Another interesting note on Franklin from Morocco Brown:

I love/hate this draft.
Our 1 premium player is a guard.
Then we had 2 chances to nab high quality players that slipped out of the 1st round and yet again 1 is a guard.

We followed up with a couple quality players, a couple boom or busts, and a couple high value guys. B- or C+ is the current grade, which could bump up a whole letter grade based on the pkay of Turay and Lewis primarily, or if Hines and Fountain/ Cain pay off big for us.

This draft reveals a lot about how the coaches envision this team and the style of play.
On offense, we've got 2 new o-linemen who can play in multiple schemes, can function in zone blocking or man blocking. and we've got quick dynamic skill position players, complementing Mack and TY we add a flex back with Hines and quickness off the line with Fountain.
This is the kind of offense that's going to look to run lots of quick hitting plays, screens, things that happen fast and keep the defense on their heels, and most importantly minimizing hits on the QB.
The defense will be fast and aggressive, with an emphasis on quality depth so you can keep fresh legs in the game in the 4th quarter (re: Ballard's comment about attacking in waves).

I like it all in theory. Seems really the only concern I have is the lack of one single high impact player on the defense. Can someone like Sheard or Simon become that in this new D? Maybe, maybe not. Can Turay or Lewis be that? Probably not this year. Leonard? Not sure this kind of D gets a *huge* impact from the WILL position, so probably not. Maybe's its Malik Hooker.
We'll see. I do know we *need* a pro-bowl caliber MIKE on this team, and we still don't have that. To me that's the one thing that will put this D over the edge.

The offense really started to take shape after this draft. Defense is definitely a work in progress, as you say. I'm intrigued to see some of these LBs and how Basham and Turay look coming off the edge, but they definitely need more talent there. I expect the 2019 draft to be defense-heavy. Maybe they sign 1-2 starters in UFA if Ballard feels the foundation is in place after 2018.

Most drafts, you're happy to get 2-3 quality long term starters. This draft should produce 5-6 quality long term starters, and is an utter failure if it doesn't produce at least 4. Also, I think Leonard will be the MIKE, especially the way Ballard talked about Brian Urlacher and Derrick Johnson in the lead up to the draft. I'm going to watch some tape of him, hoping to see some glimmers of Ray Lewis.

Don’t look at the tape that is on Indy Star, through the eyes of the guy that scouted him, I did and thought they highlighted the wrong guy. I was definitely not impressed!!

I'm not thrilled with the constant moves down, and taking projects instead of proven.
Having said that Luck may survive next season given the o-line picks.
He is going to need to be upright given the points other teams are going to hang on us.
Maybe we can actually run the ball for a change and hold on to the ball for extended periods
There simply isn't enough picks in a year, even with the extras, to fix this team in a year. I'll be happy if they can before Luck's done

I agree with your first sentence there and disagree with your second. Ideally, one more defense focused draft should do it. They need an elite pass rusher. Maybe Turay becomes that guy, but I don't see it. That is the most important thing to get from next year's draft, and Ballard has given himself the assets to get it no matter how next season plays out.