Jabaal Sheard is scheduled to visit the Colts, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com tweets. It was reported earlier this week that the team could pursue the pass rusher.
After the late Thursday/early Friday trade between the Rams and Dolphins, the Colts could be the de facto leading suitor for Sheard. The Dolphins acquired a quality defensive end in William Hayes and that could take them out of the Sheard chase. Miami met with Sheard on Thursday afternoon, but Sheard would be redundant for him as they have Cameron Wake, Andre Branch, and Hayes on the DE depth chart. Hayes was accustomed to starting in L.A., so it’s hard to see Miami trying to sell him on even less playing time by bringing in Sheard.
Meanwhile, the Colts could certainly use some assistance at defensive end. Sheard could bump either Hassan Ridgeway or Henry Anderson from the starting lineup, and the move could also result in one of Arthur Jones or Kristjan Sokoli not making the roster. The Colts finished with an underwhelming 33 sacks last season, and the defensive line allowed 1,926 rushing yards (eighth-most in NFL).
Sheard would certainly help with these deficiencies. Despite getting benched midway through the season, the defensive end still had a productive year for the Patriots in 2016. The 27-year-old finished the campaign with 33 tackles and five sacks, adding on to the eight sacks he collected with New England in 2015.
He will be a 3-4 OLB in Indy, so he won’t be pushing any of those guys mentioned for playing time.
He makes alot of sense for the colts as long as he’s a team guy.