{"id":215676,"date":"2025-02-10T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=215676"},"modified":"2025-02-09T14:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T19:57:10","slug":"colts-should-re-sign-free-agent-danny-pinter-this-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/10\/colts-should-re-sign-free-agent-danny-pinter-this-offseason\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts Should Re-sign Former MAC Star This Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should the Indianapolis Colts retain free agent Danny Pinter? No, he\u2019s certainly not a superstar like running back Jonathan Taylor<\/a>. And no, he isn\u2019t as well-known as quarterback Anthony Richardson<\/a>. However, Danny Pinter is a solid offensive lineman, who provides the Colts with depth.<\/p>\n

Colts general manager Chris Ballard<\/a> will have his work cut out for him this offseason. Several players are set to be free agents. It\u2019ll be interesting to see who is retained and who isn\u2019t. Ballard, though, should consider holding on to Danny Pinter.<\/p>\n

The Indianapolis Colts Should Re-sign Free Agent Danny Pinter This Offseason<\/h2>\n

His Football Career<\/h3>\n

Danny Pinter starred at John Adams High School in South Bend, Indiana. As a sophomore, he led the school to its best record in over 50 years. He wound up helping John Adams win back-to-back sectional championships.<\/p>\n

Pinter then traveled two and a half hours south to Muncie, Indiana, and played college football at Ball State University. He began his collegiate career as a tight end. After redshirting his first year, Pinter started 11 games at tight end in 2016 and 2017. He later switched to an offensive lineman in 2018.<\/p>\n

Playing at right tackle, Pinter flourished during his first two years with the Cardinals. In 2019, he became just the first Ball State offensive lineman to earn first-team All-MAC honors since 2013 (Jordan Hansel).<\/p>\n

The Colts then drafted<\/a> Danny Pinter in the fifth round (149th overall pick) of the 2020 NFL Draft. He was the first player from the Mid-American Conference selected in that draft.<\/p>\n

During a Thursday Night Football game against the New York Jets<\/a> in 2021, Pinter caught the first touchdown pass of his NFL career. He later missed the 2023 season after breaking his ankle during the preseason. Pinter has played 60 games with the Colts, starting nine contests: seven at guard and two at center.<\/p>\n

Why the Colts Should Retain Danny Pinter<\/h3>\n

Ryan Kelly<\/a> is the Colts\u2019 most well-known free agent this offseason. He has been in Indy since the team made him a first-round pick in 2016. The four-time Pro Bowler is hands-down one of the league\u2019s top centers.<\/p>\n

Kelly recently made comments that indicated he might not stay with the Colts:<\/p>\n

\u201cNever been a free agent, so I\u2019m excited to see what\u2019s out there,\u201d Kelly said, via Fox59<\/a>. \u201cMy plan is to see what\u2019s out there on the market. Indy can always match it. I\u2019ll miss it, if that\u2019s it. It was a good run for nine years.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Kelly leaves, Tanor Bortolini<\/a>, who the Colts drafted in the fourth round last year, will likely replace him as the team\u2019s starting center. Then Indianapolis can re-sign Danny Pinter, who can play behind Bortolini and also serve as a backup guard in 2025.<\/p>\n

Ballard said the depth and the talent level of the offensive line is something that will be addressed during the offseason. Pinter could be valuable off the bench with his experience and can fill in if a starter goes down with an injury. While it wouldn’t be the greatest signing of all time, it could certainly help out the team next season.<\/p>\n

Main Image: \u00a0Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This offseason, the Indianapolis Colts should consider re-signing free agent offensive lineman Danny Pinter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":215861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,12],"tags":[33292,7800,3013],"class_list":["post-215676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-colts","tag-danny-pinter","tag-indianapolis-colts-news","tag-ryan-kelly"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215862,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215676\/revisions\/215862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}