On Thursday morning, the Colts and wide receiver T.Y. Hilton agreed to a five-year extension worth a reported $65MM with $39MM guaranteed. That deal put Hilton just yards away from the substantial five-year, $70MM deals inked by Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas just weeks ago and that kind of cash made it worthwhile for him to forfeit testing his value on the open market down the road. Here’s a look at some of the reactions to Hilton’s new pact..
- Colts GM Ryan Grigson is moving away from Bill Polian’s philosophy of only doing new deals with players after contracts are completed and that suggests that an extension for Andrew Luck will get done in 2016, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com tweets.
- Jimmy Sexton, Julio Jones‘ agent, is probably happy with Hilton’s deal, Corry tweets. Sexton likely views Hilton as a tier below Jones, which would set his the Falcons receiver up for a payday that exceeds the contracts signed by Hilton, Bryant, and Thomas.
- Now that Hilton is under contract, the Colts won’t have to tag him in 2016. That means that the franchise tag available for use on someone else, like left tackle Anthony Castonzo or tight end Coby Fleener, Mike Florio of PFT writes. The tender is much lower for tight ends than left tackles, so Florio writes that it would make sense for the Colts to sign Castonzo to a new deal and use the tag on Fleener.
- Locking up Hilton is just the start for the Colts and their core players, Mike Wells of ESPN.com writes. Wells feels that Castonzo is next on Indy’s to-do list, with tight ends Dwayne Allen and Fleener to follow. Wells seems to think that Luck staying is a foregone conclusion, writing that Colts owner Jim Irsay will make him the league’s highest paid player.
- If Bryant and Thomas were playing under $12.823MM franchise tags, then Hilton wouldn’t have gotten this extension, Corry tweets.
- Kevin Bowen of Colts.com looked at how the Hilton talks unfolded over the course of the offseason.
- Hilton is getting paid but the deal is a win-win for the wide receiver and the team, Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star writes. Doyel also commends Hilton for his professionalism in the wake of the team’s selection of Miami receiver Phillip Dorsett, a player who has a very similar skill set.