Colts Hosted DT Johnathan Hankins For Visit Tuesday

Field Yates of ESPN is reporting that the Colts brought in free agent DT Johnathan Hankins for a visit on Tuesday.

This is interesting news, given that the market for Hankins has been slow-moving, to say the least.

Jordan Raanan of ESPN recently mentioned that he heard over the past week or so that there was a team in the mix for Hankins other than the Giants and it appears as though this team is the Colts.

The Giants reportedly still have a multi-year offer that’s in line with the free agent market contracts signed this offseason was still on the table for Hankins.

New York has shown interest in retaining Hankins and the market clearly has not played out as he had hoped. Another positive development for the Giants is the fact that they recently picked up a good amount of cap space by locking up DE Jason Pierre-Paul to a long-term contract.

At this point, a return to the Giants on a one-year contract could make the most sense for Hankins, as it would give him another opportunity to be part of a potentially dominant defensive front before hitting the open market again in 2018.

Hankins, 24, is a former second-round pick of the Giants back in 2013. He played out the final year of his four-year, $4.03 million rookie contract that included a $1.311 million signing bonus and is now testing the open market as an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career.

In  2016, Hankins appeared in all 16 games and recorded 44 tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble for the Giants. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 72 interior defender out of 127 qualifying players.

We have him featured in our Top 50 Available Free Agents list.