INDIANAPOLIS – Another week of free agency and Chris Ballard is not slowing down in his re-tooling of the Colts defense.
On Monday night, the Colts signed defensive end Margus Hunt to a two-year contract.
The massive Hunt (6-8 and 295 pounds) just saw his rookie contract expire after being taken in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
"Margus has rare size, speed and athleticism," Ballard said in a team release. "He has good experience on defense and is a significant contributor on special teams as well. I'm excited to see how he progresses this year."
A budding track career brought Hunt over from the country of Estonia in 2007.
Hunt enrolled at Southern Methodist University. But when the men's track and field program was dropped, Hunt went looking elsewhere for his athletic craving.
The SMU football team took Hunt in and, as you would expect, the 6-8 defensive end was a terror in blocking kicks.
What Hunt does on special teams has been his greatest impact in the NFL game (three blocked kicks).
Hunt, 29, never cracked the starting lineup in four years with the Bengals. He leaves Cincinnati with 29 career tackles and 1.5 sacks in 44 games.
By many standards, the 2016 season was the individual high point of Hunt's tenure in Cincinnati.
According to Pro Football Focus, Hunt was the 13th ranked 4-3 run defender this past season.
The Colts will throw Hunt into the mix along the defensive line, a group that only lost one player this offseason (Zach Kerr, who signed with Denver on Monday).
Hunt will have a chance to compete for a depth spot, with starters Henry Anderson and Kendall Langford returning to full health.
The Colts still have Hassan Ridgeway, T.Y. McGill, David Parry and Arthur Jones under contract along the defensive line.
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