Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - TAG: Indianapolis Colts Use TRANSITION TAG On Daniel Jones | What's Next for Jones, Alec Pierce?

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

The Indianapolis Colts placed the transition tag on QB Daniel Jones. What does it mean for Jones and WR Alec Pierce as free agency nears, next week? What three moves do Jake and Zach want to see next?...   EVERYDAYER CLUB If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Get one month free of the Everydayer Club with code FREEAGENCY, no spaces, now through March 15th. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub TEXT WITH JAKE AND ZACH Join the Locked On Colts insider program to text with Jake and Zach, ask any questions you have, and get updates on news and rumors from the Colts' facility, locker rooms, stadium, and practice field! https://joinsubtext.com/c/lockedoncolts   Find and follow Locked On Colts on your favorite podcast platforms: 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-colts/ 📺YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLdpxJspi1hMh5HL7ExpWOQ Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More 🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nfl/   Follow Jake's written work on roundtable.io/sports/nfl/colts/ and Zach's on si.com/nfl/colts/, and give them a follow on Twitter @JakeArthurNFL, @ZachHicks2, and @LockedOnColts!   Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Head to FANDUEL DOT COM to get started.    Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a College Basketball Parlay Profit Boost. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Betterhelp This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.  Sign up and get 10% off at http://BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:01 The Indianapolis Colts take the riskiest route by placing the transition tag on Daniel Jones. Let's get to it. You are Locked on Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to Locked on Colts, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Fandul is giving you a way to turn that energy into an even bigger, potential wins with a college basketball parlay, profit boost, head of fandul.com to get started.
Starting point is 00:00:44 Hello everyone. My name is Zach Kickshaw, Resident Film Nerd of Horseshoe Huddled.com. And I'm joined, as always, by Jake Arthur of Roundtable Sports covering the Indianapolis Colts. Today, we got some big news from the Indianapolis Colts. We were talking all about them placing the transition tag on quarterback Daniel Jones, what that means for Jones and his future with the team, what that means for Alec Pierce and him being potentially available to other teams in free agency next week. And also what other moves we want to see this Colts team make in the coming days and the coming week. Because currently the Colts are not, they're not cap compliant.
Starting point is 00:01:22 So they have to make some moves here going forward. But Jake, let's talk about this from the Daniel Jones angle right now. There has been some intense negotiations between the two sides at the Combine and this past week with Daniel Jones's side, threatening to hit the open market with the Colts side, threatening the transition tag at $37.833 million. And the Colts ultimately decided to place that transition tag on the veteran quarterback. So if he opts to sign that, he would be under contract for, again, that $37.833 million contract.
Starting point is 00:01:56 But now he is available to go out in free agency, field offers. and if a team gives him what he's looking for, that assumingly $40-plus million on the open market, the Colts have a chance to match that or let him go to that other team. So the Colts are basically letting other teams do the negotiating for them when it comes to Jones, which could work out in their favor if you could save some millions of dollars and get him to play at under $40 million this next year.
Starting point is 00:02:26 But it also opens up the possibility of another team front-loading a contract at $40 plus million and you having the tough choice of matching that or letting him go. So the Colts must feel very confident in their market estimation for Jones to let this happen because that's kind of why the transition tag is rarely used in the NFL. Yeah, this whole thing screams trust and confidence. You know what I mean? We've heard a lot from Chris Ballard about both sides are motivated to get a multi-year deal done. we know Alec Pierce and Daniel Jones want to play together and they like to do so and
Starting point is 00:03:04 Indy continue doing so but yeah this this is kind of the riskier way of doing things other than the Colts like transition tagging Alec Pierce for example for the lower figure that would also expose him to the open market so I like I do think there would be some interest in Daniel Jones across the league maybe not a ton obviously he is coming off the Achilles we it's not be naive about it. Kyler Murray hitting the market now as well, I think maybe softens the blow for the Colts because there's another like headlining quarterback out there. Plus you got Malik Willis.
Starting point is 00:03:42 But no, I do think the Colts are really gambling with the fact that they're quite confident everyone's coming back together on multi-year deals. Because if you're not going to nail out this multi-year deal and you play under the transition tag, that one's just, really, I don't know about all that. I also don't think the Colts would do this without knowing that a multi-year deal was coming for really both players. But for Jones, I do think, you know, you see the Jets, you see the Cardinals now, Sands, Kyla Murray. Those teams are now open to negotiation as of next Monday at noon.
