The Colts made the necessary offers to hang onto some of their restricted free agents today.
Most notably, the Colts tendered restricted free agent linebacker Jerrell Freeman at the second-round level. That means any team signing Freeman away would have to give the Colts a second-round draft pick. That won’t happen, and the Colts will keep Freeman for a salary of about $2 million this season.
The Colts also made qualifying offers to three exclusive rights free agents: Running back Daniel “Boom Herron,” linebacker Daniel Adongo and linebacker Cam Johnson.
Herron got increasing playing time late last season when the Colts finally began to realize that Trent Richardson simply isn’t good enough, and Herron out-played Richardson down the stretch. (Not that that’s saying much.) With the qualifying offer, Herron will be back in Indianapolis this season, potentially as their starting running back.
Adongo is a former rugby player who’s been with the Colts for two years. He hasn’t done much of anything yet, but the Colts think he has the athletic talent to amount to something, and they’ll give him at least another offseason to see what he can do.