Nick Korte of Over the Cap (OTC) put together a 2025 offseason list of 100 possible cut candidates and included were three members of the Indianapolis Colts.
Typically, the players who are candidates to be released are veterans who are near the end of their contracts, and their production doesn’t align with the contract value.
It’s oftentimes at this point where a player’s cap hit can be larger than their dead cap hit. A dead cap hit are dollars that have essentially been paid to the player already but because of the structure of the contract, those dollars haven’t hit the salary cap books quite yet.
So even if the player is released, they still count against the current year’s salary cap because it all has to be accounted for on the books at some point.
However, while true, when the dead cap hit is lower than the cap hit, moving on from that player can still save the team cap space. For example, if a player has a cap hit of $8 million if they are on the team and a dead cap hit of $4 million if released, the team creates $4 million in cap space by moving on.
Now, with the mechanics of the move out of the way, let’s get back to the Colts. The three players mentioned by Korte are Samson Ebukam, Tyquan Lewis, and Raekwon Davis.
Per OTC’s metrics, moving on from Ebukam would create $7.49 million in cap space. Releasing Lewis would save $4.55 million and Davis would create $6.46 million in cap savings.
Moving on from Ebukam does seem to be a possibility. While he put together a very productive first season with the Colts in 2023, Ebukam is coming off an Achilles injury and entering his age 30 season.
The Achilles injury can often be one where it takes up to a season-plus for a player to return to their previous form.
I also think moving on from Davis is very much in play as well. He played roughly one-third of the defensive tackle snaps this season, sharing playing time with Tavon Bryan behind Grover Stewart and DeForest Buckner.
But as GM Chris Ballard looks to add more competition to the roster this offseason, doing so at defensive tackle should be a priority as there was once again a steep dropoff in play when Buckner and Stewart weren’t on the field.
When it comes to Lewis, however, I’m not as sure if moving on from him makes sense. For one, the savings–relative to the salary cap–aren’t major.
In addition to that, he’s been a quality run defender, and if the team were to release Ebukam, along with not knowing what the future holds for free agent Dayo Odeyingbo, that would leave the Colts short-handed at defensive end if they also parted ways with Lewis.
When it comes to how Ballard navigates the offseason, not only are making decisions on the Colts own free agents and outside free agents a part of the equation, but navigating the salary cap with potential cap-saving moves is an element as well.
