02-18-2021, 07:20 PM
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NFL.com Ranks Colts 2020 Draft Class as Best in League
Pretty amazing considering we didn't even have a 1st round pick:
https://www.nfl.com/news/2020-nfl-ro...-class-1-to-32
Here's the write up on the Colts:
Quote:
Round 2
(No. 34) Michael Pittman Jr., WR, 13 games/8 starts
(41) Jonathan Taylor, RB, 15 games/13 starts
Round 3
(85) Julian Blackmon, S, 15 games/14 starts
Round 4
(122) Jacob Eason, QB
Round 5
(149) Danny Pinter, OG, 13 games/1 start
Round 6
(193) Robert Windsor, DT, 2 games
(211) Isaiah Rodgers, CB, 13 games
(212) Dezmon Patmon, WR, 1 game
(213) Jordan Glasgow, LB, 13 games
Notable Undrafted Free Agent
Rodrigo Blankenship, K, 16 games
Halfway through his rookie campaign, Taylor was a disappointment, running indecisively to the tune of just 3.8 yards per carry over his first nine games. But he seemed to find his NFL footing around Thanksgiving, and over the final seven weeks of the regular season, there wasn't a better NFL running back this side of Derrick Henry. Taylor averaged a healthy 6.2 yards per carry in this span, carrying Indianapolis into the playoffs with a franchise-record 253 rushing yards in a Week 17 win over Jacksonville. Standing 5-foot-10, 226 pounds with 4.39 speed, Taylor's a load to bring down and a constant home run threat. In Year 1, he alleviated two major pre-draft concerns -- ball security and receiving skills -- with only one fumble and one drop in the regular season. (Though he did drop two passes in the wild-card loss to Buffalo. Playoff debut jitters?) In an RB era defined by specialization and committee usage, Taylor looks like the rare bell cow. One potential concern for Colts brass and humanity at large: Taylor might have manipulated some kind of midseason body swap with Blackmon, given how antithetically their respective debut campaigns played out. By midseason, Blackmon had surprisingly thrust himself into the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation as a ball-hawking playmaker. But in the stretch run, right when Taylor was taking off, Blackmon appeared to hit a rookie wall. Supernatural factors must be considered. And potentially feared. Pittman -- Indy's top selection who missed three games with an unsettling creeper of a leg injury -- was a pretty consistent producer. The big-bodied wideout is quite spry after the catch, and he knows how to use his 6-4, 220-pound frame as a run blocker, to boot. (Just ask noted tough guy Johnathan Abram, who ate a Pittman pancake on this Colts touchdown.) With a well-rounded game, Pittman feels like a Year 2 breakout candidate, depending on what Indy does at the quarterback position. The cherry on top of another fine draft haul for Chris Ballard: special teamers Rodgers, Glasgow and Blankenship all joining Taylor on the PFWA All-Rookie Team.
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