Starting point is 00:04:25 And there's, with a transition tag, there's no compensation that. the Colts would receive other than the right to match whatever offer. And it opens themselves to bidding wars now, which would drive up the price to where maybe, like, maybe you might as well have used the franchise tag at that point at that price. But at the same time, it kind of tells us maybe what price they weren't willing to go to, which it's kind of good knowing that they didn't maybe want to go north of 40 million because otherwise they probably just would have used the franchise tag. so that they would have at least gotten draft compensation if another team wanted to do something.
Starting point is 00:05:04 But, yeah, it's, again, they must be pretty confident something's coming down the pipe. Like, hopefully maybe even before this ends. Well, they have to not only be confident that they can get something done with Alec Pierce, which we'll talk about in the next segment, but they have to be confident that nobody else in the league is willing to go over $40 million for Daniel Jones, right? Because they've committed themselves to him with everything they've said and done this offseason. there really isn't much of a plan B for them at quarterback. They're going to move on from Anthony Richardson one way or another.
Starting point is 00:05:35 He's not in their plans whatsoever going forward. So their only option at quarterback right now is Daniel Jones or going back to the market and finding someone else. So by placing this transition tag at 37.83 million, you're essentially saying we're not willing to go above 40 million for you. But if another team does, the Colts get the very difficult decision of matching at the number they did not want to go above and letting that other team negotiate for them, which could put them in more of a dire cap situation if that other team decides to front load the contract or letting
Starting point is 00:06:08 him go and then being back on the quarterback carousel and not knowing who your quarterback is. So look, it could work out. Like if they are rewarded for this risky play and no other team does want to get in on the Daniel Jones sweepstakes, hey, they could have saved, they save $6 million, right? Because if you place the franchise tag, you get them at $4. 43. By placing this, you get them at 37. So you're saving $6 million. But to me, I don't understand the risk reward of that. Right. You're saving $6 million in potentially exposing yourself to another team crushing your cap situation by front-loading an offer to them and putting yourself
Starting point is 00:06:46 in a very, like, difficult conversation. And you potentially expose Alec Pierce to the open market with that too. So I don't really understand this route by the Colts. Again, it's the route that poses the best returns for you. It all goes correct. But it's just one thing goes off on this. It's the route that is the most risky for potentially losing one or both players or potentially having to pay both of these guys even more money than what you would have paid if you just, you know, ponied up what Jones wanted and franchise tagged Alec Pierce.
Starting point is 00:07:22 So, again, this could work out. And so I don't want to be like too doomer and say this. a disaster and this is stupid, but it really just hinges on what these next five days look like for the Colts because if they can't get a long-term deal done with Pierce before he hits the open market and another team swoops in for Daniel Jones, this could be an absolute disaster for what the Colts want to do in this next season and going forward. So again, it's kind of like a wait and see thing with this with the Colts, but I think they're playing a very dangerous game in an NFL that is very desperate for quarterback play. And there's not that, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:57 many quarterback options. Like Jake, you've mentioned Kyler Murray. We know Mendoza's in this draft. I know there's some buzz around the really tiny, oft injured Alabama quarterback in the draft as well. But there's really not many options. And Jones was a top, what, six, top seven
Starting point is 00:08:14 EPA per play quarterback last year. It doesn't take much to talk yourself into that. I just think this is very risky by the Colts. I hope it works out. It certainly can, but you're exposing yourself to a lot, especially as a small market franchise that typically doesn't like to restructure and add void years at the end of
Starting point is 00:08:32 contracts. Yeah. And I mean, we've, we know what this offseason, the weight it carries for Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard. It's also, it also weighs a lot knowing that Jones and Pierce also kind of unofficially seem to be a package deal, at least when it comes to the Colts. But another part of this as well, you better not be playing on the transition tag because right now you put yourself in the hole.
Starting point is 00:08:57 on the cap like you mentioned. Like his cap, the whole cap hit can't be this much if they want to have much wiggle room. Because you had to, you had to do like the cap shaving that we're going to talk about in segment three to create more money. But now you have like no money to work with. And it's an absolute dire situation because you still have to sign Pierce. So it's only risky if it doesn't work, which I'm going to give them the benefit of the out and just say that this was just a whole time-saving measure, it is obviously difficult to try and nail out two multi-year deals at once that are this important. The Colts have been very responsible
Starting point is 00:09:41 with the cap and have usually been pretty good when it comes to the timing of their contracts and things like that. So again, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but there's no joke in the fact that these next several days are, you know, they're very, very important. Yeah. And I will say, this of the risky options they could have chose, I think I would have preferred them going the other risky option, which was just franchise tagging Pierce and then telling Jones, hey, whatever offer you get on the open market, we'll match that and make sure you come back here. I think that would have been a better risky option if you wanted to go risky here. But nonetheless, they're opening themselves up to a lot this all season. We'll see if it works out. But coming up, we're going to
Starting point is 00:10:22 talk about the Alec Pierce of it all, where, look, if the Colts don't get a deal done with Alec Pierce before Monday. The bidding war for him is going to skyrocket. And his agents know that. He knows that. So we'll see what this means for Alec Pierce and his potential future with the Indianapolis Colts. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth, wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade because Intuit TurboTenet. tax now has in-person locations nationwide.
