Hooker is probably the best of the picks the Colts could've made there at this point given the scheme switch, I just hope he doesn't turn into Bob Sanders in terms of injuries. Reddick and Barnett getting taken the two picks ahead of the Colts didn't help, either.

From Peter King's MMQB quoting gil Brandt
I really don't want to drop down below 12th in a trade out situation.

CB Denzel Ward, Ohio State
SS Derwin James, Florida State
LB Tremaine Edmunds, Virginia Tech
LB Roquan Smith, Georgia
OT Connor Williams, Texas
CB Josh Jackson, Iowa
DE Marcus Davenport, UTSA
DE Harold Landry, Boston College
OT Mike McGlinchey, Notre Dame

I want one of those guys on the Colts. Most are going to go between 7 - 20. I want our choice of them at #12 at worst.

Other quotes:
Walk Worthy,

if they have f-cked up and missed CHubb, this wouldn't suck and might keep Luck alive long enough to actually make the playoffs again in what ever is left of his career.

Trading back again

Round 1: 12th Overall Pick (from Bills)
Trading down with the Bills still allows the Colts to take one of the top offensive linemen in the draft, Notre Dame tackle Mike McGlinchey.

Round 1: 22nd Overall Pick (from Bills)
Indianapolis doubles down on drafting offensive line talent in the first round by selecting UTEP guard Will Hernandez with their other first round pick.

That would be terrible. If you get Edmunds and LVE out of that trade, it's worth it, but that's a disaster.

I agree. I want Luck protected as much as anyone, but that wouldn’t be the best use of picks. There are other ways to protect Luck than using two first rounders on OL prospects. Scheme will help as Reich has suggested. And building a D that helps keep Luck from having to throw 40 times a game will help as well.

There is no reason to spend 1st round picks doing it, but they absolutely still need to upgrade the talent on the right side, scheme change or not. Scheme only helps so much, and then you need the talent to do the job well, and that needs to be addressed.

In a trade with the Bills scenario, I agree that I would want both 1st round picks to be on the defensive front 7.

1 or 2 of the 2nd round picks could then be O-Line as there are a lot of talented kids who should be available there. We need a right OT for sure and I would not be against drafting a talented OG as well.

But, as Dam said, drafting Edmunds / Smith at #12 and then either a DE or another LB at #22 improves that side of the ball MUCH more than replacing Mewhort/Slauson/Good/Haeg on the offensive line.

Those guys have shown they have at least a bare minimum of NFL talent when healthy.

The delta between them and a stud on the O-line, while probably measurable, is not as big as the gain at LB or DE from whom we have there.

Again, the only proven guys are Sheard and Simon at all 5 of those positions (DE, DE, SSLB, MLB, WSLB). Perhaps Basham progresses. Perhaps Autry shows he is ready for prime time. Perhaps Walker or George or Grace show that they can be the answer but they are all unknowns right now.

Massive Upgrades Needed

Walk Worthy,

Like you implied, "perhaps" is not good enough. We have to get defensive help from this draft, and we have to do it early.

I wouldn't be upset if they used all 4 (or 5 if they can get the Bills to trade 12 and 22 for 6) top 50 picks on the front 7. I'm probably in the minority there, but there's a lot of quality DL and LB talent in the top 50 of this draft.

Too bad we didn't do more for the OL in FA so they could've used all those picks for the defense.