Gruden to Return to ESPN

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The Colts only ever offer extensions to the players who are among the top 5, or charitably 10 at their position. They have like 13 or 15 players accounting for 85% of their payroll, and are a very deep team because they have 35 or so players on their rookie contract, but all of those players could start for some team in the NFL.

The Colts are a premier organization because they don't allow being close to the cap to affect the way they do business. They are always close to it, but never extend a player who can't help them win championships in the future.

By comparison, since 2006: Portis, Moss, Randy Thomas, Jansen, Samuels, Griffin, Hall, Randle El, Carter, Betts, Cooley, Daniels, Collins, Sellers, Brunell, and Springs have all gotten lucrative extensions from this organization. Certainly, there's names in there who have been near the top of their position and deserve big bucks, but I'd say less than a third of that list qualify to be extended by the standards the Colts have set.