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Starting point is 00:11:33 All right, free agency is knocking at the door, and so are we. Get one month free of the Everydayer Club with code free agency with no spaces. Now through March 15th, go ad free and keep this conversation going on Discord after the show here. Join the club at Lockdowncultz.com to join or even get a subscription today. All right, Zach, so we talked about the fact that Daniel Jones was just given the transition tag by the Colts $37.8 million cap it for this year. That means that Alec Pierce is out there floating in no man's land for the next few days until teams may begin negotiating on Monday at noon with outside players.
Starting point is 00:12:14 That window is, again, for anyone who doesn't know, noon Monday to 3.59 p.m. Wednesday. At 4 p.m. Wednesday, Eastern Time, the madness began. the dotted line can officially be signed across the league officially. You know what I'm saying? The madness begins on Monday. That's the official start of free agency. Oh, yeah. So, Zach, let's see here.
Starting point is 00:12:35 We're talking about Alec Pierce. You were in Indy here with me last week. How many times did you hear from people, non-cultz people, whether they were media or whatever, that there was interest in Alec Pierce outside of Indianapolis? Yeah, I mean, look, deep ball receivers are very important. in the NFL, not only for what they can actually bring on that vertical plane, but for how they make life so much easier for everybody else in the offense.
Starting point is 00:13:02 Even when Pierce wasn't producing in his first couple of seasons, the spacing he provides for a Michael Pittman Jr., a Josh Downs, or even a Tyler Warren this past year is extremely vital to an offense. So the good offensive play callers understand that having a player that wins on the vertical plane, but not only wins at a high level, like dominates on the vertical plane, just does so much for your offense. So look, there's going to be like 25 plus teams that are going to be in on him when it comes to free agency,
Starting point is 00:13:33 especially with George Pickens, a true number one, being off the market with his franchise tag. So the cults are really exposing themselves here. Like even if you went into today and you talked with Pierce's agents all day and you feel good about being able to hammer out a deal by Monday, things can change when you're staring down the barrel of even more money in a bidding war. come Monday afternoon. You know, like the Colts,
Starting point is 00:13:57 you could be really close with the Colts on a $27 million per year contract on Alec Pierce and feel really good about getting it done. But then you see Pierce's agents staring at the cap space that the Raiders have, at the cap space that the Titans have, the cap space that all these other teams have, and they could maybe get a larger piece of the pie, $30, $31, $32 million. Like, for agency is wild for a reason. Like Ballard always says,
Starting point is 00:14:21 you can get players who are not worth that money, getting paid that level when it comes to bidding wars and the open market. So I hope they feel really good about getting a deal done before Monday because if Monday comes and he's not under contract, he's the top target on the open market at wide receiver, a position that is extremely vital. And you have a lot of desperate teams around the league looking for a guy who can take their receiving room to the next level. So Pierce is a player with a lot of gravity that helps a lot of offenses.
Starting point is 00:14:52 and you're exposing him to that bidding war that I don't know if the Colts can really be as competitive in. So it's just so risky. I hope they can get a deal done the next couple of days because if not, then this could be brutal for the Colts. Yeah, it feels like for months we've been saying, don't wait on this. Like, don't let him get to the market. And here we are just a few days out. It's like you really got to get this thing done because over the, Number one, I know they've received trade offers for him over the last couple years.
