The Indianapolis Colts announced the signing of veteran free agent offensive tackle Dennis Kelly on Tuesday and the waiving of four other players: offensive tackle Shon Coleman, linebacker Malik Jefferson, and tight ends Farrod Green and Eli Wolf:
We have signed T Dennis Kelly and released T Shon Coleman and LB Malik Jefferson.
We have also waived TE Farrod Green and TE Eli Wolf.
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) May 10, 2022
Regarding Kelly, the 6’8”, 321 pound offensive tackle has appeared in 114 career games (51 starts) during his 9-year playing career. The former Purdue Boilermaker standout made four starts for the Packers in 2021 and is just a year removed from a 16 start season for the Titans during the 2020 campaign.
He’s known as being a quality veteran swing-tackle and should provide experienced depth at the Colts offensive tackle spots—while potentially allowing rookie Bernhard Raimann some additional time to develop, should he actually need it.
With the Colts incoming 2022 draft class—and Kelly’s arrival, the team had to trim some active roster spots. It looks like Coleman was the casualty for Kelly signing at offensive tackle, while regarding Green and Wolf’s releases, the team added two tight ends: Jelani Woods and Andrew Ogletree in the recent draft—for what’s a very deep room at the position now for Indianapolis. Backup special teams linebacker Brandon King was added earlier this offseason in Jefferson’s case, which may have made him expendable.