Indianapolis Colts cut half a dozen players, seek trade for DE Dwight Freeney to settle cap issue-NFL News
After release of the veteran quarterback, Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts are straight into rash overhauling of the squad and, as of the latest, announced to have released half a dozen players to bring down their players’ salary expense to the cap
level.
Those released are the quarterback, Curtis Painter, halfback, Joseph Addai, linebacker, Gary Brackett, tight end, Dallas Clark, and safety Melvin Bullitt.
Jim Irsay, the owner of Indianapolis Colts, said that he did not have an option than release of the players due to the salary cap issue, despite that they had contributed towards the team’s progress to a great extent.
He said:
"These players all made tremendous contributions to the organization and will forever be members of the Colts family."
Irsay added:
"It's always difficult to make these decisions which the nature of the salary cap requires. Their legacies with the Colts will be forever remembered by the organization, fans and Indianapolis community. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours."
In addition to the release of the player, the team is reported to be specifically interested in trading defensive end, Dwight Freeney, to any team from the National Football League (NFL) at a ‘right’ price.
This could help the management to save $19 million in the cap, as the player has refused to accept a redone deal and the team is not interested in retaining him now.
A number of more players are feared to be in the line of waiver, as Irsay has again shown his intentions of sparing no one in the way of so called rebuilding of the team.
The process of massive cleansing, which had started with firing of all former managers and coaches right after the end of the 2011 NFL regular season, is back on track again, with only a minor interruption in between pertaining to the pending issue of Peyton
Manning.
In one his remarks earlier, Irsay had referred the team to be in a phase of transition and rebuilding so as to be back on winning ways in the future.
To implement his agenda, the owner has parted ways with vice chairman, general manager, head coach and a majority of assistant coaches.
Now with new general manager and head coach in place, he has diverted focus on the squad.
In the first move, he handled the toughest and most complicated release of Peyton Manning. Next day, he signed a new quarterback and has now cut these players.
Colts ended the past NFL season on the worst note, with only two wins and massive 14 losses, and Irsay does not want to face the same situation again in the future.
At the same time, he must be aware of the quality of talent that the team has, as almost all of the players were exposed on the field in absence of the star of the show, Manning, during last year.
Tags: