem Davis-Gaither,\u00a0Nick Westbrook-Ikhine<\/p>\n

I loved:\u00a0Retaining\u00a0Pierce and\u00a0tagging\u00a0Jones. The Colts rightfully prioritized the young rising star wide receiver and let the injured mercenary quarterback \u201ctest the market\u201d on the transition tag. Although Pierce\u2019s $28.5 million per year has some sticker shock at first, it will quickly be outstripped by an ever-rising wide receiver market.<\/p>\n

I would have liked to see the Colts earnestly investigate quarterback alternatives (read: sign Kyler Murray), but they were always going to bring back Jones, who looked like the final solution to their QB woes for about nine weeks last season. Jones\u2019\u00a0two-year deal\u00a0is extremely cuttable after one season, giving the Colts the flexibility they need as they navigate his\u00a0Achilles\u00a0recovery.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t love:\u00a0The defensive back seven. This is about as thin of a linebacker and safety room as I\u2019ve seen in the post-free agency, predraft space. The current projected starters at linebacker are\u00a0Austin Ajiake,\u00a0Jaylon Carlies\u00a0and Davis-Gaither. At safety,\u00a0Hunter Wohler\u00a0will replace\u00a0Nick Cross. The Colts have tried to find viable starters on minimum contracts in\u00a0Juanyeh Thomas\u00a0and\u00a0Jonathan Owens, but it\u2019s a bleak outlook in the back seven for Indianapolis. Without a first-round pick, the Colts will struggle to fill all of their current gaps.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little perplexing to me that Solak is as concerned at safety. While two-year starter Nick Cross departed in free agency, the Colts still have Cam Bynum, and their apparently very high on Hunter Wohler, who was a rookie who missed all of last season with a Lisfranc injury suffered during preseason.<\/p>\n

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Juanyeh Thomas and Jonathan Owens aren\u2019t going to draw headlines as impact free agent safety signings, although Thomas may have some untapped potential, while Owens is more of a key special teamer, but the two Colts safeties they may be replacing, Rodney Thomas II (*who signed with the Seattle Seahawks) and Daniel Scott haven\u2019t exactly lit the world on fire as of late either. The latter has constantly been injured in his early career with the Colts.<\/p>\n

More concerning may be at linebacker, regarding who appears to be the starter alongside Davis-Gaither, with Zaire Franklin having been traded to the Green Bay Packers and fellow veteran Germaine Pratt still a free agent. The Colts could easily turn to \u2018Day 2\u2019 of the NFL Draft to help fill the void, but it\u2019s not as though Davis-Gaither is firmly entrenched as a starting linebacker either.<\/p>\n

Of equal concern is the starting defensive end spot opposite Laiatu Latu, as both veterans Kwity Paye (Las Vegas Raiders) and Samson Ebukam (Atlanta Falcons) departed in free agency as well. The Colts did sign veteran Arden Key, but he appears to be more of a rotational edge, while Michael Clemons serves as their 4th defensive end.<\/p>\n

Lastly, replacing WR2 Michael Pittman Jr. shouldn\u2019t be overlooked either. His receiving production and explosiveness had been down recently, perhaps because of injuries, but he was a good football player, who did a lot of little things to help an offense. The Colts did add former Tennessee Titans castoff Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, but more work may need to be done from a perimeter blocking standpoint\u2014as Pittman Jr. was always a willing, physical blocker along the outside that won\u2019t be easily replaced, particularly for workhorse Jonathan Taylor.<\/p>\n

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Had the Colts been successful signing former Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro edge Trey Hendrickson, who instead signed with the Baltimore Ravens following the Maxx Crosby fallout, this ranking may have looked a lot different.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Indianapolis still has some work to do to shore up some major holes\u2014defensive end among them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Ben Solak, the Indianapolis Colts currently have one of the NFL\u2019s bottom tier free agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7524,4994,9093,254,23243,117,256,21255,2772,7,4609,2977,345,2676,392,5000,4862,1753,9169,4996,4827,667,393,6563,11808,36373,6,4998,8058,4993,261,394,1503,4995],"class_list":["post-834098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-akeem-davis-gaither","tag-alec-pierce","tag-arden-key","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-austin-ajiake","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-colby-wooden","tag-daniel-jones","tag-football","tag-free-agency","tag-germaine-pratt","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-hunter-wohler","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jaylon-carlies","tag-jonathan-owens","tag-jonathan-taylor","tag-juanyeh-thomas","tag-kwity-paye","tag-kyler-murray","tag-laiatu-latu","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-maxx-crosby","tag-michael-pittman-jr","tag-micheal-clemons","tag-nfl","tag-nick-cross","tag-nick-westbrook-ikhine","tag-samson-ebukam","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-trey-hendrickson","tag-zaire-franklin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834098","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=834098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}