As it stands, the Indianapolis Colts don’t have any quarterbacks under contract following the 2020 season. Even so, they are still paying plenty of money to the position—and for players that aren’t on the team anymore.
We know of the typical salary cap hits for the current quarterback room, which is made up of Philip Rivers, Jacoby Brissett and Chad Kelly. Yet, the money the Colts are paying to the quarterback position goes well beyond those three.
Those three take up a salary cap hit of $47,125,000–the most in the NFL across the quarterback position, per Spotrac. But the Colts’ spending doesn’t end there. Instead, the Colts are still paying former quarterback Andrew Luck, who retired in 2019, and they also have a dead-cap charge on Brian Hoyer’s contract after he was released and signed to the Patriots this weekend.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the salary cap charges the Colts are paying to quarterbacks in 2020:
- Philip Rivers : $25 million
- Jacoby Brissett: $21.3 million
- Chad Kelly: $750,000
- Andrew Luck: $6.4 million
- Brian Hoyer: $2.95 million
Now, this doesn’t necessarily impact the Colts in the long-term. None of these quarterbacks are under contract following the 2020 season, but it goes to show that some of these deals didn’t turn out in favor of the Colts.
We still don’t know what Rivers will hold in 2020. Does he bounce back to form or will his decline from 2019 continue?
The experiment with Brissett simply didn’t pan out. He isn’t the long-term option and unless the Colts find a trade suitor, he’s going to take up a massive chunk of salary cap space in 2020.
Luck’s deal is a bit unprecedented. Having a franchise quarterback retire weeks before the season typically leads to some future contract issues.
Hoyer’s deal simply was not a good one for the Colts, especially seeing as they are paying roughly $3 million for him to not be on the team anymore.
The Colts still have money to work with if they need to sign another free agent, but the quarterback room—both past and present—is taking up a whole lot of space on the salary cap.