The contract details for new Indianapolis Colts Pro Bowl cornerback Stephon Gilmore have officially emerged—after a few days of speculation:
Full details on the #Colts contract for new CB Stephon Gilmore:
— It’s a 2-year deal worth a base value of $20M with a max value of $23M.
— It includes $10.51M fully guaranteed and $14M in total guarantees.
— Gilmore will get a Year 1 payout of $10.02M.— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 19, 2022
It now raises the question of where the Colts stand salary-cap wise, after providing Gilmore such a lucrative (but still fairly team friendly) multi-year deal.
Per OverTheCap.com, the Colts now have a projected $13.5M of available team salary cap space (which also takes into account veteran safety Rodney McLeod’s recent signing of a 1-year contract of $1.770M too).
Still, a remaining ‘X-factor’ here could be projected 2023 prized free agent Quenton Nelson’s looming long-term mega-contract extension, which could either increase or decrease the team’s current salary cap space, depending on how the Colts elect to structure it (and would assuredly make him the highest paid guard in league history):
Nelson is the domino surely the Colts know how it will impact their cap space that no one else knows yet. An extension this spring could either increase or decrease their cap space, however they choose to structure it. https://t.co/LOChIopPRC
— Kyle Rapoza (@ColtscapKyle) April 15, 2022
For all of the talk that Colts general manager Chris Ballard ‘never spends money’, Indianapolis doesn’t actually have all that much salary cap space remaining, relatively speaking. It’s a team that could still use some cheaper veteran signings to help bolster its lost depth on both the offensive and defensive line too respectively.