I hadn’t seen this kid before.

He’s got some real ball skills. Him and Hooker over the top could be a tough defensive look with a legitimate pass rush.

If you don't want any run support from your safeties, sure.

If you listen to what Ballard has been preaching and saying since he became GM, ( building a team from the trenches out ), and he stays true to that, my best guess is that #26 and #34 will be IDL and Edge, not knowing who will be available I have absolutely no idea who they will be.

Totally agree. Looking at the roster we have a huge need at cornerback with really only three guys you would trust. I'd expect at one in the first two rounds. Am also hopeful that we continue to feed the offensive line with a high pick (like in the first 4 rounds) and get some competition going there. Great being a Colt fan these days.

Adderly hits, Hooker not so much.

If only there were a list of targets somewhere in this thread to give you an idea of who might be targeted.

Darnell Savage is another name to watch beginning at 59.

Yep, I like him as well. He's not strictly a downhill thumper. Just the kinda safety Ballard should be looking at.

The only list that counts is the one available when the Colts are on the clock.

Then why are you wasting your time in this thread?

Thread shitting.

https://twitter.com/br_nfl/status/11...354682880?s=21

Lets just say I’m skeptical.

I absolutely believe the Raiders are interested in him and that the Colts and Eagles are trying to convince them that they need to spend pick 24 for him instead of pick 27.

If ever there was a team that you could bluff..

The Eagles/Colts teaming up to collude on duping the Raiders also fits.

Hard for me to imagine but I will also not complain about taking OL.

It’s not my first choice by any means but I wouldn’t be irate over it like I was the Dorsett pick.

Doesn’t sound like any particular hurry there:

Ballard on how high the bar is raised after last year's successful 11-man class: "I think we just stay down the same path that we went. ... What our team did was outstanding work, but we'll try to do it again."

I'm moving Montez Sweat down from sure-thing Top 15 pick to one of the pool of players who could be available & fits for the Colts at 26/34.

I'm filing this one under "the Colts front office leaves no stone unturned."

I'm going to do a rank of my 17 or so guys from the OP before Thursday. Intent is to try and figure out who those 8 players might be and what order the Colts may have them.

So the one guy that Irsay tweeted about after his 40 may be available? I read somewhere Sweats condition is not as serious as Hurst’s last year. They had multiple opportunities to draft Hurst so I wonder if he is on the board?

Sweat falling means Burns moves up.

That tells me Jeffrey Simmons is on the board.

Wonder if that goes for Jachai Polite as well.

I think he has the potential to be a value steal if he gets into the right system where he can get good advice as opposed to the bad advice he’s apparently been getting from the idiots around him now.

Alright, below is my best guess at getting to Ballard's list of 8 players who are targets at #26. Obviously not all of them will be there, but I'm trying to rank order them so that we can try to gauge who BPA is at any given point. Yes, NJColtsfan, this is hypothetical, but I find it interesting so here we are.

From my previous list, I'm moving Sweat out of the assumed Top 15 due to his heart condition, and also moving Tillery, Fant, and Jacobs from the 2nd list into the consideration set.

I'm assuming the italicized players will be gone, which gets the list down to 11. If Sweat or Simmons are off their board for medical concerns, that brings it to 9.

1st Tier:
EDGE: Brian Burns
DT: Christian Wilkins
DT: Jeffrey Simmons (lower due to injury)
EDGE: Clelin Ferrell
S: Jonathan Abram
TE: Noah Fant
CB: Byron Murphy
WR: AJ Brown
WR: N'Keal Harry
WR: Marquise Brown (I think they place more value on larger receivers)
OL: Chris Lindstrom
RB: Josh Jacobs
CB: Deandre Baker
EDGE: Montez Sweat (heart condition)
DL: Jerry Tillery (my personal reservations that he isn't a great scheme fit)


2nd Tier (unranked, sure-fire 2nd rounders):
DT: Dre'mont Jones
EDGE: Jaylon Ferguson
S: Taylor Rapp
WR: Riley Ridley
WR: Deebo Samuel
WR: Terry McLaurin
WR: Paris Campbell

I think two players from Tier 1 will be there at 26 & 34, but we'll see. The 2nd tier is more of a preliminary target list for 59 IMO.

If the Colts get Sweat and Simmons I'll be very happy. Two top 15 talents they have no business getting would go a long way toward building the defense.

No doubt, but I just don't see Ballard taking that degree of risk. One of them? Sure. Both of them? I can't see it.

There's risk from a draft capital standpoint, but to me the reward potential of two perennial pro bowlers far outweighs it. To me, Sweat is the guy you have to get if available, he's top 5 from a pure talent standpoint in this draft IMO. I also wouldn't be disappointed with something like Sweat and Tillery.

Polite didn’t interview well. I guess he rubbed a lot of teams the wrong way.

I would take Baker off of the list, because reports are that he didn't interview well either.

This will be interesting to see what Eberflus and Ballard truly value at safety. I'm not high on Abram and Rapp and am higher on guys like Adderly and Savage. But there's also Deionte Thompson, Chauncey Gardner Johnson, Jaun Thornhill and Amani Hooker.

Various sites have them all ranked differently and they all have their warts, which I believe make them all early to late 2nd round picks.

I followed that and it seemed like the media over-covered it. I think he got some bad advice from his agent and flubbed it some, but I've read people talking about him falling to day 3 of the draft and I just don't see that at all.

Everything I read was that he was upset teams were showing him his bad plays and wouldn't break down the film they showed him with them. That's part of the draft (and the NFL) process. If he can't handle that, I'm not sure he's a good fit for the Colts.

I fully agree with you on the upside. I’m just pointing out that there’s a decent probability you could end up with nothing. Though the fact that there are pro soccer players in Europe playing through Sweat’s condition gives me a degree of optimism on his ability to have a long career.

That's the spin I read, the fuller account included his comments saying he understood it was their job to do that and, in context, he didn't sound that bad. Underprepared, which is his agents fault.

To be fair, you can be underprepared and still demonstrate a lack of maturity. Will be interesting to know how the Colts view him.

There's a decent probability of ending up with nothing for any draft pick outside the top 10 (top 5?). To me, the reward outweighs the risk at 26 and 34.

Holder says, among other things, to expect Offensive Line early and he doesn’t see it with Jeffery Simmons and that it won’t be a WR and that they aren’t trading up/down:


https://theathletic.com/938751/2019/....co/S7kQZMmmps

Interesting that Holder doesn't think the Colts would take Simmons. He tends to be tuned in pretty well to the front office.

I still say DT, but the RB from bama wouldn’t surprise me keep hearing his name thrown around since the game of horse with Reich and add in they brought in ajayi and decided not to sign him. The more I read about the Jacobs guy the more he screams horseshoe

They are not taking a RB at 26.

I don’t want them to but it wouldn’t surprise me