Indianapolis Colts v Houston Texans

It’s time to get caught up on a few things.

Two days ago I mentioned that the Antoine Bethea was tendered, keeping him in a Colts uniform for another year.  Yesterday, Bob Sanders’ double, Melvin Bullit, was hit with a second round tender, along with Charlie Johnson, Daniel Muir, and Antonio Johnson.  Basically all of the important players were retained, which is outstanding news.

Someone mentioned to me yesterday that they didn’t understand why Bullitt was given such a high tender.  I then began to explain to this person that the Colts couldn’t risk losing Bullitt, not with Bob Sanders’ injury history.  That’s not to say Melvin is on Bob’s level, even though he bears arguably the coolest name in the entire league.  Bob, when healthy, is head and shoulders better than Melvin in my opinion.  But the same could be said when comparing Bob to just about every other safety in the league not named Troy Polamalu.  Either way, Bethea can’t play safety by himself and Bullitt has proven time and again that he is a fantastic fill in at strong safety.  If he continues to improve and Bob’s health continues to be an issue in 2010 as well, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bob eventually released and Bullitt locked up long term — let’s hope this doesn’t happen though.

As far as I’m concerned, there were no surprises these past few days as to who was retained and who wasn’t.  Players like Aaron Francisco, Hank Baskett, Tim Jennings, Dan Federkiel, Michael Toudouze, Tyjuan Hagler, Freddie Keiaho, and fan favorite Marlin Jackson, were not offered tenders, thus making them unrestricted free agents.  Colts fans were chomping at the bit to see guys like Hank “insert some insult regarding his horrible special teams blooper” Baskett and Tim Jennings bite the dust, while feeling very indifferent about the possible loss of Dan Federkiel, Michael Toudouze.  The only player who a lot of people would actually miss — assuming none of these players are re-signed — is Marlin Jackson, mostly because of nostalgia.  Having said that, don’t be surprised to see Francisco, Jennings, Hagler, Federkiel, Toudouze and Jackson re-signed in the future to fill the roster leading into training camp.

In other news, Twitter King Extraordinaire Raheem Brock, and Master Clipboard Jedi Jim Sorgi were both released today.  To my amazement, there are people out in Colts nation who were saddened by this news.  I don’t get it, but to each his own.

The reason these guys were cut boils down to dollar signs my friend.  They were due to make more money than they are worth for the 2010 season.  No perennial backup should ever be making more than $3 million a year, no matter how much they do for the team.  Don’t get me wrong, I like Raheem Brock as much as the next Colts fan, but you’ll never convince me he’s worth a base salary of $3.79 million, no way in hell.

The news of Sorgi being cut wasn’t necessarily shocking, it instead kind of made you go, “Hmm, that was an interesting move.”  Sorgi was due a $275,000 roster bonus in a few days and a base salary of $1.08 million.  To put that into perspective, Sorgi’s total earnings for the 2010 season would have been nearly three times as much money as Bethea made last season, which is very disturbing.

You can also blame Gary Brackett’s huge contract and Antoine Bethea’s first round tender for the sudden departure of Raheem Brock and Jim Sorgi — where else were the Colts going to get the cash to pay those guys?  Regardless of whether you think Brackett’s contract was a bit on the huge side — reminiscent of Kelvin Hayden’s recent contract — the Colts had to keep him.  Yes, it’s a five year contract, but there’s about a 10% chance (if not less) of Brackett actually fulfilling the contract.  He’ll most likely be released after his third year, unless he’s still performing at a high level.  Either way, the Colts locked up their best linebacker and defensive captain for the remainder of his prime.

The last bit of news involves Peyton Manning.  This technically isn’t be newsworthy because there isn’t much to report, but when the words surgery and Peyton Manning are used in the same sentence your heart skips a beat.

Peyton underwent surgery to resolve a pesky little pinched nerve in his neck, something that apparently has been bothering him for years.  I’ve had a pinched nerve in my neck, from playing football no less, and let me tell you, that is one of the most annoying injuries I’ve ever had.  It’s not that it was painful, it’s just…weird.  Imagine hitting your funny bone, but that funny bone being in your neck.  It’s a very uncomfortable, somewhat painful, almost paralyzing feeling when the nerve is pinched.  How Peyton was able to deal with this annoyance for years is somewhat amazing to me, but we kind of knew Peyton is one tough sob.