Super Bowl winning left tackle and former number 1 overall draft pick Eric Fisher has agreed to terms with the Indianapolis Colts for the upcoming season. Indy, who was looking for offensive line help, will be bringing in the 2x Pro Bowler on a 1-year, $9.4M contract to help protect newly acquired QB Carson Wentz’s blind side.
Since entering the NFL in 2013, Fisher has started in 113 games with the Kansas City Chiefs. However, coming off an Achilles injury suffered in the AFC Championship game this past year adds a layer of risk to the signing, as there is no firm timetable in place on when Fisher will return to game action. The current hope is that he’ll be ready to join the team sometime in September.
Fisher will fill a gaping hole at LT created by veteran Anthony Castonzo’s recent retirement. With that concern now filled, the Colts will be trotting out a veteran heavy offensive line for 2021, which is music to Carson Wentz’s ears after several up and down seasons in Philadelphia behind a leaky O-line. Last year Wentz was sacked 50 times in only 12 games with the Eagles. Meanwhile, the Colts surrendered only 21 sacks as a unit all season long.
Colts GM Chris Ballard has an existing relationship with Fisher, as he was part of the front office group in Kansas City when the Chiefs made him the number 1 overall pick 8 years ago. Although this year’s draft class boasted an extremely deep offensive lineman group, the Colts clearly weren’t sold on who was left on the board when they were on the clock at pick 21. Ballard would be quoted as saying “I’d be honest, how many true left tackles were in the draft? I don’t have the number exactly, but prototypically, some of these guys, maybe they end up playing left tackle. We’ll see if they end up staying there their whole careers. But if you’re going to draft a guy that high and you’re drafting him to play left tackle, you’d like to know that he’s going to be able to do it for his whole career.”
Indianapolis would ultimately select Edge Rusher Kwity Paye from Michigan in the first round. In the end, the team wouldn’t take an offensive lineman until the 7th round when they selected Will Fries from Penn State at 248th overall, electing instead to address O-Line concerns via free agency through Fisher & Sam Tevi (Chargers in 2020).
With the 13th ranked passing defense, and a 2nd ranked rushing defense in the NFL last season, the Colts clearly feel like their window to compete is now. This would explain their hesitancy to take on a “project” at left tackle such as Christian Darrisaw who went two picks later at 23 to Minnesota despite being rated highly on many teams draft boards. Yet betting on a 30 year old tackle coming off a major Achilles injury is no sure thing.
Richard Sherman was able to recover from a similar injury and even made an additional Pro Bowl following his layoff. Others however (such as Dez Bryant) haven’t been so fortunate. While the Colts wait for their prized free agent acquisition to return to form, look for there to be a training camp battle for who assumes LT duties in the interim between Sam Tevi, Julien Davenport, and Will Holden. While there’s definitely risk in bringing on the 6’7” lineman, Colts fans have to be positively giddy at the prospect of Fisher returning to even 80-90% of his pre-injury self. Full marks to the Indy front office on taking a swing and showing that they’re going all in to try to bring a 3rd Lombardi trophy to Indianapolis.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner