Somebody was going to put a jersey on him and send him out there. I hope the Colts made the right call on it, but it's hard to look at the tape and the measurables and think they did.

25 other teams made the same call.

If he was such a sure thing, why was he passed over 25 times before the Colts pick arrived (and with many of those teams focused on DL prospects)? Look, this was a typical Raiders / Washington move - go for the big name and ignore the red flags that the other, wiser teams see. Dan Snyder runs his team like a fan.

I wasn't overwhelmed with the return we received from the trade, but I like how Ballard is always focused on the long term success even if its disappointing to the fans to not make a pick on the first day. In a week, we won't care that we didn't have a first round pick, we'll just be focused on the players Ballard selected.

Only one team traded away the pick that was used to draft him though. If Sweat reaches his potential Ballard is going to look foolish.

That doesn't make it the right call. 28 teams passed on DeMarcus Lawrence (29 if you count the Cowboys passing on him in round 1). Do you think any of those teams regret that decision?

Not really. Some teams had other needs.

He may have been misdiagnosed:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...n-misdiagnosed

Doesn't much matter now, Ballard and crew passed on him, so hopefully they don't regret that and get some decent players out of the trade down.

So many of these comments remind me of the post-draft threads from last year, when everyone was complaining about the selection of Nelson, Leonard, and (to a lesser degree) Smith.

It’s certainly possible that Sweat could succeed, no question. I’m certainly in no position to speak meaningfully about Sweat's skills relative to the other DL prospects, or more importantly his medical condition. I just know that lots of smart teams passed over him (or didn’t make an effort to trade up to get him), and a perennially dumb team (Washington) did. As we sit here today, I’ll side with history and say that I think the chances are that this will turn out better for us than it does for Washington.

While I find your post (and almost all of your posts) irritating the only thing I'm going to say is that I didn't complain about any of the draft picks you listed.

And remind any that need it that disagreeing with a move does not mean that I or anyone else critical of said move means we think Ballard is stupid, incompetent, a bad GM, is less smart than Colts fans on the internet, or should be fired.

I heard this Sunday and then again leading up to the draft. I wonder if all the teams knew and simply some ignored it because they couldn't confirm it themselves. If so Sweat lost a lot of money yesterday and we might have missed out.

Yeah I don't know. Hopefully for his health it was a misdiagnosis. If so, yes he lost out on a lot of money and is probably pissed off about that, but he can still make a ton of money by proving the doubters wrong.

I'm not saying Ballard was wrong with their choice not to pick him. It's just a bit surprising.