Superman

He just said they're probably going to trade back. It was kind of tongue-in-cheek, but not really...

He thinks it's a strong offensive draft at the top, and a lot of offensive players will go at the top.

He set the record straight at corner. Not rookies anymore, players coming back, etc.

We can actually hear the questions this time. That's a shocker.

https://www.colts.com/video/live-now-chris-ballard-2024-pre-draft-press-conference Happening now.

I don't think the defense is the same old. For starters, our defense is no longer undersized, and doesn't struggle against the run. If the Colts draft a man coverage corner in the first round, it will signal a major departure from the previous way of doing things, and it probably means Gus Bradley is gone after this season. I'm not against any of that happening. I just don't expect it, based on the established pattern. As for what Ballard said in his presser, he also acknowledged that the expected top three boundary corners were unavailable for most of the season. Brents was our highly drafted rookie, and only played 9 games; Flowers played four games; Rodgers was released. That left us with rookies and journeyman playing corner most of the season. With Brents in Year 2 and hopefully healthy, Flowers back and healthy, another year in for Jaylon Jones, that gives Bradley a lot more to work with in the secondary. And I think that's more what Ballard was implying with his comments. Otherwise, he probably would have signed a veteran corner already.

I wonder whether there's anything to his reporting. Either way, I think he'd be better at safety / nickel. Even if the Colts view him as a boundary corner, I think they view corner as a Day 2 position. DeJean definitely helped himself on his testing. I don't think the 40 time was concerning, even if I wasn't blown away by it. His explosive numbers were very good; if you watch his high school basketball clips, you'll see his explosiveness. And like stitches said, the Colts love explosive DBs, maybe even more than they love fast DBs. And yeah, I side-eye any timed speeds when they don't happen at the Combine. There's hand timing, some surfaces are different, I've read that some tracks have a slight grade to them, etc. I don't know how they prepare all the 40 tracks, but I know that everyone that runs at the Combine gets the same surface, same conditions, etc.

I wasn't even going to go there because I don't think what the Chiefs did in 2015 -- with John Dorsey as the GM, and Bob Sutton as the DC -- is a straight line to Ballard's team building philosophies with the Colts. Sutton was a 3-4 guy who used a lot more man coverage and asked a lot more of his boundary corners than the Colts do. They also played outside on grass, and one of the big revelations Ballard shared in 2018 is that he doesn't think dome teams should play 3-4 defense. That, on top of other deviations from what the Chiefs did when Ballard was there, makes it pretty clear that he's not trying to emulate the Chiefs' defensive approach.

Before you jump to a conclusion based on that salacious headline -- not saying you did -- take a closer look at the article. "When his blood sugar’s off, he’s rude, he’s abrasive, he doesn’t pay attention in meetings. It's why you get really, really * character reports coming out of Georgia and Texas. But when his stuff is normal, and they get him normal by lunch time, he's out at practice high energy, best practice player, loves football..."" He has Type 1 diabetes. Maybe he needs to do a better job of managing it, but I thought the headline was misleading. I'm not totally disregarding the character stuff though. Further context here:

To be clear, I'm not saying he won't be drafted in the first round. Just saying where I think he should be rated. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets drafted in the first round.

I didn't offer it as absolute fact, but if you think Ballard has shown no positional bias I think you're very mistaken.

I generally add .05 to hand times because I feel like they tend to be home cooked. Not saying that's the right way to do it, but I think there's reason to be skeptical of the non-Combine times. In this case, that would make DeJean's time more like 4.48. Based on what I watched, I thought he'd run about 4.5. I agree that his long speed and quickness are a step below what a top tier corner should have, but he's very explosive, tough, instinctive, great ball skills, etc. I see him as a Day 2 prospect, and more of a nickel / strong safety than a boundary corner, even in our zone defense.

I disagree with your opinion on this draft class. But the question isn't who would you draft. Even if you have a low opinion of each prospect, you probably still have one at the top of the list, right?

Got it. I thought it was just the winners.

That's an awesome story, good for you! But why does Peyton have a green jacket??

Williams Maye Daniels McCarthy

To the bolded, yeah, probably. That's my opinion, it's probably biased by my own thinking on the value of the WR position and how good players can be acquired and developed, but I think there's something to it. I also think there's something to Ballard's insistence since 2017 that he values OL/DL, he values trading back, and he thinks there are good players throughout the draft. I also think going back to the Polian/Dungy days, there's been a team building philosophy -- not specific to the Colts, but definitely something the Colts adhered to back then and have returned to since 2018 -- that emphasizes zone based corners. And part of the reason for that is because zone corners are less expensive and easier to draft. I think the draft value for zone based corner prospects tends to be Day 2 and beyond, which influences Ballard's draft decisions, and speaks to why he's drafted three corners in the second round. And that's directly to the point I was making in the post you quote -- zone based corners are typically found beyond the first round, the Colts run a zone based defense, and I think they probably won't draft a corner on Day 1. Meanwhile, he's made four first round picks: two trench players, one QB, and one safety. Some might say the safety is an outlier -- it was his first year, still with a different defensive philosophy. That might be true, but I think safety is considered more important in this defense than corner. I'm not necessarily advocating for this approach. I would love a WR at #15, depending on who it is. I just don't expect it.

Hey, knock yourself out. Just wondering...

Don't you ever get tired of trying to convince yourself that Ballard is going to make a big move? You seem to talk yourself into this at every opportunity, and it never happens. Everything we know about Ballard tells us there is a practical, unexciting reason for this. I'm happy to be proven wrong, by the way. A big splash would be fun, but I think it's very unlikely.

The PS rules have changed every offseason lately, I haven't exactly kept up with them. He'd still be eligible for the PS, but there are still rules about how many times a player can be added to the PS during the season. More importantly, I think Thomas has played enough and is good enough that he probably wouldn't clear waivers. And if we've added enough competition at safety that Thomas is a cutdown loss, I'm okay with that. He's fine as a backup and special teamer, but those are the guys who are going to be at risk on cutdown day.

Which is why the Colts draft corners in the second round.

We talked about the 2023 QBs endlessly, but now that the draft is almost here, I wanted to see what people think of the QBs in this year's draft. So here's a poll. Who do you see as the top QB this year? I won't include Michael Penix or Bo Nix, but there is an "other" box if you really feel the need to represent for another guy. If there was a way to include an elimination poll so we could actually rank them, I'd do that. I've tried to do polls on the honor system in the past, and it didn't go well, so just limiting it to your top option. All votes are public. Feel free to give your rankings in a post. In alphabetical order according to last name, the candidates, with profiles from The 33rd Team: Jayden Daniels Drake Maye JJ McCarthy Caleb Williams

The roster spots are already kind of tight. There will be churn, but we're at 76 players right now (right? after Dabo is exempted), and we have 7 draft picks. Add in UDFAs -- I just went back for the last couple years, in 2021 we only signed 5, but we've signed as many as 22 in the past, and it's usually 10-15 -- and there's not a lot of room. But if we're going to make room after the draft, we're probably looking at guys like Brooks and Tutsie at the safety position, and Thomas makes it to camp.

I'm not a McAfee guy, definitely not a Belichick guy, but I think I have to watch this. It might be the best draft show ever.

Sure, this makes it easier to handle a veteran signing after the draft, so if you still want one of the safeties or something, you're not getting squeezed. I've always thought that was on the table though, and when the time came, they'd make it work. I figured something would happen with Buckner eventually, but this is more than I expected. And that's probably just a 'might as well' kind of thing. I just don't think there's something big in the works. Not that I would know, it's just my opinion.