Doyel: Did Colts GM Chris Ballard tip hand for NFL Draft, nixing Kentucky QB Will Lev
https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...e/70114723007/
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INDIANAPOLIS – At one point Colts general manager Chris Ballard theatrically dropped his head, practically bouncing his face on the podium. He was trying to talk to local reporters about next week’s NFL Draft, but we were more interested in what we had to say. It’s why we kept talking over his answers, or talking over each other to ask the next question … even if all we planned to do was talk over Ballard again.
It was funny, and a little stressful, and finally Ballard’s face just disappears. One moment he’s smiling and sipping from a bottle of energy drink, and the next his chin is on his chest in surrender as three reporters fight to be heard over each other.
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Ballard’s had a rough few weeks, or months – years, really – and it all comes to a head Thursday in Kansas City, site of the 2023 NFL Draft. Alabama’s Bryce Young appears to be the only option off the table for the quarterback-starved Colts, who pick fourth, well after Carolina (surely) selects Young. After that? Anybody’s guess. Conventional wisdom about what will happen ahead of the Colts, with the Texans currently picking second and the Cardinals third, changes daily.
When the Colts are finally on the clock Thursday at about 8:45 p.m., give or take a few Mylanta, it could be as easy for Ballard as turning in the card for Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, or as difficult as looking at what’s left after Stroud and Florida’s Anthony Richardson are taken, holding his nose and drafting Kentucky’s Will Levis or trading back into the first round to get Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker.
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Assuming Hooker is still there, later in the round.
It’s stressful right now, and while Ballard giggled through most of his 25 minutes Friday with reporters, he cracked when three reporters kept shouting over each other until two voices finally faded away. Ballard listened to the question, something about the number of 2023 draft prospects the Colts have assigned a first-round grade – only 17, if you’re curious – without looking at the reporter. He was doing, literally, what the rest of us have been doing for most of his news conference:
Naval-gazing.
“I think y’all feel the pressure more than I do sometimes,” Ballard was saying at one point.
Hey, we want to be right about the Colts’ first pick, too. Which makes something Ballard said Friday so hurtful. He was asked if he had a feel for what the board would look like when it was the Colts’ turn at No. 4.
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“No idea,” he said. “I don’t think anybody does. Everybody thinks they do. Everybody has an inside source that’s giving information.”
He’d add this, a few minutes later.
“Everybody’s lying.”
Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud falling to Colts?
Ignore those two words Ballard uttered – everybody’s lying – and you’d think the 2023 NFL Draft is falling the Colts’ way.
For the last week, first in whispers on Twitter and now in confident proclamations on ESPN by Todd McKiper or Mel McShay – like it matters – the Houston Texans’ assumed marriage with C.J. Stroud has been on the rocks. Now, sources say, the QB-starved Texans won’t take a quarterback second. Not if Bryce Young is gone. They’ll take the best defensive player available, most likely Alabama’s Will Anderson, presumably to tank in 2023 for the chance to draft Southern California quarterback Caleb Williams No. 1 in 2024.
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Arizona, set at quarterback with Kyler Murray, also wants a defensive player.
Know what that means? That means C.J. Stroud would be there at No. 4 for the Colts. If so, here’s what will happen: I’ll sprint to the podium myself to put in the draft card for him. And I won’t even be in the plaza outside Union Station in Kansas City. Hell, I won’t even be in Kansas City. But if C.J. Stroud’s still available, watch how fast I get there.
He's perfect for the Colts, big and strong and accurate, and plenty nimble enough. For my money, he’s the best QB in the class. Granted, my wallet’s a little thin when it comes to scouting quarterbacks. I know only what I’ve seen on the highlights, where Stroud and Young look better than everyone else, and what I heard last month when the top quarterback prospects spoke at the 2023 NFL Combine. Stroud was the most impressive of them all, confident but not arrogant, outgoing but not immature, a leader in every way possible.
Ballard’s heard the same stuff as you and me. He’s heard that Stroud is falling. Does he believe it? Probably not. This is what he said, generally, about what he thinks will happen Thursday night.
“We do our best, like you do, to dig, but we’re all guessing,” Ballard said. “You don’t know. Everybody’s draft board is a little different. Who we have ranked high, they might not have ranked high. We’re not in those draft rooms. We line it up, and how they fall is how we take them.”
Here’s the only thing I feel good about it – certain about – after listening to Ballard on Friday:
The Colts aren’t taking Will Levis.
Prediction: Colts don't want Kentucky's Will Levis
Now, deciphering something as difficult as the draft order is like deciphering muttered lyrics: We hear what we want to hear.
As for me, I want to hear NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell finish this sentence – With the fourth pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts select… – with any name but “Will Levis.”
The guy rubs me the wrong way, so much attitude but so little production. Looks to me like the second coming of 2018 bust Sam Darnold, if Darnold were as cocky as UCLA’s Josh Rosen, who famously said after being picked 10th overall that same year: “There were nine mistakes made ahead of me.”
Rosen’s out of the NFL, by the way. Levis? He couldn’t lead me to the drive-thru at McDonald’s, and I love me a McRib. Can he lead an NFL team down the field in the final two minutes of a close game? No idea, but I don’t think we’ll find out here.
Ballard, unprompted, distanced himself twice from the chatter that the Colts are in love with Levis. Why, you might wonder, would the Colts be in love with Levis? Because they have a “prototype” at quarterback, apparently – “that big, sturdy pocket-passer.” Hey, that’s what they’ve been saying for six weeks on ESPN.
This is what Ballard said Friday, unprompted:
“There’s always this assumption that we’ve targeted one player, we’ve targeted one guy to go get,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s an accurate assumption. Matter of fact, I’d say it’s not.”
And then he said this, unprompted, before rising to leave:
“I always love to read the reports that the Colts love this guy, they’re dialed in on this guy,” he said. “Where’d that come from? Didn’t come from me.”
Please let it be true. And while you’re correct, it was Ballard himself who’d said “everybody’s lying,” here’s the full quote:
“Everybody’s lying,” he said. “I might be the most honest, unfortunately, but everybody’s lying. You ask a question, I’ll either dance around it or give you an answer. Today I’m a dancer.”
Let’s put that to the test. Here’s what I asked Ballard, after deciding Ballard had spoken enough about Indianapolis’ prospects for hosting a future NFL Draft – good question, Anthony Calhoun of WISH-TV – and then speaking over ESPN’s Stephen Holder:
“Does Gardner Minshew (a solid veteran quarterback the Colts signed five weeks ago as a free agent) give you the flexibility to draft someone who doesn’t have to play in 2023?” I’m asking Ballard. “Could Minshew start 17 games next season?”
Ballard’s answer:
“He’s here to compete,” Ballard said. “He’s competing with Sam (Ehlinger) right now and Nick (Foles), who’s still on roster.”
Ballard went on to compliment Minshew, saying “he’s played good football when asked to play,” before saying the Colts “actually liked him” in the 2019 NFL Draft. That was the year the Colts chose linebacker E.J. Speed late in Round 5.
“He went right behind us,” Ballard said of Minshew, who was taken by Jacksonville early in Round 6. Ballard tried to keep going on the fascinating topic of not drafting Gardner Minshew in 2019, but I cut him off. I had someone more interesting to listen to: Me.
“You’re dancing right now,” I told Ballard.
“But I’m not lying,” he said, and began cackling until his face turned red.
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Last edited by JAFF; 04-21-2023 at 04:17 PM.
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04-21-2023, 04:14 PM
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