I think he's a good player, and that's his market. But I don't see the Colts doing this. I think the reports are exaggerated, at best, to get other bidders to get serious and make a good offer.
The reasons why:
1) Part of the attractiveness of a zone heavy defense is that you can find scheme fit corners on a lower price tier. This is how Ballard has handled the position since 2018.
2) I don't think Sneed's ability as a good coverage corner would be put to good use in the Colts defense, not as long as Gus Bradley is the DC.
3) Ballard does not like to trade away draft picks, even for veteran players; the only times he's done so was for a trench player -- his absolute fave -- and a QB.
4) Ballard's front office doesn't leak, partly because they don't get involved in protracted negotiations. The Buckner deal happened before anyone realized it was in the works, and was in place before the league year started. The Wentz deal was more obvious, the winds were blowing in that direction, but again, that was for a QB, and again, it was done before the league year started. The proactive nature of those deals prevented Ballard from being subjected to a bidding war. Speaking of...
5) Ballard doesn't do bidding wars. That's why being in the mix for a tagged player in the first place doesn't make sense.
6) The Colts have used most of their 2024 cap space already, so a big contract for Sneed would likely need to be backloaded. We also might need to restructure or extend guys like Buckner, Nelson, etc., to make it work. And those are also things that Ballard doesn't like to do.
For those reasons, and probably others, this would be the single greatest departure from Ballard's mode of operation in eight years. So it's hard for me to see Ballard trading probably a 2nd+5th round pick, AND agreeing to a multi-year contract north of $22m/year, for a cornerback.
Personally, I would welcome it. And I would cross my fingers and hope that it signals some adjustments in our approach to defensive coverage. But I sincerely do not think it's going to happen.