2026 Off-Season Thread

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by AlwaysSunnyinIndy

By their actions, I don't think the Colts were "all in" on any of the QB's in that draft - otherwise they would have moved up from the fourth spot. Each of the top three QBs drafted had their weaknesses and I think that Irsay + the front office thought that Steichen and the coaching staff could work with any of the three and hopefully game plan around and minimize their shortcomings.

However, it was clear that Irsay wanted the Colts to draft a QB.

And it would be interesting to see how the front office actually ranked those QBs - although as I stated, clearly they didn't think it was worth it to move up to select their top ranked choice...they stayed put and selected whoever was still on the board.

Exactly. Regardless of how they ranked Young, Stroud, and Richardson... they didn't feel strong enough to make a move for one over the others.

They tried the vet QB route for several years, stumbled into an elite pick, and decided they were going to take a shot with one of the top-3 QB. If Young or Stroud were the third QB left, I think the reactions would have been the same.

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Exactly. Regardless of how they ranked Young, Stroud, and Richardson... they didn't feel strong enough to make a move for one over the others.

They tried the vet QB route for several years, stumbled into an elite pick, and decided they were going to take a shot with one of the top-3 QB. If Young or Stroud were the third QB left, I think the reactions would have been the same.

Irsay had visions of Bert Jones...but at the same time was having visions of Jimi Hendrix. Let's just say that he was in a purple haze. Steichen tried to put lipstick on the pig, but alas, he was still a pig.