No one has been with the current Indianapolis Colts longer than starting center Ryan Kelly. He joined the team as the 18th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He’s since started all 111 games he’s appeared in, has reached the Pro Bowl four times, and has earned second-team All-Pro honors.
But now, as Kelly prepares for his 10th NFL season, the 31-year-old wants a new contract. For now, he’s headed into the final season of a four-year, $50 million contract. Kelly is set to have a $14.6M cap hit in 2024; after that, he enters free agency for the first time in his career.
Yet, if Kelly got his way, he wouldn’t be preparing to enter the open market. He’d be settling down in Indianapolis with a contract extension that locks in his future with the Colts. Except, according to Kelly, the Colts have made it very clear that they have no interest in signing their starting center to an extension. At least not right now.
“From our standpoint, the Colts have made it pretty clear that they don’t want to do an early extension. It is what it is. We made it known that we wanted to stay, that we wanted an extension, but they didn’t see it as part of their priorities.” – Ryan Kelly
Indianapolis Colts avoiding early extensions is nothing new
Kelly graded as the eighth-best center in the NFL , per Pro Football Focus last season. As much as he’d like to secure another extension that puts him on track to possibly retire with the Colts, as he noted, re-signing the Ohio native just isn’t at the top of their current to-do list.
Maybe that changes if he has a strong training camp again, showing he’s ready to crush the competition. Yet, the Colts have taken this stance in the past. Just last year, Colts owner Jim Irsay pushed back against the idea of paying Jonathan Taylor before he was forced to.
“NFL Running Back situation — We have negotiated a CBA, that took years of effort and hard work and compromise in good faith by both sides,” Irsay tweeted . “To say now that a specific Player category wants another negotiation after the fact, is inappropriate. Some Agents are selling ‘bad faith.’”
The Colts eventually caved, signing Taylor to a contract extension. But there’s a big difference between retaining a young player who led the league in rushing and paying an aging center.
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