Kwity Paye may be coming to the end of his run as a member of the Indianapolis Colts. He is in the final year of his rookie contract. As a first-round pick (class of 2021), the Colts had the right to extend that deal for a fifth year, which they chose to do after the 2023 season.
He is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent when the new NFL year begins in March 2026, and the defensive end will be free to negotiate with any team in the league.
There will certainly be interest in Paye, though it is difficult at this stage to accurately guess what kind of contract he will command. And it is even harder to predict what direction the Colts will go in after the season concludes, especially if they continue their current downward spiral and miss the playoffs.
Most of the discussion regarding Indy’s pending free agents has centered on Daniel Jones and Alec Pierce. Even among defenders, Paye is often overlooked in favor of Nick Cross and the recently acquired Germaine Pratt.
The fact is, Chris Ballard will have a lot of decisions to make this offseason – it is even if Ballard is making those decisions. With so many questions, it is easy to forget about Kwity Paye.
The general impression I get from talking to and reading Colts fans’ comments is that most could take or leave Kwity Paye. They wouldn’t mind holding onto him, but they figure if he were to depart, he could be easily replaced.
I’m not so sure about that.
It seems that Paye has been a vague disappointment during his time in Indy. That is primarily because he did not become the next Robert Mathis. He didn’t even become the next Justin Houston, the end who he was supposed to replace in 2021.
That year, the Colts chose Paye with the 21st pick in the draft. The Michigan product was touted by some scouts as the best pass rusher in the entire class. When he managed just ten combined sacks over his first two seasons, that’s when the vague disappointment crept in.
Never mind the fact that his career stats are significantly better than two of the defensive ends drafted after him in the first round. Paye has more sacks, tackles, and tackles-for-loss than Payton Turner (picker 28th) and Joe Tryon-Shoyinko (32nd) combined.
The other defensive end chosen after Paye in the first round – Buffalo’s Gregory Rousseau – has been an arguably more productive player, but it may be surprising to learn that Paye actually has more career sacks than Rousseau.
Paye has not developed into the elite pass-rushing terror that fans may have hoped for, but he has been a very reliable two-way end, and that should not be overlooked. He is very good against the run, and his 16.5 sacks in 2023 and 2024 show he can be an effective pass rusher as well.
When he announced the fifth-year extension on his rookie deal, general manager Chris Ballard praised Paye’s work ethic and reputation amongst his teammates. The defensive coordinator at the time, Gus Bradley, referred to him as someone “that you trust.”
Players like that should not be discarded carelessly because their sack totals aren’t as high as you might like. Paye is never going to be a dominant pass rusher, but in the right system and with the right players around him, he can be a valuable contributor. In most situations, whether against the run or against the pass, Kwity Paye plays hard, and he plays well.
Paye’s career is following a trajectory much like that of the Washington Commanders’ Dorance Armstrong. Armstrong, a few years older than Paye, was seen as a good two-way player in Dallas in the early years of his career. The Cowboys would have liked to have kept him around, but Washington’s offer was beyond what they were willing to pay.
Armstrong thrived in his first year with the Commanders and was on his way to his best season this year before a serious knee injury landed him on IR. It would not surprise me at all to see Paye gradually improve for a few more years and be recognized as one of the league’s steadiest – if not one of the most spectacular – ends.
The bigger question is whether he will be doing that for the Colts or for some other team. Since there’s a decent chance it will prove to be the latter, Colts’ fans should probably enjoy the solid, under-the-radar play that Kwity Paye will no doubt provide over the final games of 2025.
