2010 Colts Free Agents Review

The 2010 season marks the first time the NFL has seen an uncapped season since 1993.  With that comes a slew of new rules and regulations regarding the free agency market.  For the most part these changes won’t hurt the Colts, in fact, they’ll have the opposite effect.

The only “true” unrestricted free agent that we should be worried about going into the 2010 season is Gary Brackett, which I briefly touched on last week.  If everything works out the way we anticipate, Gary Brackett will finish his career with the Indianapolis Colts, however that is still to be determined.

Before I start naming players, allow me to explain what the different types of free agents are because this stuff can be somewhat confusing.

A restricted free agent is player who has completed three accrued seasons and whose contract has expired.  They are allowed to negotiate with any team in the league during the free agency period.  If the free agent is offered a contract with another team, his old team has the right of first refusal, which is a period of seven days in which his old team may match the offer and retain the free agent, or choose not to match the offer and allow the free agent to sign with another team.

The perk of having restricted free agents on your team as opposed to unrestricted free agents is in the compensation for losing the restricted free agent.  If a restricted free agent is offered a contract with another team and his old club chooses not to match the offer, the free agent’s old team is compensated with draft picks.

Since the NFL is in the last year of the current CBA, any player who has completed at maximum five accrued seasons and whose contract has expired will become a restricted free agent.  Players who have completed six or more accrued seasons will become unrestricted free agents.

Unrestricted free agents are exactly as the name implies, they are free agents with no regulations to adhere to and can sign with any team at any time.

Exclusive-rights free agents are players who have completed a maximum of two seasons and whose contract has expired.  These free agents are prohibited from negotiating with any other team, and if they refuse to sign an offer sheet from their former club, they forfeit their right to play, or in other words, they quit.

Hopefully now you have a firm grasp on the different forms of free agents.  I think you’ll breath a deep sigh of relief once you review the free agents for the Colts this season and realize that not much is going to change going into next season.

Next to each free agent’s name will be a number in parenthesis.  This number is a grade based on a scale from one to ten on the importance of re-signing them this offseason.  One being meaningless, and ten being imperative.  (Note: unless the player’s name is Peyton Manning, he won’t have a ten next to his name.)

Unrestricted Free Agents:
Gary Brackett (8)
Matt Stover (1)

Restricted Free Agents:
Hank Baskett (1)
Antoine Bethea (8)
Melvin Bullitt (6)
Dan Federkiel (1)
Aaron Francisco (2)
Tyjuan Hagler (4)
Marlin Jackson (3)
Tim Jennings (1)
Charlie Johnson (6)
Freddy Keiaho (1)
T.J. Rushing (1)

Exclusive-Rights Free Agents:
Antonio Johnson (6)
Daniel Muir (6)
Michael Toudouze (1)

As you can tell, the two most important players that need to be signed this offseason are Gary Brackett and Antoine Bethea.  According to Bill Polian, the Gary Brackett signing is going to be reminiscent of the Jeff Saturday near-debacle from last season; it may take some time and negotiating, but more than likely the deal will get done.  On a positive note, at least the Colts’ best receiver won’t have to be cut!

If the Colts were to lose Antoine Bethea for some ungodly reason, it wouldn’t be the end of the world — although it may feel that way — because as I mentioned in the description of a RFA, losing Bethea would mean compensation through draft picks.  Having said that, I still rated Bethea as an eight, which is extremely high, for the following reasons:

1. Of all the players on the Colts team right now, not one — aside from Gary Brackett — deserves a major payday than Bethea.  The guy has been playing for peanuts the since he was drafted, seriously, peanuts!  To put this into perspective, the following players I’m about to list make more money than Antoine Bethea: Mike Pollak, Freddy Keiaho, Tim Jennings, Tony Ugoh, Fili Moala, and Hank freakin Baskett.  There’s something very wrong with that picture.
2. The dude shows up to play, rain or snow, and has proven to be very durable since he’s been playing for the Colts.
3. Aside from Freeney and Brackett, he is the most important player on the defense, by far.

Losing Antonio Johnson and Daniel Muir would be a tough blow for the Colts and their new and improved run stopping ability on defense, but it’s almost a foregone conclusion that these guys will be back.  Signing Charlie Johnson on the other hand should prove to be very interesting.

Charlie Johnson, once the punching bag of all Colts fans for years (subsequently replaced by Tim Jennings), was a starter on an offensive line that allowed only 10 sacks this season, which just so happens to be a “career low” for Peyton Manning — I’m still unsure who deserves the most credit for that stat, Manning or the offensive line.  The majority of Colts fans (myself included) believe that Charlie Johnson is a serviceable left tackle, but not a franchise left tackle like Tarik Glenn.  Either way, Bill Polian is the person in charge of making that determination, and based on his course of action we’ll know exactly how key Polian really thinks Charlie Johnson is to the success of this team.

As for the rest of the free agents, most of these guys are either special teams players or otherwise completely replaceable.  Guys like Tyjuan Hagler and Marlin Jackson have been very fun players to watch.  If Hagler were able to stay healthy for any extended period of time, he would have remained a starter preventing Phillip Wheeler from moving up into that role.  I believe he’ll be retained at league minimum and will be used as linebacker depth and possibly on special teams.

Marlin Jackson on the other hand holds a very dear place in every Colts fan’s hearts.  Marlin Jackson made the game-clinching interception of Tom Brady in the 2006 AFC Championship Game, propelling the Indianapolis Colts to their first Super Bowl appearance.  He did this as a second year player with hardly any experience no less.  It’s with a heavy heart that I say losing him will be somewhat bittersweet, but may prove to be a necessary move in supplying the defensive backfield with some much needed depth via the draft or free agency.  If Jackson were recovering from anything other than an ACL tear in his other knee, I would think bringing him back would be a no-brainer, but there’s no way of gauging where he’ll be in terms of recovery, let alone how well he’ll be able to perform with two reconstructed ACL ligaments.  I know it sucks, but this team needs to keep looking towards getting better at every position without letting their emotions cloud their views, luckily for us the Colts have the best man in the business at doing just that.

All in all, I think this offseason will be a very good one for the Colts.  With the changes in the CBA for this season, this Colts team will be able to prepare for the 2010 season with minimal loss and compete for another Super Bowl appearance — hopefully this time they come out with a victory.