Zigeunerzelt » With the final stretch of the season coming up

John Simon Color Rush Jersey , it’s time to look ahead and see how the Colts stand in terms of the salary cap. We’ll break down their positional salary cap spending, how it compares to the NFL average, their projected salary cap number for next season and their notable impending free agents. The figures used are from Spotrac.com and Overthecap.com and are based on the current “Active Roster” players in the NFL. QuarterbacksColts Spending: $25,176,076Percentage of Salary Cap: 12.97%NFL Average: $17,114,528Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Andrew Luck — $24,400,000It all comes down to the production and Luck produces at an elite level in the NFL. He is well worth the money and there isn’t much more to say. Running BacksColts Spending: $1,861,358Percentage of Salary Cap: 0.96%NFL Average: 5,055,948Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Nyheim Hines — $661,137The numbers of this group are quite surprising. It’s the lowest paid offensive or defensive group on the team and considering the amount of production they’ve gotten from the running backs, it’s a fantastic bargain. The group is averaging 4.5 yards per carry and 1242 on the season. Both are average figures compared to the rest of the league, but considering the small amount of money the Colts have in them, it’s a great investment!ReceiversColts Spending: $19,517,647Percentage of Salary Cap: 10.06%NFL Average: $16,093,723Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: $13,000,000This might not be a great investment for the Colts this season. While TY Hilton has done many TY Hilton things this season, the group has been marred by inconsistent play, filled with poor route running and bad drops. Their play has improved in recent weeks, but this group has not lived up to their $19M+ billing. Tight EndsColts Spending: $13,131,981Percentage of Salary Cap: 6.77%NFL Average: $6,833 https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Chester-Rogers-Jersey ,466Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Eric Ebron — $6,750,000This group is one of the highest paid tight end groups in the NFL, but this group has earned every penny. Eric Ebron is tied for most touchdowns (11) in the NFL and Jack Doyle’s play has been top notch before suffering a season-ending injury. Mo Alie-Cox and Erik Swoope have also been nice pieces. This group has been the best in football, so it’s obviously been a great investment!Offensive LineColts Spending: $22,526,861Percentage of Salary Cap: 11.61%NFL Average: $26,090,929Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Anthony Castonzo — $10,800,000Like the tight end group, the Colts offensive line has been amongst the best in the NFL this season. Unlike the tight end group, this group’s spending is below the NFL average. With Quenton Nelson and Ryan Kelly still in rookie deals, the Colts are getting great bargains. This is a young group that should be a bright spot for many years to come.Defensive LineColts Spending: $23,064,359Percentage of Salary Cap: 11.89%NFL Average: $25,190,996Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Jabaal Sheard — $7,500,000The defensive line has had an up and down season. Some weeks they look invisible and others they look very good. Considering the Colts have spent the NFL average on the group and the group has been average for the most part, you can call this one a modest investment. Jabaal Sheard, their largest individual investment, has had a nice season along with rookie Kemoko Turay. The interior defensive lineman haven’t been as strong as the edge defenders, which can hurt the group at times. LinebackersColts Spending: $4,889,232Percentage of Salary Cap: 2.52%NFL Average: $17,671,703Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Darius Leonard — $1,317 Antonio Morrison Jersey ,782This group has had a fantastic season, led by defensive rookie of the year front-runner and defensive player of the year sleeper, Darius Leonard. He’s a rookie, so his contract is very affordable and considering his play, he should be making 10 times more. Anthony Walker and the other linebackers all make less than 1 million and the group has been steady for most of the season. CornerbacksColts Spending: $5,137,021Percentage of Salary Cap: 2.65%NFL Average: $14,190,952Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Pierre Desir — $1,562,500Considering the amount spent compared to the NFL average, you can definitely say this group has been a good bargain, but overall, this group is average at best compared to the rest of the NFL. This group can definitely benefit by adding a star player in this year’s free agency class and considering the cap space and the amount the Colts have spent on this group, this is very doable and should be something the Colts pursue in the offseason. SafetiesColts Spending: $5,261,136Percentage of Salary Cap: 2.71%NFL Average: $9,537,528Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Malik Hooker — $2,863,615Malik Hooker, on his rookie contract, is one of the best individual bargains in the NFL when talking about safeties. Clayton Geathers has had an underwhelming year and was outplayed early on in the season by Matthias Farley, who was put on Injured Reserve. This group has performed well considering the amount of spending the Colts have put into them, but this is also a group that can benefit from some free agency spending. Special TeamsColts Spending: 4,184,000Percentage of Salary Cap: 2.16%NFL Average: $4,435,608Colts Player with the Largest Cap Hit: Adam Vinatieri — $3 Kenny Moore Color Rush Jersey ,625,000It’s tough to compare special teams spending around the league. The reality of special teams is: do the punter and kicker perform well? If the answer is yes, then the spending is almost irrelevant. This group has performed very well this season. Salary Cap UpdateThe Colts currently have $49,338,629 in cap space according to Over the Cap. With all that money projected to carry over and with the salary cap expected to rise to $190,000,000 next season, the Colts should have approximately $123,610,387 in cap space next season.It’s worth noting that the Colts need to spend a certain amount of money to avoid being in breach of not meeting the NFL Salary Cap floor. In four year increments, starting in 2017 and going until 2020, NFL teams are required to spend at least 89% of their cap space in cash. The league is entering the third year of the four year cycle and the Colts will enter the 2019 offseason having only spent 68.4% of their salary cap. In short, expect the Colts to spend some money this offseason so they don’t have to go crazy next offseason to meet the NFL salary cap floor. Notable 2019 Free Agents Pierre DesirMatthias FarleyClayton GeathersRyan GrantMargus HuntAdam VinatieriAl WoodsAll in all, the Colts are in very good shape! Many of the position groups are performing extremely well compared to the amount of money the Colts have invested in them. This is a strong, young team with a lot of money in the bank moving forward. The team benefits from a lot of great rookie contracts, so I expect the Colts to be very active in free agency over the next couple of years. Every week, I will present a summary of some basic and advanced stats for the Colts performance relative to the league. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com and the nflSCrapR project for being awesome sources of weekly data.Let me be clear right up front; a shutout is a great performance. Period. I mean what more can you expect?Well, it depends. The gray bars in the above graphic mean there were no scores and again that is awesome.But take a closer look at the manner in which that was achieved.Every Dallas drive ended up in Colts territory. Every one.There were no 3 & Outs deep in Cowboy territory giving the Colts offense better field position.The defense gave up 19 first downs, which puts the Drive Success Rate against at 73%. That is actually one of the poorer efforts on the week.Again they delivered in the absolutely most important aspect of a defense: 0 points.So, A++ work, guys.But the way they did it is suspect, in that if they bend that much going forward, the results will likely not be so great. For example, on the Cowboys second drive, the ‘Boys were 3 yards and a wide open Jamize Olawale away from tying the game. Dak Prescott threw it short and Olawale alligator-armed it.That’s not bend-don’t-break as much as it is mis-throw-can’t-catch. TEAM TOTALSThe table is ranked by DSR, which again shows the defense in a far worse light than Adjusted Points per Drive against, which obviously was the best mark in the league (tied), Dallas faced an average of 6.3 yards to go on thirds which was the 7th shortest distance of all teams. In other words the Indy defense ranked 26th in that measure https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Jeremiah-George-Jersey , so the fact that defensive third down conversions ranked 14th and the overall defended first down conversions ranked 18th is maybe good news (not really).On the bright side, the Colts defense only gave away one first down on penalties and they limited explosive plays, both of which were critical to the shutout.They also added 2 turnovers, which happened on 4th down . . . so, even if they weren’t turnovers they would have been turnovers. Savvy?PASSINGHere is where the results are unequivocal; the Colts shut down the Cowboy passing game. Coming into the week, I had Dallas ranked 19th in passing and the Colts pass D ranked similarly at 15th. So, I didn’t expect a dominant performance by either side. However, Dak had to settle for shorter passes most of the day with 3.8air yards on completions: a full 2 yards shorter than his season average. There were no explosive pass plays and the Yards After the Catch were limited resulting in a poor 5.3 Yards per Attempt for Dak (6th worst last week).Add to that, a pick and 3 sacks (Tyquan!) and you get an Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt of 3.2 (that’s really bad). The Cowboys went no where through the air. RUSHINGOn the ground, they fared a bit better.Over half of the Cowboy runs were successful (first down or chunk yardage).While Ezekiel Elliott had the bulk of the carries, their 3 explosive rushes for 45 yards came by committee (Elliott, Amari Cooper, Rod Smith)The normally stout Colts run defense (4th in season wRSR) could not stop the ‘Boys on the ground. Thankfully, game script caused Dallas to abandon the run with only 5 carries in the second half after 17 in the first 2 quarters.CONCLUSIONS & NEXT MATCH-UPWhat works, works.Kudos to Tyquan Lewis, Darius Leonard, Denico Autry, George Odum and the rest of the band.I won’t complain about a shutout (although I guess I kinda just did).The Giants head to Indy on Sunday and they bring with them an 18th ranked passing game, but that ranking includes all the weeks when they had a chance and cared. Compared to a surging Colts defense who is 7th against the pass over the last 5 weeks, this looks to be a mismatch similar to Dallas. On the ground, I have the Giants at a not quite last 30th place. Wait. How can that be?! Isn’t pro-bowler Saquon Barkley re-defining the rushing game? In a word, no.He’s a great athlete and runs a lot but only about a third of his rushes either move the chains or puts the team in a position to do so.Football Outsiders ranks him 13th in DYAR and 21st in DVOA (behind Marlon Mack’s 4th place in both).Simply put, their run game does not translate to points (19th in PPD).So, if the Colts, who are 4th best at stopping rush success can limit the Giants in the same way as almost all other teams have done, then we should be OK*.*author not responsible for Barkley having the game of his life in the near future.TRAILING 5 WEEK TOTALS (per game)SEASON TOTALS (per game)