ORLANDO ‒ Months after the Colts fell a fourth-down conversion short of winning the AFC South, they believe strongly in the potential of the team they're bringing back.

It's why they've dedicated more than $200 million in contracts to re-signing in-house free agents. And it's fueling a bit of their current inactivity, too, specifically in the area many expected them to target: the secondary.

"Sometimes what gets lost is when you lose a player, it creates a void. If you lose a Grover Stewart, you lose a Kenny Moore, you lose a (Michael) Pittman ‒ suddenly you've got a real void. And sure, you've gone and signed another player at another position, but you create another void," general manager Chris Ballard said Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando.

"... We did spend, we just didn't spend on the outside. That's where I go into the, 'Who'? OK, go spend. On who?"

The "who" is ultimately on him to discover, however.

Ballard acknowledged at the end of last season that he did not give defensive coordinator Gus Bradley enough experience to work with in the secondary. So far, his only signing has been to retain nickel cornerback Kenny Moore II, while strong safety Julian Blackmon remains a free agent.

"We know we need to add," Ballard said. "And there's still some vets out there that we will definitely pay attention to. There's still work to be done."

At cornerback, the Colts have allowed the top options to disappear from the market. Kendall Fuller, Chidobe Awuzie, Tre'Davious White and Shaquille Griffin were options who signed to starter-level deals elsewhere, but Ballard was left weighing them against what he had coming back in intriguing but unproven second-year players JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones.

The Colts also had a shot, along with any other team, to trade for Chiefs cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, but they never expressed much interest in striking a deal, a team source told Indy Star. Sneed was traded to the Titans for a third-round pick and a future seventh-round pick swap, and Sneed then signed a four-year, $76.4 million deal with $55 million guaranteed.

Meanwhile, at safety, the market remains flooded with four-time All-Pro Justin Simmons, three-time Pro Bowler Quandre Diggs as well as Blackmon, who is the only starter Ballard has not yet re-signed this offseason.

The Colts currently have more than $18 million available in 2024 cap space, according to OverTheCap.com.

"I think we kind of underestimate it, but I thought Jones played really good football last year and did it against some very talented wideouts and never once backed down. He's just going to continue to get better," Ballard said. "I thought Nick Cross really took a step. I think you started to see that as the season went along, which was fun. We need more out of (Rodney) Thomas, who we like and we think we can get more out of.

"... Different is not always better. It's OK to want to improve your team. We think we're still growing in that area. We think for all of our guys, being in the scheme for another year is going to help. We've still got more time left."

The Colts have re-engaged in talks with Blackmon, Ballard said, and there's a possibility he returns after a breakout fourth season with 88 tackles and a team-high four interceptions following a move to strong safety.

Blackmon has a challenging profile for the league to evaluate. He's suffered two major knee injuries since his final college game, though he's rebounded to play 85% of games the past two seasons. He has one big year of production, though it came once the team moved him to a more natural home at strong safety.

And now, the market is flooded at his position.

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If Blackmon returns, Ballard would have a secondary that played the past season together, though it is still rather young, as Cross and Brents have both started fewer than 10 career games.

It would become an even younger secondary if he were to not replace Blackmon with any signings, but that's where he emphasized that the Colts still have time on their side. They're moving onto the second wave, but they found a quick priority with the first wave, which was keeping the in-house players they didn't want to see leave.

"A little bit of free agency is you have to make decisions. If you sit around and wait on a guy, other players are not waiting on you. They're moving on. If they have a chance to make money, they're taking it and moving on," Ballard said. "So there's a little bit of a balance here when you're going through it in that two-day (negotiating) period of making sure, OK, we've got a bird in the hand.

"At the end of the day, we thought our free agents were good players. We took a shot on a couple. We got a couple that we're excited about and didn't get the other ones. That's OK. We keep moving forward and we keep going."

Contact Nate Atkins at natkins@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @NateAtkins_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts GM Chris Ballard defends retaining secondary, still wants to add