Starting point is 00:15:26 So, like, the interest was already there before he led the league in yards per catch two consecutive seasons and had his first thousand yard season, you know? So, I mean, how many times have you heard just from national people being like, man, you give Alec Pierce to Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or this or that. If you're the Raiders. It is now thrown in there. Cam Ward and they're like in the money. you give the Raiders and Mendoza a guy like that who yeah he had Charlie Becker with IU like there's a lot of stuff that makes sense out of Indy but we we don't want to hit the panic button on it yet again because the Colts don't let these things dangle unless they're
Starting point is 00:16:07 certain things are going to get worked out now I'm reminded of something that that Ballard said last week at the combine where the reason they tagged Pitman in 24, they were very confident something was going to get done, but Pittman was literally like on a flight back to America from Africa from a hunting trip. And Ballard said, like, we
Starting point is 00:16:31 trust you, we trust your agent, but we're going to tag you to not let this thing be a risk because they didn't want to lose Pitman. So the amount of risk they're taking here that we're discussing is kind of crazy given the weight of what this all means. Because they are
Starting point is 00:16:47 hinging all of 2026, which is a win or go home, go home being your fire, they're hinging all that on Daniel Jones, first and foremost. Alec Pierce is an enormous part of that as well. Because we've talked about it too recently. If you lose Alec Pierce, what's your downfield threat? Ashton Doolin, Anthony Gould. You haven't trusted either of those players to be primary players in your offense at any point yet. So you do that. You're going to have to use an early round draft pick. You don't have your first round pick. You're going to have to use an early round draft pick on a wide receiver that you hope can contribute quickly because you also don't have A.D. Mitchell. And that's in an off
Starting point is 00:17:29 season where you have to load up on defense to make sure your team's good enough to make the playoffs. So this goes in like 10 different directions of how important it is to get this deal done in the next five, six days. Yeah, I mean, the next five days are going to be the most important of Chris Ballard's career at this point, right? They have openly committed. to trying to get these guys under contract. And again, if you get them into a bidding war, I don't think you're getting both them back, especially Pierce, because you don't have anything
Starting point is 00:17:57 tying him to the Colts. If he hits that open market come Monday, right? You don't have any opportunity to match. You don't have any team control over him. So he's free to go to wherever the highest suitor is. So I just don't like this route. I just think, again, like ultimately at the end of the day, like if you can get a deal done with Pierce over the next couple of days
Starting point is 00:18:17 and get him at like 27 per year. right, which is the going rate for a player of his caliber. You can say it's an overpayment or not. It's the going rate right now in the NFL, right? If you can get him at like 27 and then there's no suitors for Jones at 38, then great, you saved six, seven, eight million dollars over the next couple years on the Jones contract, right? So you won in that. But there's just so much room for Jones to get that bigger deal from someone else,
Starting point is 00:18:43 for another team to front load it to really hurt your cap situation for Pierce to hit the market and get more money or losing one or both of them, you know? So you open yourself up to so much. I know I said this over and over again, but I just can't believe the amount of risk associated with this when it comes to the Colts, especially putting yourself out there as a smaller market team that can't, not that they can't,
Starting point is 00:19:04 but they just don't use void years like the Eagles do, right? Where the Eagles can get out of any cap situation by pushing stuff into void years and paying cash, right? And hoping that you can, you know, you can take the poison pill down the line, but that's down the line. That's not right now. Small market teams is tougher for them to operate that way.
Starting point is 00:19:21 That's why we don't see the Colts and the Bengals operating that way, and they have to sometimes let guys go. You're letting other teams kind of bully you a little bit and see if it gets to this with it. So, yeah, they're hinging a lot on their ability to resign these guys in the next couple days. Even then, they still have to get cap compliant by Tuesday. So there are a lot of moves coming for this Colts team,
Starting point is 00:19:44 and hopefully some of them include Pearson Jones, but if not, they really are at risk of losing both these guys come Monday afternoon. Mike Bloom, you are on deck. And Chris. Chris is on deck too. Oh, yeah. But no, Mike Bloom, the Colts Cap specialist and general manager Chris Ballard, we're going to talk about all about what we want and need to see them do next over the next coming days here in just a moment.
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Starting point is 00:22:27 With the tag of Daniel Jones, they are now $4 million over in cap space, but no fret, even as a team that doesn't like to use void years and restructure that way, there are still a lot of moves they can make, very easy moves they can make to open up a lot of cap space.
Starting point is 00:22:44 So we're going to go through a couple of moves that, you know, aside from signing Alec Pierce and signing Daniel Jones the long-term contracts, a couple of moves in the next couple days that can help them get not only cap compliant, but get them ready for the new league year on Tuesday of next week. The first one, though, Jake, and I think this is probably the easiest one, it doesn't matter if you're a rebuilding team, retooling team or a contending team. I think all 32 teams in the NFL in this situation would do this easy move, and that is extending Quentin Nelson.
