The Indianapolis Colts are seeing growth on their roster over the last three offseasons and while they might be open to adding a big-name free agent, the philosophy of the roster isn’t going to change.
General manager Chris Ballard has made it clear the bulk of the roster will be built through the draft while adding complementary pieces from free agency. Even after a 7-9 season, Ballard is sticking with his process.
“Look, we are going to stay the course of how we believe in team building. Things don’t always go the way you want them to go, but we have a philosophy of how we are going to build it,” Ballard said at the NFL combine.
The Colts have been sticking strictly to that policy since Ballard took over. They have spent some money on some big free agents such as Justin Houston and Jabaal Sheard but nothing of note to the point where it is a long-term commitment.
With over $86 million in salary-cap space, the Colts could be some bigger players in free agency, but it isn’t going to sway Ballard to completely splurge.
“We want to be able to acquire young players and develop our own and develop them as Colts. I’m not saying that we won’t enter into free agency because we have, but it won’t be our main source of player acquisition,” Ballard said. “We will continue to build this thing the way we see fit and the way we think you can win football games.”
There are a few names for the Colts to pursue that are in the upper tier of free agency, but they aren’t going to change the foundation of their roster-building process.