Colts.com is reporting that Darrell Reid, Bryan Fletcher, and Dylan Gandy have officially signed their RFA tenders. Each player received the lowest tender possible and will receive $927,000 in base salary for the 2008 season. All three will be unrestricted free agents in 2009.

The move to sign three career backups may seem marginally important at best, however with the departure of starters RFA Ben Utecht (Bengals) and UFA Jake Scott (Titans), both Fletcher and Gandy would appear to be the front runners to fill those vacancies.

Colts.com has announced that Safety Matt Giordano has officially signed his one year Restricted Free Agent Tender, keeping him with the team through 2008.

The tender is a one year tender with a value of $927,000, which is the lowest tender amount a team can give a player. It allowed Giordano to attempt to find other teams willing to offer him a contract more agreeable to him. Had he found and agreed to such an offer, the Colts would have had seven days to match. Had they not, the Colts would have been awarded a single draft choice from the team signing Giordano at the round in which he was originally drafted (4th round).

TE Ben Utecht was signed to an offer sheet by the Bengals earlier this season. As an Undrafted Free Agent given the lowest tender, the team was not eligible to receive a draft pick in return. The Colts obtained a 4th round draft pick in the 2007 draft for Jason David, who signed an offer sheet with the Saints.

Giordano will be an Unrestricted Free Agent in 2009.

Alright, I’ve managed to work through the numbers and explain all of the discrepancies except two; Bob Sanders (I’m still waiting on that info) and Corey Simon. Regardless, I’m confident that this is as accurate as the site has been for this year. Here are the discrepancies (and the reasons):

Sanders, Bob - Unknown

Mathis, Robert - A $160K bonus value that I had previously taken out as a one time incentive for 2007

Clark, Dallas - Discrepancy results from a proration of his rookie contract which was voided. Then NFLPA only included his current contract, which wouldn’t include the rookie figures.

Gonzalez, Anthony - Will receive a $450K bonus at the start of the season, but as of yet hasn’t earned it. Also, there was a typo in a bonus where the $2.985mil option bonus was actually put in as a $2.984mil roster bonus with the resulting 4 year proration being $250 shy.

Smith, Hunter - Incorrect base salary

Sorgi, Jim - four year proration of $500K signing bonus instead of three

Roby, Courtney - Unknown signing bonus for 2008

Esera, Tala - Unknown signing bonus for 2008

Simon, Corey - Unknown

Navarre, John through Shelton, Trent - Unknown signing bonuses from 2007

Unfortunately, the resolution of these discrepancies shift what would have been a $448K gain in cap space (from my calculations) to a $546K loss. However, this is still offset by the $729K increase in the salary cap resulting in a net increase of cap space of approximately $183K from my cap number of a week ago.  Right now my best estimate places us around $5.89mil in salary cap space for 2008.

- BAV -