Colts Buck the Fire Sale by Locking Up Breakout Lineman Adebawore for $35M

The Indianapolis Colts have flipped the script on their deadline-week fire sale by locking up one of their brightest young players for the long term. Defensive lineman Adetomiwa Adebawore has agreed to a two-year, $35 million extension that includes a $13 million signing bonus, according to NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, keeping the 25-year-old in Indianapolis for two more seasons. The deal stands out precisely because of its timing: just a week earlier the Colts shipped offensive guard Quenton Nelson to Seattle and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to San Francisco, and interim general manager Ed Dodds has been widely expected to keep selling ahead of the November 10 trade deadline. Instead, Dodds has moved to secure a player who arrived as the 110th overall pick in the 2023 draft and has broken out this season. Adebawore had been floated as a possible trade candidate himself, but the extension signals the Colts view him as part of their future core rather than another asset to cash in.