If your GM can’t find talent outside of the top 10 draft slots, you have a bigger issue you need to worry about. It’s never a bad thing when a young team outplays expectations

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I know these guys have a lot of career left, but so far this is looking like one of the best Colts drafts I've ever seen.

If the talent evaluation is good, I don't think that's a big issue. Especially when runs on quarterbacks push good players to the middle of the draft.

It doesn't quite rival the Saints draft last year, but it's close.

I would actually argue the Colts draft is deeper than that ‘17 Saints draft. However, I would also says that the Browns had a slightly better draft class this year, but that’s a product of higher picks.

It's more than just talent evaluation, there are more options, trades,etc with higher picks.

It will be very difficult to match the draft class from this year again as we had such great draft capital, in what was a very deep defensive draft.

The chances of being able to get 5 picks within the first 2 rounds again is very low. I think every GM would hope to be able to make 3 out of 5 picks work out with the selections as high as we had.

Now do i think that we may have aced our selections last year, then yeah we probably have, and then some on the later round selections.

The likes of Franklin and Adams, probably wouldn't be on a team who had any sort of reasonable LB depth to begin with though. We quite literally had no linebackers on the roster, so they came into a good situation this year. Hopefully they continue to see game action and improve and make the roster in future years.

Exactly.

It is much easier for rookies to come in and make impacts on a roster devoid of talent at this positions that come onto a talented roster where they are fighting to even make the 53.

While I think (hope) that our rookies from 2018 will continue to shine in years to come, that in of itself will make it harder for future rookie classes to shine as bright. A low round LB or RB or O-Lineman will have a hard time making as much impact in future years as a Wilkins/Franklin/Adams (and hopefully Cain) did this season because the roster is better.

Anyway, good thread.

Walk Worthy,

The Saints got 4 starters out of that draft. Between Nelson, Leonard, Smith, Turay, and Lewis, the Colts have 4 starters, two of which could win OROY and DROY. That doesn't count Nyheim Hines and Jordan Wilkins, both of whom have found prominent niche roles in this offense, or Deon Cain, who could become a 5th or 6th starter from this draft class next year. Ballard did fantastic work in this draft, hopefully his 2019 draft is similarly loaded. I would hope for 3 starters from next year's class because of how loaded this class was and they only have 3 picks in the first 2 rounds next year.