Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaka
Colts fans want a lot of things, but that doesn't mean they should be done. You can cherry-pick star players from any draft and say the Colts should have drafted them, but the reality is that it's not that clear at the time. Just as many "Colts Fans" were down on the idea of taking ANY running back so early in the draft, these the prevailing wisdom on this board was that running backs are largely fungible and there's no need to "waste" a high pick on them anyway. If Hunt was such an obvious choice, he wouldn't have lasted until the end of the 3rd round. And what's more valuable - a premium pass rusher or a premium RB? And who's to say Hunt would have performed anywhere near as well behind the Colts' OL anyway?
If Basham flames out, then it's on Ballard - no doubt - but it's still only a third round pick and probably doesn't merit all of the attention that particular pick gets. Lots of "project" players are taken in the third round because the sure things are long gone by then. If he was a first rounder, I'd understand. Ballard got some useful pieces in his first draft - Hooker (a pick, I might add, which everyone here loved), Mack, Hairston - and has a few guys who are still trying to prove themselves (Wilson, Basham, Stewart). From your post, you'd think the draft was a complete failure.
I might also add that 10 of his 11 draft picks this year survived the final cut as well (all except Fountain), and two (Nelson and Leonard) are showing early signs of stardom (if you can say that about any guard). And I really don't think that Ballard's just keeping all these guys around to save face, given his demonstrated willingness to cut bait on his own draft picks and free agents without hesitation.
Again, I really think all of the criticisms of Ballard boil down to his lack of spending in free agency. That will be remedied at some point by necessity.
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There were more sure things than some of Ballard's second round picks. My biggest problems with this draft were the loss of value from not trading down from 6 and the use of picks 52 and 64 on Turay and Lewis. If I'd been running the draft, when the Broncos selected Chubb, I'd've taken the Bills offer of 12 and 22 and done the following:
12) LB Tremaine Edmunds
22) OG Isaiah Wynn
36) LB Darius Leonard
37) OG Braden Smith
52) DE Lorenzo Carter
64) DE/DT Rasheem Green
I feel like that would have given the team the foundation of a strong defensive core, as well as still providing the OL help that was needed. We'll see how Ballard's group turns out.