The Colts were busy to start free agency, but can you honestly say they got any better?

A flurry of activity marked the beginning of free agency, but did the needle move at all?

Chris Ballard takes his fair share of criticism as the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts for his notoriously slow and seemingly unmoving pace to start free agency. Fans clamor for him to do more. Sign more players. Make big splashes. The list of demands goes on and on. Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) those demands fall on deaf ears. He can’t be accused of sitting on his hands this year when the legal tampering period kicked off because he was extremely busy signing his own guys. While that is the positive, it is safe to ask if the Colts improved after the first day.

Granted, it is the first day, so the question may not be fair. Ballard still has plenty of time and big moves at his disposal. He can fill areas of need in free agency and of course, he still has his favorite part of the year; the NFL draft. Yes, free agency is not the only place to improve, but it is usually the fastest and easiest to judge because you are dealing with established players. There is a body of work at the NFL level from which to make conclusions about the player and his fit with a new team. With the draft, you can only project how a player will respond to the league. During free agency, we have a good idea what kind of player a team is getting.

The Colts got (or retained) some good players to start the legal tampering period. They locked down their number one receiver, Michael Pittman Jr. They also extended Zaire Franklin and are bringing back important pieces on the defensive line in Grover Stewart and Tyquan Lewis. They did lose Gardner Minshew to the Raiders which stings but is completely understandable. The Raiders paid him handsomely and are going to give him a shot at being the starter.

I am a fan of all of the moves the Colts made today. I am less satisfied with the moves that they did not make. Once again, I understand that free agency doesn’t last eight hours. It can go on for weeks with some big names lingering out there waiting for the right opportunity. This thing is far from over. With that said, did the Colts get better? How could they when they only brought back players from this year’s 9-8 club? Not only did they only bring back “current” players, they also lost their starting quarterback from most of the year. Now, we all hope Anthony Richardson will be healthy, and no one doubts a healthy Richardson is much more talented than Minshew. Minshew, however, still led this team to the verge of playoff contention.

With that, I can’t even say, “Well, they didn’t get better, but at least they didn’t get worse,” because unless losing Minshew was addition by subtraction, they got worse. Kenny Moore II will most likely get re-signed but hasn’t yet. Julian Blackmon is still out there. The Colts either need to bring him back or sign someone to take his place. There is still a lot of work to do.

Days and weeks are in front of us if Ballard works the way he has in the past. He will sign players and will fill out a roster. That part is not in doubt. The question is, will the team be better on paper at the end of free agency than when it began? There is still ample opportunity for that to happen. It is just, at this point, the team didn’t do anything to make up ground in the crowded AFC.