NewColtsFan

Hoping for a WR at 46 and a corner at 82 tomorrow night!

I guess his medical were cleared!

Doesn’t look like the Colts are trading down. The Colts are making the pick!

Here we go!

6 of the first 12 players are quarterbacks! Chris Ballard couldn’t be any happier!!

He might just fall to the Colts.

Hoping @nfl fan is happy?! 🏆

This is even BETTER! Players the Colts don’t care about keep getting picked up high. This forces more players the Colts do care about down to Indy! Come to Chris!

The draft is breaking very favorably for the Colts. They may be able to stay where they are and have multiple players they may want fall right to them.

Wow! Chargers trading down was one of the hottest rumors of the last month or so…. Poof…. Gone!

I saw this too. Nothing jumped out at me as unreasonable. I thought it was fair and reasonable across the board.

Innocent question: Is Chloe here? I sure hope so. I hope all of Colts Nation is here for the next 3 days.

Since I’m a big believer in both Ballard and Steichen it’s been my viewpoint this whole off-season that I will support the pick no matter what. Doesn’t mean that I’ll like the pick, but I’ll support it and not trash it in the years to come. I’m as curious as anyone over what the Colts do. The pick should be made roughly 2 to 2.5 hours from the start.

No worries. We’re always good. Actually most years Ballard wants more picks and he’s especially good late in the draft. I was only noting that several times he finished early. His first and third drafts in 17 and 19. I was guessing CB will be done before R7. Hope that clarifies. Appreciate the response.

Sorry, Hawk…. You lost me. I didn’t understand your response to my post. How are they connected?

Question. We’re not most of these players signed to minimum or near minimum contracts? Davis 2/14 and Bryan 1/4.5 Didn't most (all?) of the players you listed sign for roughly close to vet minimum? Just asking.

A follow up…. Can you remember the last time — if ever — Ballard went out and signed free agents in March, only to turn around and cut those same free agents in September? I appreciate you’re not a fan of either Davis or Bryan, but they weren’t signed to vet minimum contracts. They were signed to decent contracts with signing bonuses. And now they’re going to get cut in September? I’m having a hard time seeing that. It would appear the Colts have a plan, but now you think they might blow up their own plan. You're thoughts?

Well…. If you see Murphy as a 3T and are not concerned about all the other players who can play there, you’re fine then with Murphy only playing roughly 25 percent of the snaps for perhaps 2-3 years? You’re ok with that for a first round pick? Because I thought Ballard went out of his way to say Buckner was a physical freak of nature who might be able to play much longer than one might normally expect. Curious to your thoughts here.

I suppose Murphy being the next Donald is possible, but I wouldn’t think it’s likely. As for Smith playing right tackle, I believe I was simply echoing Ballard’s initial viewpoint. That Smith’s short arms made him an unlikely RT. And that he had to be talked into it by Morocco Brown and Ed Dodds. I don’t think I was stating MY personal view. As for skillset vs measurements. I think it’s been an issue for all of us because Ballard has such specific requirements for each position. So we factor that into our judgements.

To your first paragraph…. I think he doesn’t fit the Colts profile. I also think he’d be a good player for us. But I wouldn’t understand the point of signing Davis and Bryan and then draft a player who will take many snaps from them. Also, guys like Dayo, Lewis, and Paye have position versatility. So the Colts would appear to have plenty of options. I appreciate Ballard’s comment about not passing up a great player even if not a position of need. So maybe it’s possible. I’m just wondering where Murphy might be on Ballard’s Big Board.

Personally…. I’m hoping and praying you’re wrong. I don’t even think Murphy is a Ballard type of player. He’s not tall or long or rangy or athletic. He’s a 6’1” 300 pound ball of muscle. I’m not saying he’s not a good player, he is. But CB has never drafted or signed a player with that body type or athletic background. Is it possible the Colts draft Murphy? Yes. I’m just hoping it doesn’t happen. I’d be scratching my head forever. Just my two cents.

Well…. I haven’t made those arguments. So I’ll offer my response next week. You’re free to ignore it. But I’d like other people here to see it. At least it would be on the record. Enjoy the draft!

Doug…. I do have a response that I’d like to share with you, but not today. I think we should all be focused on the 2024 draft and not talking about history. And that’s my view for the rest of the draft and weekend as well. So, I’ll try and give you a response next Monday. Hope that’s ok. Cheers! NCF

I don’t really have a hot take, or a bold take. But I’ll offer this….. Ballard won’t use all 7 rounds of the draft. He’s done that twice before. 2017: his first year drafting, Ballard was done about 1/3rd of the way into the 5th round. 2019: Ballard had made enough trades to have 3 picks back to back to back toward the bottom of R6. So there is precedent. I think CB taps out after R5 or R6.

The reason I believe Lattimore would have leverage is that the Colts don’t want to trade for a player who has only one year of guaranteed money. The Colts would want to sign him long term, and restructure to lower his cap hit. The Colts aren’t trading all those assets to get the player for one year, they want him for several years. Out another year, he can say no thanks to the deal, play with the Saints one more year, then either re-sign with the Saints or become a free agent and go where he wants. The Colts need ML more than ML needs the Colts. To me, that gives him leverage. By the way, my apology to you. I wasn’t trying to insult you. By the way you presented your first post, I took it to imply this was an idea from Stampede. I wouldn’t have phrased my response quite so sharply had I understood this was your work. My bad. I began to think things didn’t add up because I went to the Stampede website and couldn’t find the story. Again, my apology.