Xavier Rhodes will stay in Indianapolis. After catching on with the Colts last year, the former first-round pick agreed to terms to re-sign with the team, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets.
The Colts are giving Rhodes another one-year contract worth $6.5MM, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport tweets, locking in a key piece of their defense for the 2021 season. Last year, the Colts received strong value on the one-year, $3MM accord they agreed to with Rhodes. They will look to keep that going, while Rhodes may have his eye on a bigger payday in 2022.
Jettisoned after a woeful 2019 season in Minnesota, Rhodes bounced back in Matt Eberflus‘ zone-heavy defense. Pro Football Focus tabbed Rhodes as its No. 9 overall corner in 2020. He played a key role in Indianapolis’ defensive improvement, joining fellow new arrival DeForest Buckner in that regard, and will stick with the team for his age-31 season. Quarterbacks completed an astounding 82% of the passes they threw at Rhodes in 2019; he dropped that figure to 52% last season.
Under GM Chris Ballard, Indianapolis has used a measured approach to free agency. That has usually led to the team sitting on extensive cap space, though this year the Colts have cornerstone players Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard eligible for extensions. These prospective re-ups will need to be accounted for, but the Colts came into Saturday with the NFL’s second-most cap space ($35MM-plus). They should have some interesting opportunities to bolster their team in the second wave of free agency. Another T.Y. Hilton contract remains on the team’s radar as well.
Oh thank god lmao
yes………..yes……..YES !!!!!
Ballard is gonna be the last GM with any money left over. Hopefully he can get a bunch of these B level players on the cheap.
He needs to be frugal. They have Leonard, Q, and Smith to pay.
Yeah looking at say 50 mil in salary for them combined and with only 35 mil left now you need to worry about that future space
Another contract for T.Y. on the radar? I kind of doubt it. Smallish speedsters generally don’t age well.
Indianapolis Indiana will have improved RHODES !!