Catalyst

Just wait until Peppers signs. I'm hearing as high as $110 million over 8 years for #90, with as much as $40 million in bonus money.

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imported_newbetterbucs05

Wow, he is averging more money than Tom Brady makes. No way in hell that Freeney is more important to the Colts than Brady is to the Pats. Plus, Freeney is a 1 demensional DE. He is probably the best pass rusher in the NFL, but isn't good against the run.

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Horsepower52

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Bitter Truth @ Jul 13th ) [snapback]2047610[/snapback]</div>Thank ****ing god you're not in charge in Indy then, because I don't know what you've been watching. I've seen him every game and no backup's going to give you 27 forced fumbles in five years, over 50 sacks, and hundreds of QB pressures. He does what he's coached to do. In the playoffs, we didn't tell our DE's to run straight upfield constantly and to "stay at home" to play the run first, and that's a big reason our run defense got much better in the playoffs. Freeney's blown up running plays when that's what he's asked to do, and he's extremely underrated in that aspect.

lostfan

Manning, Harrison, and Wayne are not overrated as hell. Freeney is, holy ****. He may have "set the floor" but he set the damn floor high above the ceiling, geez.

Freeney's good, but I never thought of him as top-DE salary good. I knew this would happen.

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Horsepower52

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lostfan @ Jul 15th ) [snapback]2049313[/snapback]</div>
It's more than what I wanted us to pay for him (it looks like so-long Tarik Glenn after this year, but we should be able to keep Sanders and Clark), but we were really caught between a rock and a hard place with him. Losing Freeney would not only have crushed the morale of our defense, which finally has it's confidence back, but it'd put our bid to repeat in serious jeopardy. The way the contract's structured, we've got about 3 years before we need to renegotiate the deal to make it more cap-friendly. That coincides with the "window" we've got with our current roster. If we can get one more ring in that time span, it's more than worth it. I like Josh Thomas, but no way is he a replacement for Freeney. And, I'd rather see us pay our own talent than pull a Corey Simon, which really is the worst move Polian's made here.

I can understand why fans of alot of teams are pissed though, because it's going to force more teams to play like the Colts model of building a team- keep 4-5 top-tier players (and pay them that way), get a couple mid-priced guys to take a hometown discount, and the most important part- trust your drafts because most of the team will be playing on their rookie deals.

You'd think other teams' fans would be cheering if this was a horrible move. Lord knows they're not upset because they care about the Colts' well being. But it's not a horrible move for us- our opposition still have to contend with Freeney as a Colt, and now their own defensive talent is going to want to get in line for a monster paycheck, which is probably the biggest reason people are mad.

imported_The Bitter Truth

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bizell @ Jul 13th ) [snapback]2047734[/snapback]</div>I'm pretty sure I'm not.

imported_The Bitter Truth

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Horsepower52 @ Jul 15th ) [snapback]2049212[/snapback]</div>He takes himself out of plays regardless of what you think you have seen or haven't seen. He isn't a complete player and he isn't worth that kind of money. He's a one trick pony. I'm not saying he isn't important, he is, for you. But I know I could name 15-20 DE's in this league that I would take over him. And at a fraction of the cost.

This is the most foolish signing since Vick's deal. Just silly, bad management.

lostfan

When you talk in terms of the Colts keeping their best pass rusher on their squad to make a run at another ring, then of course it's not a "bad move" at all. Like someone else said the Colts did what they had to do to keep him. If they didn't, some other tool of a GM was going to give him a fat *** contract and unnecessarily drive the free agent market up. That's what I have a problem with, it's not the Colts, it's the skyrocketing salaries and better ends will want even more money in the future which will upset the competitive balance in the league. And it will open the door to more above average, overrated, overpaid DEs like Adewale Ogunleye. I don't like it when teams have to let go of a homegrown superstar because they don't have the cap room, or they have to let go of a solid player to keep that superstar (having to let go of Lance Briggs over Tommie Harris). And yet we keep seeing it happen. The salary cap keeps going up, up, up... and in the end I have to pay 280 dollars to get Sunday Ticket, for example. 280/16=17.5 per Bears game I want to see. WTF? The NFL is spending like the MLB, but with a salary cap. It's getting out of hand.

BTW the Bears run their team the same way you described but it still affects them.

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lostfan

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Bitter Truth @ Jul 15th ) [snapback]2049390[/snapback]</div>Although not to the same extreme, no you're not. If it was true that Freeney is NOT weak vs. the run, wouldn't the Colts have not been gashed a downright embarrassing amount while Bob Sanders was out?

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Lego

wasn't he signed through this year anyway? so the repeat woulda been there anyway. and then by the time you had to be worried about re-signing him, you'd be looking at replacing him in next year's draft instead of overpaying him. passrushing DEs are a dime a dozen. it was a stupid move.

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