Draft Day Review
 

What do you guys think? Hate it? Love it? Meh?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db5xs7uW4AAU3jh.jpg

11 players would be greater than 20% of the final roster. Good chance to remake the team. I just hope 8 of them pan out.

I guess the only pick, that I don't get is Matthew Adams...and that may be because I just haven't studied him.

The fact that we also ignored CB also concerns me.

I love the fact that no matter who starts, I believe we can be as strong as anybody in the NFL in the interior OL.

For me Darius Leonard is a WILL in this system, and could be a damn fine one one at that.

I think Hynes is why we didn't pursue Dion Lewis harder. This kid has a chance to be much more explosive than Dion Lewis.

I get why we traded Henry Anderson. Tyquan Lewis is a much better fit in the Raheem Brock role.

Deon Cain was an absolute fucking steal!

not really what i had imagined at the top.

Chris Ballard confirms the #Colts received offers for Andrew Luck at the trading deadline last year. Never considered a deal.

“I don’t want that on my resume.”

:cool:

I am sort of perplexed. The main positive take I have at the very least we should have 2 very good Guards. The rest have a lot of question marks. I am concerned we have a GM and Staff so pegged into the exact kind of players they want they are not willing to adapt to other talents. Ballard seems to be huge on measurables and not so much College production, hopefully, he and his staff have a great eye.

Well I have figured out that I have no idea who Ballard will pick in these drafts.

I didn't want Nelson, but I can't argue with the strategy of protecting Luck as first priority. And it literally took the best lineman Charlie Casserly has seen in the last 20 years to make me ok with it. After seeing so many linemen go in the first two rounds, you can tell the league is desperate for oline. Maybe this new minor league will help develop oline, because it is obviously not happening in the league.

I'm ok with Leonard and Smith. Smith is a nasty OG who can play a couple different positions. I figured Leonard would go around mid second. After the first 4 LB's the depth fell off a cliff.

The biggest thing I did not like about this draft was Turay and Lewis. Ballard likes his athletic freaks for pass rushers and he will take that over a lesser athlete with better production. I don't necessarily agree. But Turay is a really freak athlete, he will need a lot of coaching to get there though. The guy just doesn't understand football all that well yet.

Lewis wasn't my first choice, but he is a good run defender and he can move inside. I liked a few other guys better and I think we would have drafted them, but it seems they were injured and why they fell. Both these guys are hard workers so hopefully they develop. I would have invested in one of the corners b/c you knew a CB run was going to happen and it started right after the Turay pick.

As for day 3, I like all the picks. Hines will be split out into the slot a lot I bet. He should be very dangerous in the open field.

Wilkins will be a nice back to pair with Mack. I saw the Forte comparisons and they are right on. Give him some holes and he should be a very good back.

Fountain will need some development but he has good get off the line. Reich likes his guys to explode off the line and that first ten yards is very important.

Deon Cain was a value grab, he probably should not have been there. I think he will out perform his draft position. As long as he doesn't screw up off the field, I like the pick.

Adams and Franklin were an attempt to bring in some speed to LB and some guys that can hit. They will be on ST and if they get some playing time, even better.

As for the Anderson trade, yeah it sucks, I liked him. But he just doesn't fit the scheme. I think they figured that out during the mini-camp.

One more thing, did we draft out MIKE in last years draft? Anthony Walker?

So the biggest thing is all these guys are good athletes and we got a lot more athletic with this draft. Below is the RAS for our picks.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db59yw9W0AASCM7.jpg

Not one guy is below 5.00, three of them are above 7.00, and five are above 9.0. Clearly Ballard and Reich place a premium on athleticism, and this is why he wanted a staff that can teach.

And I am disappointed we didn't bring back the monkey to make picks, just to see Mayock lose his shit.

Hynes is a bad pick. Colts had a bad draft day today, but it doesn't matter. They got the picks right that mattered. This is a multi-year rebuild anyway.

I agree with whoever said in the other thread that Pagano created a soft team, and Ballard is trying to create a culture shift

I thin k MIKE will be decided between Walker, Adams and Franklin.

Not thrilled with drafting Nelson at 6. Sure I’ll love the player, but I don’t like the value and wanted a defensive anchor at that spot.

I like the focus on the OL and defensive front 7 in rounds 1-3.

I don’t like getting rid of Hankins and Anderson. I get that they don’t match the coaches ideals for the positions but I believe both are capable of contributing to this defense. And they basically got nothing for two young, talented, and experienced players. If the new young guys beat them out, so be it. But nobody can convince me this defense is going to be better with those two gone.

I would have liked to see a CB drafted. Depths seems paper thin. Can’t fix everything in one draft though.

I’m excited to see what the offense can be with a healthy Luck, a couple playmakers, and some creativity. And a hopefully competent OL.

Without a doubt Ballard has put his stamp on this team - for good or bad. I’m hopeful, but there are certainly a few things that concern me.

No more clapping for screwing up. Instead, it will be "take a seat, someone else is taking the snaps". I am all for it!

I am sure it will be a clearer picture when Sherck puts out his updated depth chart.

This about sums it up for me (taken from another site)

Those Round 2 picks ... OLB Darius Leonard, G Braden Smith, pass rusher Kemoko Turay and DE Tyquan Lewis all felt like possible reaches for a roster that can't afford more misses.

This feels like Grigson all over again. Of course his first year we thought he knew what he was doing too.

