The Colts might have to make some hard decisions with a tight salary cap incoming; here are three candidates who could be cut.
The salary cap is not expected to increase much for the 2025 season, with many analysts expecting only a few percentage point increase. If that’s the case, then a lot of teams, including the Colts, will need to tighten their belts and make some tough decisions. The Colts are in a better position than most for the salary cap and don’t have too many big name free agents next offseason, however, they do have a lot of big extensions looming. With that being the case, they’ll need to be mindful of their salary cap and they could look to cut some loose ends to free up some valuable space. The following three players could serve as cut candidates in the 2025 offseason.
Samson Ebukam
2025 Cap Hit: $11,000,000
Potential Cap Savings: $8,000,000
Ebukam had a nice start to his Colts career with 9.5 sacks and 17 quarterback hits. He was a reliable starter and an important piece of one of the strongest defensive lines in the league. Unfortunately, Ebukam tore his Achilles in July, which is one of the most devastating injuries in all of sports. Many players retire or don’t return to nearly 50% of their original self after that type of injury. Ebukam is also going to be 30 years old in the offseason and will be entering the final deal of his contract. All those factors work against him on top of a very high cap hit with large savings.
What also doesn’t help him is the fact that Laitu Latu, Kwity Paye and Tyquan Lewis are signed for next season and Dayo Odeyingbo could be signed for a relatively low contract, which ironically enough could be paid with the savings of the Ebukam contract. So the fact that the Colts have 3 or 4 solid defensive end options as well as a strong interior also hurt Ebukam’s chances of staying on the Colts next year.
Matt Gay
2025 Cap Hit: $6,750,000
Potential Cap Savings: $4,750,000
Matt Gay has had a mostly fine season for the Colts in 2024. He’s gone 19/19 on field goals under 50 yards, however he’s gone 3/6 on field goals over 50 yards. In today’s NFL, being 50% on kicks over 50 yards is a negative; in fact, Gay’s percentage on 50+ yard kicks ranks 28th in the NFL.
Gay has not played poorly enough to warrant being cut, but he has certainly not played well enough to justify his hefty contract, which at the time was the largest free agent deal in NFL history for a kicker. With so many talented kickers coming out of college and so many others on the street, the Colts could find a cheap alternative for 2M or less and save out on at least a couple of million if they cut Matt Gay. The Lions brought in Jake Bates from the UFL and he’s been incredible for them this season. The Vikings drafted Will Reichard who was great before his injury and then they signed John Parker Romo who has gone nearly perfect in the last month. There are so many great cheap alternatives out there who can do the same job as Gay, if not better.
Raekwon Davis
2025 Cap Hit: $8,990,000
Potential Cap Savings: $6,490,000
When Raekwon Davis was signed, he was expected to give the Colts much needed depth along the interior defensive line. However, over the past two months, Davis’ snap count has decreased and over the past 6 weeks, he hasn’t gotten more than 22 snaps in a single game. Even during DeForest Buckner’s absence, he graded out as one of the worst players on the defense and has an empty stat line. Then when you look at the tape, you see a player who’s struggling to clog up one gap and during Buckner’s absence, the Colts ranked as one of the worst teams in the NFL against the run, which is a poor reflection on Davis and the front 7.
Davis wouldn’t be as much to blame if he was some cheap, young player on the rise, but he’s a 27 year old in the prime of his career and the Colts paid him 14M for 2 years. His play is worth of 3M over 2 years at most! The Colts are going nowhere with Davis as a rotational backup and should look to cut him as it would save 6.5M, which can fetch some actual quality players.
