Colts exercise DE Kwity Paye’s fifth-year option for the 2025 season

INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts have spent the entire offseason taking care of their own.

Indianapolis general manager Chris Ballard added another to the list on Thursday.

The Colts have picked up the fifth-year option on defensive end Kwity Paye’s rookie contract, handing Paye a fully guaranteed $13.4 million salary in 2025, an option available to Indianapolis because Paye was a first-round pick in 2021.

Indianapolis went down to the wire on the Paye decision, waiting until the final day before the deadline to exercise the big defensive end’s option.

But the Colts have been telegraphing for days that the move was coming.

“Kwity is a really good football player,” Ballard said last week. “He had, what, 8.5 sacks last year, plays the crap out of the run, he’s a great teammate. I think you know our philosophy; we want to keep as many of our own guys as we can. We like Kwity a lot.”

Big and powerful, the Colts used the No. 21 pick of the draft on Paye because of his abilities as an all-around end and his potential as a pass rusher, signaled by his considerable speed and agility.

Paye has started 43 of a possible 51 games, reached career highs with 16 starts and 52 tackles in 2023 and has improved his sack totals every season, from four as a rookie to six in 2022 to a career-high 8.5 last year.

“You talk about trust, right? There’s a man that you trust,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “On the edge, does things right, comes to work every day. You know what you’re going to get.”

As reliable as Paye has been, the former Michigan product has not quite developed into the pass rusher the Colts believed he could be yet.

Powerful and relentless, Paye has been effective as a second-effort rusher, closing down the pocket on escaping quarterbacks, but he has not figured out yet how to tap into the speed and agility he displayed in workouts. Paye finished just fifth on the team with 28 pressures last season.

Paye is still only 25 years old.

Indianapolis hopes he can find another gear.

“I believe, and I think all of our coaches, and even this organization (believe), there is another level for him,” Bradley said. “You can see that in his mind, too.”

Paye works hard at his craft—he spends his offseasons working with defensive line coach Eddy McGilvra, who tutors several of the young Colts defensive linemen—but he has struggled to build an identity as a pass rusher.

A power player at Michigan, Paye initially tried to make the transition to speed rusher after running the 40-yard dash in 4.57 seconds during the predraft process in 2021, as well as posting a three-cone drill time faster than most receivers.

But a pass rusher has to do what comes natural, and Paye has naturally been a power player over the years.

New Indianapolis defensive line coach Charlie Partridge will try to help Paye further streamline his identity as a pass rusher this season.

“He’s excited about Charlie in there, learning some different things,” Bradley said. “You can just feel like Kwity, like we said with rushers: Sometimes it can take some time.”

Even if Paye never takes the next step as a rusher, he’s a solid all-around starter, a team leader who already has a bond with the team’s 2024 first-round pick, Laiatu Latu, who also works with McGilvra.

Paye might not have developed yet into the dominant edge rusher Indianapolis hopes he can be.

But he can help the Colts in a lot of different ways.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts exercise DE Kwity Paye’s fifth-year option for the 2025 season