I can understand getting rid of Hankins and Andersen..... but it is almost like when we got rid of Freeney because of fit. Although they did give Freeney a yr to evaluate. And losing Freeney way way bigger than these two

The only one I really have an issue with is Turay. Rd2 had too many good starter quality players to take a project player.

Other than that, I think they did pretty well. The o-line is going to be downright NASTY with those two guards. RT of course remains the question mark. I think Leonard is going to be a very good LB'er for us, and I think Hines is going to bring a hugely important element of versatility for the offense. They are going to be able to do a lot with that kid, plus he's a weapon in the return game.

The weak points remaining IMO are : LB, CB, RT. I think they filled a good amount of needs if over half of these guys pan out.

Curious if any of the UDFA's end up making the roster. I don't know anything about them. Does anyone think any of those guys have a legit shot?

Okay with Day 1
Uninspired by Day 2
Loved Day 3

Agreed.

If Bradley Chubb was the preferred target, why trade out of pick 3, only to consider trading back up? I understand that Chubb could’ve gone as early as 2 to NYG. But if they really were that high on him, why not take a chance, stay at 3, and see how the draft plays out?

—
Jim Irsay: #Colts considered trading up for Bradley Chubb, but couldn't pass on Quenton Nelson.

"He just doesn’t have any weaknesses. It’s almost like you’re seeing a guy who was a computer simulation of what an offensive lineman should be."

https://twitter.com/zkeefer/status/9...210555394?s=21

—
Irsay says they had internal discussions about trading up (I assume to No. 4 or 5) to take Chubb, but "Nelson was too good to pass up."

https://twitter.com/holderstephen/st...094314497?s=21

—
“Indianapolis with the No. 6 pick called the Broncos about moving up one spot to take Chubb.”

http://www.9news.com/mobile/article/...r/73-546939481

I can live with the top 3 picks, even if the first two second rounders seemed to be a bit of a reach above their projected spots.

Turay just seems to me to be Grigson's TJ Green. A reach for an athletic good you hope the coaches can turn into a player. That is a move you make in the 5th or 6th round, not the 2nd when you traded down in the first round for that pick. That's a boom or bust pick everyone will remember.

I don't understand remaking the whole DL when it was one of the better units on the team last year.

The success of the RBs and the WRs is going to be largely dependent on how healthy Luck is when he gets back and how good the new offensive system turns out to be, but there is talent there they obtained in the draft. Sounds like one of the RBs, Hines, they view as a return guy.

Ballard obviously wants to rebuild with his own guys and through the draft. Which means the next season is likely to be another long one

Only other thing is I know some comments here and elsewhere are we are going to have to win 40 point games with this defense. I would prefer that to last year and the last few years. At least the games would be exciting again.

With the signing of Slauson and drafting of two guards, I am wondering of Mewhort could move out to RT. Didn't he play tackle at Ohio State?

Mewhort blew chunks when we tried him at RT.

More so than the guys they have now?

I also wonder how much improved guard play will help Castonzo and whoever ends up at RT

When we traded out of three we changed the projection of the draft. It forced Cleveland to go with a QB. If we had stayed Cleveland had a chance at the best or second best QB on their board at 4.

Mewhort may start, I don't trust him to finish the season though.

IMO, yes, worse than Haeg, worse than Good, worse than Clark. This was before Mewhort started to have knee problems. If Mewhort isn't 100% of the player that he was 3 years ago, he may not even make the team.

A better player at guard improves the line as a whole but I don’t think it actually improves the tackles play much at all. If the tackle is expecting help inside and the guard doesn’t do it, that has nothing to do with the tackle.

I'm kinda having the same general reaction: I'm OK with Nelson at #6 and then Leonard (especially if Ballard felt Leonard is similar to Roquan and wouldn't be there at the end of Round 2) and I'm even OK with B. Smith over J. Jackson (if Ballard feels Smith can play 2 positions and CB isn't convinced at this point that Mewhort will be a long-term guy).

I could even accept Turay OR Lewis, but I have a hard time accepting both when CBs like D. Jackson, I. Oliver and C. Davis were out there. IMO both of those picks were reaches (and I don't mind an occasional reach in between BPA picks) but the Colts' depth at CB is to me at least as troublesome as it is at DL with Sheard, Basham, Simon and Autry already there.

If Mathis convinced Ballard he could turn Turay into a bigger version of himself and/or Freeney, fair enough. But I wish they'd then tried to put themselves in a position in the next round to pick Davis, who I thought had real potential in Eberflus' defense.

Lewis may too, but at 260-some lbs it's hard for me to see how effective he can be inside; if anything, he seems like more of a complementary DE to Turay on the other side.

The later guys I'm OK with; I would've been inclined to favor St. Brown over Fountain, if only due to level of competition, but they're similar players. I'd thought for some time that Cain might be a guy who'd drop and be there in a later round for some team to pick up. If nothing else, he has the speed to take the top off a defense; we'll see what Sirianni and Patullo can do with him.

Even more so with Hines' speed all over the field. The 2 LBs I assume were drafted for their speed/mobility, so if nothing else maybe they'll help with an upgrade in special teams.

Looks like Hill, Meeks, Facyson and Toliver have already been scooped up, so I guess at this point our best hope for CB depth will be with the UNLV player.

Important point here from Morocco Brown. Reich's guards need to pull and run power concepts, but I'm sure we'll see plenty of zone stretch as well. If you look at Hines highlights, he had some really good run on stretch runs.

Interesting points here from area scout Mike Geice:

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.