Starting point is 00:23:12 I think it's, look, it doesn't matter what level of franchise you're at. You want to have that superstar guard under contract. Give him that extension would lower his cap hit this upcoming year. You could lower it as low as you pretty much want in a lot of ways here by depending on how much of a signing bonus you want to give him. And that can get you cap compliant right away. So that's the easiest one. I don't expect Quentin Nelson to ever play for another franchise in his career. So just to get cap compliant, give that extra space you need.
Starting point is 00:23:42 give Quentin Nelson his extension, lower that 2026 cap hit, and make sure he retires a cold. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and say, given how patient Quentin Nelson has been in his career and the fact that all he wants to do is when he's going to be willing to get Jones and Pierce back in the building. And that's not even by taking less money. It's just, you know, it being more guarantees and bonuses rather than actually counting against the cap. So, yeah, extending Quentin Nelson, that makes all the same. since in the world. He's one of a handful of guys they have that's currently a 20 plus million dollar cap hit, which of course, like he should be. But, you know, some of those veterans,
Starting point is 00:24:23 you kind of have to play ball. He saw DeForest Buckner two off seasons ago, you know, do that, I think three-year extension, which created about 14 million in cap space at the time for the Colts. So, yeah, something like that for Nelson. And then again, like I mentioned, there are some guys with huge cap hits and very little dead cap. You look then at Michael Pittman Jr., 29 million cap hit, as we've discussed. It would create 24 million alone just to move off that contract. Now, I don't think it's that simple because I don't think the Colts want to outright cut or trade him. I think they want to come to some sort of agreement on a much more team-friendly deal
Starting point is 00:25:04 when it comes to salary cap hit. You know, that is going to mean converting someone to guarantees and everything. But at the end of the day, you do still have to be careful with that because Pittman's not what he once was. When he signed that contract a couple years ago, he was coming off of a 109 catch, 1100 yard season. You know what I mean? And he's struggling to throw that together in the two seasons since combined. You know what I mean? So that's just not a guy.
Starting point is 00:25:34 Number one, his side of it has to realize that that is not the going rate for a player. in this stage of his career anymore. And the Colts have to be willing to get kind of harsh about it too. Well, here's the thing. You're always worth what somebody else is willing to pay you, right? I think somebody else would be willing to pay Michael Pittman Jr. the $24 million if they were to trade him, right? Because if they trade him, it's $24 million for the acquiring team.
Starting point is 00:26:00 I think that somebody else would be willing to pay that. The Colts are in no situation to be paying him that with everything they have going on and with his regression in the last couple of years. but because they don't know what's going to happen with Alec Pierce, you can't outright cut them or trade them right now because you can't go down to just dueling being your number one outside receiver going into next season. So it's kind of, again, the trickle-down effect of being up in the air about Alec Pierce
Starting point is 00:26:26 is now it's harder to touch that Michael Pittman Jr. contract, right? Because he's not going to agree to a pay cut. Like, it's not going to be a pay cut. I'm sorry. Like, that only happens in the Brayden Smith situations, right? where the guy left with mental health issues and it was for one year like that, it would have to be an extension, which I think would be ludicrous given his regression the last couple of years and how notable it is for wide receivers to fall off a cliff
Starting point is 00:26:52 after they hit 30 years old. So I wouldn't extend him at his current age and contract. And then a restructure would be adding those void years on it. And you want to use that on a player that might not be here next year? like I think ideally you'd want to move off that contract with a cut or a trade but if you don't have Alec Pierce under contract then you can't really move off your other only like your other viable outside wide receiver so it's kind of just again the trickle down effect of of all these moves that they've the move that they made today with the transition tag so yeah I think ideally
Starting point is 00:27:31 you do want to get that contract down I just don't know how you touch that in a in a responsible way, especially now when you don't know Alec Pierce's future with the Colts. Yeah, without question. So this other one here, while there are other options, I think the next most likely one is some sort of resolution on the Zyre Franklin front. So Zeyer has two years left on his deal, which in itself, you know, all these other guys we've been talking about all offseason have one year left. Zaire has two years left.
Starting point is 00:28:01 If you'd get off that contract this year, that's just under six months. million dollars you're opening this year and then another nine million next year so we have speculated that but then Chris Ballard was on the fan morning show recently with with James Boyden Kevin Bowen they asked him about that and rather than just Chris just saying yeah he's got two years left on his deal and you know we'll just see how things go whatever it sounded a lot murkier than that It sounded like they, without directly saying it, confirmed that they have been trying to figure out what to do with that contract. So if you make these moves, something with Nelson, something with Pittman, something with Franklin, whatever resolutions they do, we just created like $30 to $40 million in cap space right there. Yeah, I mean, again, just if you could move off Pittman and you can extend Nelson, that's already in the mid-30s.
