As Colts Head Coach Tony Dungy sees it, the team’s off-season story is a bit different this year.
This year, the story isn’t as much about roster changes. It’s not about player losses. Rather, it’s about who the Colts haven’t lost.
They didn’t lose Dallas Clark. Or Bob Sanders. Or Ryan Lilja.
So, unlike past off-seasons, when the Colts often sustained at least a few high-profile free-agent departures, Dungy said this off-season’s story is about continuity.
And that’s a much more pleasurable story, as Dungy sees it.
“We have the chance to get probably our most number of players back from the previous team that we’ve had any time since I’ve been here,” Dungy said Friday at the NFL Scouting Combine, which is ongoing this week and weekend at the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis.
“Hopefully, that’s good, that continuity.”
Since Dungy’s 2002 arrival, the news around the Colts during the late-February combine as often as not has centered around free agents not likely to return.
The Colts under Dungy and Colts President Bill Polian have focused most off-seasons on re-signing their own free agents. In the past five years, they have invested big money retaining players such as quarterback Peyton Manning, wide receivers Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, offensive linemen Ryan Diem and Jeff Saturday and defensive ends Dwight Freeney, Raheem Brock and Robert Mathis.
Still, because the Colts have been one of the NFL’s top drafting teams over the last decade, free-agent departures have been common, too.
In 2002, losses included guard Steve McKinney to the Houston Texans, and the following year, it lost linebacker Mike Peterson to the Jacksonville Jaguars. A year later, losses included linebacker Marcus Washington to the Washington Redskins and cornerback David Macklin to the Arizona Cardinals.
In 2005, guard Rick DeMulling signed with the Lions and tight end Marcus Pollard was released in a salary-cap move.
The trend continued the past two off-seasons. Following the 2005 season, running back Edgerrin James (Arizona), kicker Mike Vanderjagt (Dallas) and linebacker David Thornton (Tennessee) left as free agents, and following the Colts’ Super Bowl victory in 2006, four more starters signed elsewhere: linebacker Cato June (Tampa Bay), cornerbacks Nick Harper (Tennessee) and Jason David (New Orleans) and running back Dominic Rhodes (Oakland). Defensive tackle Montae Reagor and wide receiver Brandon Stokley were released in salary-cap moves.
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