Some major offseason goals for the Colts just became harder to complete due to the latest NFL news
The Colts are going to have to work even harder now if they want to accomplish their two most important goals of the offseason.
The Indianapolis Colts have a lot of questions to answer over the next couple of months after their historic collapse, which saw the team lose its final seven games.
The new league year on March 11 is quickly approaching, and before that, the league’s legal tampering period kicks off on March 9. This means free agency is around the corner, and the Colts have multiple needs they need to address, whether that be in-house extensions, free agency, or the NFL Draft.
Before that happens, though, teams need to know how much cap space they will have to work with. That answer was revealed on Friday, with the official cap number for the 2026 season being revealed, and it wasn’t the news many were hoping to hear.
NFL set the official 2026 season salary cap, and it was lower than some were hoping to see
Earlier this year, a cap projection for the 2026 NFL salary cap was revealed to be roughly $301-305 million. On Friday, it was revealed to be at the lowest end of that projection, with the 2026 NFL salary cap being set at $301.2 million.
Teams were hoping to see the cap set closer to the high end of the projection at $305 million, but now will have to figure out how to maneuver the upcoming offseason with roughly $4 million less to work with. This will result in teams having to be a little tighter with their spending in free agency, especially since each team must hold on to cap space to sign all of their selections in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Colts’ main goals remain to retain Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce
This news gives the Colts $33,418,489 million in cap space ahead of the offseason. First order of business for the Colts is to iron out extensions for quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Alec Pierce. General manager Chris Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen have made their intentions of bringing both players back very apparent.
The franchise tag is one avenue the team could take to keep at least one of the players around. It also makes it even more likely that the Colts would use the tag on Pierce rather than Jones if it came down to it. For example, now that the cap has been set, the price for the non-exclusive franchise tag and the transition tags has been set. For QBs, the NFT costs $43,895,000, and the transition tag costs $37,833,000. For WRs, the NFT costs $27,298,000, and the transition tag costs $23,852,000.
If the Colts are forced to tag either Jones or Pierce, they will likely have to jump through some hoops to add more cap space one way or another. However, Jones receiving either tag significantly limits the Colts’ ability to make other moves this offseason. It won’t be impossible, but the cap coming in $4 million shy of the high-end projection still hurts the Colts’ chances to get both of these deals done.