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Colts decline Hooker’s 2021 option

Field Level Media

May 04, 2020 at 8:17 pm.

The Indianapolis Colts passed on safety Malik Hooker’s fifth-year option on Monday, the deadline for teams to exercise the extra year for 2017 first-round picks.

Hooker, the 15th overall pick in 2017, will be 24 years old when he is eligible for free agency in March 2021. He signed a fully guaranteed $12.6 million deal as a rookie that expires at the end of the upcoming season.

General manager Chris Ballard said in his season-ending press conference that Hooker was “solid” but “tailed off at the end” of the 2019 season, the first strong indication the Colts might pass on a commitment for another season.

Hooker’s fifth-year option would have paid the free safety slightly less than $7 million for the 2021 season. He will count $4 million against the 2020 salary cap.

Hooker has played 34 games (33 starts) in three seasons, requiring two surgeries — hernia, torn labrum — in 2017.

He had 51 tackles and two interceptions in 2019, and has seven career picks.

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