Dennis Kelly Joins Division Rival
Dennis Kelly won’t have to play the waiting game this year.
The Indianapolis Colts announced Tuesday that they have signed the former Tennessee Titans tackle. Indianapolis becomes Kelly’s third team in as many seasons and gives him the opportunity to extend his NFL career into a second decade.
The Titans cut Kelly last March in a move to create space under the salary cap, and he remained a free agent until Green Bay added him at the start of training camp. He eventually played in 10 games with four starts.
His deal with the Packers was for one season, which made him a free agent once again this year. Now, he will have the opportunity to spend most of the offseason with the Colts and potentially to compete for a starting job.
The 32-year-old becomes – easily – the most experienced member of Indianapolis’ tackle group. Outside of Kelly, those who have been in the league the longest are Braden Smith, a starter for each of his four years in the league, and Matt Pryor, a fifth-year veteran with less than a full season’s worth of starts to his credit.
That group also includes Brandon Kemp, who the Titans released last month after he spent the 2020 season on their practice squad and 2021 on injured reserve. Kemp never has appeared in an NFL regular-season game.
The Colts’ 2022 draft class included third-round pick Bernhard Raimann out of Central Michigan.
Presumably, Kelly’s addition is insurance if coaches determine Raimann is not ready for a substantial role.
Kelly (6-foot-8, 321 pounds) was the starting right tackle in his final season with Tennessee (2020) when first-round draft pick Isaiah Wilson proved ill-prepared for the job. Before that, Kelly spent four seasons as the primary backup at both tackle spots and started at least one game each year. His career began with Philadelphia, which selected him in the fifth round of the 2012 draft.
All told, he has played 114 games with 51 starts.