Starting point is 00:28:58 And then if you cut Zyra Franklin, that's $40 million extra in cap space right there. And that's without making any other adjustments on the roster. But I think cutting Zyra Franklin is an easier one they can make. Like it's not this like earth shattering move like cutting Pittman or like, I guess extending Nelson's not that big a deal either. That's a pretty expected thing here. But yeah, I think moving off the Zyra Franklin contract makes sense for them cutting them. But again, you get into the situation where what assets do we have? to replace that.
Starting point is 00:29:29 You know, like we can all sit here and say Franklin wasn't good enough last year. And I think that's very fair assessment to make. But you have to have the ability to make that adjustment, bring in somebody else. It can't just be Shagu-a-Lubi and then bringing in like a Joe Batchie level signing to be your starting linebackers. And then if you want to say, go use the draft, we're piling up the needs right now for the draft in a draft where we don't have a first-round pick. You want to use some of our sevenths on the linebacker? I will say, though, that he's always. already had a position they were planning to kind of remake.
Starting point is 00:30:01 Right, right. Yeah. So we'll see. I don't know. Again, I really don't want to be all duma with this because I know that's how I always come off and I do wine a lot. I understand the brand I have built for myself on socials and even on this podcast to a degree. But this could certainly work out for the Colts if they have those like handshake agreements or like they're really close with Pearson Jones. I'm just saying they're leaving up a lot to agents to really screw them over here.
Starting point is 00:30:32 And one thing that we have to keep in mind about agents too is agents aren't behooving to teams. You know, there's no loyalty between an agent and a team. Agents get a cut, man. It is all to their player and the earning potential of their player. You know, like there are ways that you can obviously, like if a player just desperately wants to return home, they'll take less sometimes. Like that does happen. But at the end of the day, agents want to get the best deal possible
Starting point is 00:30:57 for their player. And now you're giving the agents of Daniel Jones and the agents of Alec Pierce all the ability to seek this bigger payout. All in the hope of saving like $6 or $7 million per year on a Jones long-term extension. I still think ultimately the best play would have been catering to what Jones demands were
Starting point is 00:31:17 because look, if it doesn't work out, you're going to blow up this whole thing anyway. Like, who cares if you're going to eat the poison pill for a couple years if you cut Jones? Because you're going to blow this whole thing up regardless, right? So cater to what Jones wanted. And then you could have tagged Pierce and you would have had both these guys. And you could have set the contract for Daniel Jones, lowering the year one cap,
Starting point is 00:31:37 lowering, you know, negotiating with Pierce on his long term deal and lowering the year one cap to open up making more moves this year. But now you're letting other teams do the negotiating for you. And agents do the negotiating for you on the open market, which could result in losing all of these guys. So we'll see. We'll see. I know I kind of just put the first two segments back into the third one here, Jake, but I'm just still kind of flabbergasted to a degree about this decision making. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:07 Well, I mean, it all comes around full circle, of course. But no, I think you're right. I think the thing to do would have been, as long as Jones asking price isn't insane, I think the most secure thing to do would have been to get that multi-year deal done with him. And then franchise Pierce. That would have secured you the best and allowed you to control the situation the best. We also, we would be remiss if not mentioning, you know, another move that's coming down the pipe. Obviously, trading Anthony Richardson.
Starting point is 00:32:39 That's going to open about four or five million for the Colts because there's a roster bonus involved. That's inevitable, it seems. We don't know what the timeline is for that, just sometime over the next six weeks before the draft, really. Yeah, so we will see how it all transpires for the Colts. I will let you guys know one thing, though. Jake and I will essentially be on call the next five days when it comes to this podcast and covering the Colts. The second any shoe drops with the Pierce extension, hopefully, with the Jones extension,
Starting point is 00:33:10 hopefully with potential moves like restructures and all that, we will be here to deliver that news and content to you guys, whether it's a full episode or a short. So make sure you are following us on social. you're subscribing to our show. So you get all of that latest news. And if you don't already, make sure you're following at Locked on Colts
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Starting point is 00:33:43 And remember to use our code free agency or follow the link in our show notes right now. Thank you guys for tuning in today. And we're back tonight with the Colts Squad show to talk about all this. with Derek Shultz and Alan Pinkett.

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