Colts Gab

Count Colts center Jeff Saturday as one of many that want the team to find a way to bring back a couple of the recent coaches that “retired” from the club. Saturday said as much in Tuesday’s Indy Star:

Pro Bowl center Jeff Saturday hasn’t resigned himself to the fact the Indianapolis Colts offense is moving on without line coach Howard Mudd and coordinator Tom Moore. The longtime assistants, integral parts of the team’s coaching staff since 1998, retired last week because of concerns with the NFL’s pension plan. Saturday hopes the departure of Mudd and Moore isn’t “written in stone. To be honest, I’m kind of holding out that something may change,” he said.

Free agent center to be Jeff Saturday is going nowhere. The Colts have re-signed Saturday, this just a few hours before he would have hit the market. There was talk by Saturday of his desire to play for the Steelers, but instead he will stay protecting Peyton Manning in Indy.

Here is the tidbit about Saturday coming back from the Indy Star:

The Colts agreed to a new three-year contract with center Jeff Saturday tonight, averting losing a longtime offensive cornerstone. Consider it a case of beat-the-clock negotiations. Saturday, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, would have become an unrestricted free agent and hit the NFL’s open market at 12:01 Friday morning.

The Colts appear to be ready for life without one of their big players on the O-line, center Jeff Saturday. The Indy Star reports that Saturday, who will be a free agent on Friday, will be allowed to test the free agent market.

The Indianapolis Colts won’t attempt to re-sign Jeff Saturday, their starting center the past nine seasons, before the start of the league’s free agent signing period, according to his agent. In an e-mail to The Indianapolis Star late Saturday, Ralph Cindrich said “discussions and events this past week” confirmed the team will allow Saturday to “test the free agent market,” which opens Friday. Saturday, 33 and a three-time Pro Bowl selection, is one of eight Colts who will become unrestricted free agents at the end of the week.

Saturday, despite being 33, will be looked at by a number of teams that could use a center, and if the Colts are serious about not making him an offer, he’ll likely not be back with the Colts in 2009.

Pro Football Weekly reports that the Colts might have a hard time finding room to pay center Jeff Saturday, which would greatly upset QB Peyton Manning. Here is the report from the source:

It’s beginning to appear that for the second straight year, the Colts might very well opt to let one of their O-line stalwarts depart in free agency. Last offseason, Indy chose not to extend OG Jake Scott, and in 2009, C Jeff Saturday could be on his way out of town. The Colts’ limited salary-cap maneuverability makes it incredibly difficult to re-sign the three-time Pro Bowler to the type of deal Saturday would warrant on the open market.

The injury bug has hit the Colts again, as now a published report in the Indy Star says that center Jeff Saturday will miss the first six weeks of the season with a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee. The injury is a big one for the Colts, who have come to count on Saturday, who has started 59 straight games.

The report says that if the 33-year-old Pro Bowl center decides to have surgery to repair ligament damage to his right knee, he could miss as many as 11 weeks. The injury took place in the rather ugly 20-7 loss to the Bills on Sunday night at the new Lucas Oil Field.

QB Peyton Manning, who is back with the team after missing some time after surgery, is one of Saturday’s biggest fans. “It’s pretty well documented how I feel about him and how the team feels about him and how important he is to the team and to this offense,” Manning told reporters Tuesday. “We’re certainly hoping for good news. Jeff’s one of the old-school players. He’s one of the tough guys on this team and in this league.”

Center Jeff Saturday left Sunday’s 20-7 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills with an apparent knee injury. In the third quarter, Saturday appeared to get his leg rolled up on by several defenders and limped off the field under his own power. He immediately went to the locker room to be evaluated and is expected to undergo an MRI today. Saturday, entering his 10th season, has been named to three Pro Bowls in his career.