A recent shocking decision by the Colts seems to point toward the team making a big move ahead of the NFL trade deadline
Could the Colts have something big planned ahead of the 2025 NFL trade deadline?
The Indianapolis Colts have been busy adding to their roster as they prepare for their Week 6 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals. The team kicker signed Michael Badgley to replace Spencer Shrader after his season-ending injury. It also signed former Las Vegas Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals LB Germaine Pratt, hoping to upgrade the position.
The Colts also made another move this week, though. The team restructured CB Kenny Moore II’s contract to create $3.8 million in cap space for this season. And this move has people speculating that the team could have a much bigger move in store.
Colts increase their 2025 cap space by restructuring CB Kenny Moore II’s contract
Restucturing contracts isn’t a new concept in the NFL; teams often use it to create cap space every year. It is a pretty rare approach for the Colts, which is why their decision to do this randomly, after a strong 4-1 start to the season, seems so notable. Before this move, the Colts had less than $4 million in available cap space, and now they sit just over $7.6 million.
There are multiple reasons the Colts could have chosen to do this. The one on everyone’s mind, though, is creating more flexibility to potentially pull off a big trade ahead of the NFL trade deadline. The team has several needs it could address. The top two would be CB and edge.
Neither of those positions is typically easy to trade for across the league, because teams with good players at those positions usually do everything in their power to keep them. But if the Colts were to make a big trade this season, it would be surprising if it didn’t involve adding a player at one of those two spots.
Some might think $7.6 million is still not enough for the Colts to take a big swing, and therefore believe this move means nothing. To that, I would offer two reasons why I disagree.
First, many would be shocked at how low a cap hit a team trading for a star player would take on due to the dead cap their previous team keeps on the books. Secondly, if the Colts want to add a player who requires more cap space, they still have multiple players they can restructure to create a ton of cap space. For example, their top five restructuring candidates would generate over $40 million if the team were to fully restructure each of their contracts.
Other notable players the Colts can restructure
- DeForest Buckner – $16,308,750 possible
- Michael Pittman Jr. – $9,415,000 possible
- Quenton Nelson – $7,654,030 possible
- Jonathan Taylor – $5,405,000 possible
- Grover Stewart – $5,242,500 possible
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