Past Free-Agency Woes Still Haunting Indianapolis Colts

We knew this was coming, even if we didn't want to admit it to ourselves.

On Monday, the Indianapolis Colts cut guard Donald Thomas just a few days after he was activated off of the physically unable to play list.

Thomas had missed both of the last two seasons after tearing his quad in the Colts' Week 2 loss to the Dolphins in 2013. After initially tearing his quad in that September game, Thomas tore the same quad at the beginning of training camp last season, prompting a return to the injured reserve list.

It's difficult to make an NFL team after missing two consecutive seasons, and this move has been predicted for months. The Colts tried to bring Thomas back, but he simply recovered too late to be a usable asset for the 2015 season.

Thomas, of course, was signed as a part of a disastrous 2013 offseason that continues to haunt the Colts.

Signed to a four-year, $14 million contract, Thomas played just two games for Indianapolis and cost the team $2.75 million and $3.75 million against the cap in the last two years. Thomas also leaves behind $500,000 in dead money, which will be split over the next two years.

It's an unfortunate waste of money. It was not necessarily general manager Ryan Grigson or Thomas' fault, but the move turned out to be a worst-case scenario.

That's the case for the majority of the Colts' 2013 moves.

Player	Via	Cost	Current Result
OT Gosder Cherilus	Free Agency	Five-year, $34.5M	Cut
S LaRon Landry	Free Agency	Four-year, $24M	Cut
DT Ricky Jean Francois	Free Agency	Four-year, $22M	Cut
OLB Erik Walden	Free Agency	Four-year, $16M	Starter
CB Greg Toler	Free Agency	Three-year, $15M	Starter
OG Donald Thomas	Free Agency	Four-year, $14M	Cut
QB Matt Hasselbeck	Free Agency	Two-year, $8M	Backup
OLB Bjoern Werner	Draft	First-round pick (24)	Backup
OG Hugh Thornton	Draft	Third-round pick (86)	Backup
C Khaled Holmes	Draft	Fourth-round pick (121)	Starter
DT Montori Hughes	Draft	2014 fourth-round pick (127)	Backup
S John Boyett	Draft	Sixth-round pick (192)	Cut
RB Kerwynn Williams	Draft	Seventh-round pick (230)	Cut
TE Justice Cunningham	Draft	Seventh-round pick (254)	Cut
RB Trent Richardson	Trade	2014 First-round pick (26)	Cut

Again, this shouldn't be viewed as a column trashing Grigson and the Colts front office. The team has made significant improvements since the disaster that was the 2013 offseason.

But look at that offseason.

The only players who are still starters have been weak points for the team, with Greg Toler finishing 2014 as Pro Football Focus' 99th-ranked cornerback, and Khaled Holmes just barely edging an undrafted free agent for the starting job this year. The other players still on the roster are simply unimpressive and are even less than desirable in depth roles.

This, of course, is taking Erik Walden as the exception. Walden has turned into a valuable player for Indianapolis, which is a bit mind-boggling after looking back at the attitudes at the time.

There are two main ways in which the Colts are still feeling the effects of that offseason.

First, there are the resources that were, for a lack of a better word, wasted during that time period.

The Colts paid millions of dollars to those players who are no longer on the team, and they are actually still paying for some of them. In 2015, the Colts have $7.7 million costing against the cap left over from the Thomas, LaRon Landry, Gosder Cherilus, and Ricky Jean Francois contracts. Cherilus and Thomas will continue to cost just over $6 million against the 2016 cap as well.

Using a first-round pick and fourth-round pick to acquire Trent Richardson and Montori Hughes also cost the Colts a chance to acquire young, talented players, which they desperately need.

Second, the Colts spent two years trying to develop the 2013 class and integrate it into their roster only to see most of its members cut or needing replacement in 2015. As alluded to before, the Colts are now paying for those mistakes, having failed to find more promising young players.

This created a domino effect in terms of how the Colts were forced to go about future offseasons, signing veteran players to expensive, short-term contracts as stopgap measures.

If Francois worked out, the Colts would not have needed to spend $33 million on Arthur Jones. If Bjorn Werner had worked out, the Colts would not have needed to sign Trent Cole. If Richardson had worked out, Frank Gore would probably be an Eagle.

The list goes on.

To some, this might be a damning set of evidence against Grigson. A closer look at what has happened since paints a more favorable picture for the young general manager, though.

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Grigson has been more disciplined with his free-agent signings lately and seems to have hit on a few players both in the draft and free agency. The team has made smart, well-managed decisions on how to re-sign key players, with the examples of Vontae Davis and T.Y. Hilton's contract structures as shining examples.

The 2013 offseason was a point of growth for Grigson and the Colts front office.

The effects will be felt for years, but the Colts and Grigson will have opportunities to make up for it. Andre Johnson, Gore, Todd Herremans, Cole, Robert Mathis, Mike Adams and D'Qwell Jackson will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

But for now, it's impressive in and of itself that Grigson and the Colts have managed to retool quickly, setting themselves up as one of the top Super Bowl candidates for 2015.