A+ Draft Grade via Rotoworld

[Indeee]

Colts fans we we're the only team to get an A+ grade from Rotoworld.. WooHoo!!

[chrisfarley]

and that's with missing out on some players and not getting who we wanted. pretty impressive.

[Gavin]

Must have been grading us on a serious curve lol

[jvan1973]

Draft grades 1 day after the draft mean very little to me.. How will it be graded in 2 or 3 years??

[haseo15]

I personally love our draft and all the weapons we got I feel with the huge cap space next year we are better to focus on D with that and next years draft while getting andrew luck weapons right from the bat. It worked out in the long run for Peyton and I'm in love with the two tight ends we got.

[ColtsLegacy]

Here's the link:

http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/nfl/40436/174/draft-2012-afc-grades

[Horseshoe]

We had an awesome draft, i dont know why our fans are whining about our picks. You go with best player available , and I trust our board more then my own opinion. The draft..... the time of year when many fans think they know more then pro scouts.

Another thing people forget that we lost most of our players on OFFENSE not defense...so why all the whining about drafting too much offense?

Also Id rather build our offense before our D, a good D with a bad offense is horrible for fans. Just ask the Cleveland Browns fans. Top 10 D with a horrible O.

Kiper also gave us an -A.....

Think the Colts were concerned about building a supporting cast for Andrew Luck? They showed an unbelievable commitment to Luck, adding the top two tight ends in the draft in Coby Fleener and Dwayne Allen (Luck is used to two-TE sets), a burner in T.Y. Hilton who could become a gem in the slot and even got a possible late steal with Lavon Brazill way down the board. Josh Chapman hits a big need on the interior of that defensive line, and I've even heard really positive assessments of his health situation after he actually played some games without an ACL in 2011. Colleague Trent Dilfer noted that getting all these pass-catching pieces now is a good way to develop early chemistry and give Luck a chance to succeed earlier than we suspected given the state of the lineup going into the draft. I'd make this grade a good one with Luck alone. But the Colts did that one better. They had a plan and I came away impressed.

[RomanianColtsFan]

This is concerning.

[ruksak]

This is concerning.

Ho so?

I took a beating for grading us at A-/A yesterday. I'm seeing many of us that gave similar 'A' grades being supported by national, objective pundits as due reinforcement of our opinion.

I think some folks are just snippy because they like to play the mock draft game and their philosophies were shot down by a far better strategy.

I don't do mock drafts but I did lay-out my desired strategy over the previous weeks; Go with offense and support Luck as a first step to building the new era.

[JoKeR]

Must have been grading us on a serious curve lol

Why so serious?

[Jason_]

We could have drafted Luck and forfeited the rest of the picks and they'd have graded us an A. Getting Fleener to go with Luck gave us the A+. lol

I give the Colts a B-. I didn't care for the last 5 picks and imo 3 of them were a complete waste.

[RomanianColtsFan]

Ho so?

I took a beating for grading us at A-/A yesterday. I'm seeing many of us that gave similar 'A' grades being supported by national, objective pundits as due reinforcement of our opinion.

I think some folks are just snippy because they like to play the mock draft game and their philosophies were shot down by a far better strategy.

I don't do mock drafts but I did lay-out my desired strategy over the previous weeks; Go with offense and support Luck as a first step to building the new era.

Simply because grading the draft the next day is meaningless and I've seen many crappy teams troughout the years receiveing an A grade immediatelly after the draft and ending with none of those players on their rosters after 5 years.

[suckforluck87]

Colts fans we we're the only team to get an A+ grade from Rotoworld.. WooHoo!!

and that's with missing out on some players and not getting who we wanted. pretty impressive.

its cause andrew luck that we got that A+ GRADE

[NewEra]

We had an awesome draft, i dont know why our fans are whining about our picks. You go with best player available , and I trust our board more then my own opinion. The draft..... the time of year when many fans think they know more then pro scouts.

Another thing people forget that we lost most of our players on OFFENSE not defense...so why all the whining about drafting too much offense?

Also Id rather build our offense before our D, a good D with a bad offense is horrible for fans. Just ask the Cleveland Browns fans. Top 10 D with a horrible O.

Kiper also gave us an -A.....

The fans whining are because we didn't pick "their" guys and apparently they should be the gm. Our picks were not on our gm going all hung ho and picking who he wanted. They had a plan from the top down and did a pretty darn good job at making it happen. Our offense is going to be really really good real soon.

[oldunclemark]

Colts fans we we're the only team to get an A+ grade from Rotoworld.. WooHoo!!

We almost totally re-stocked our offense that we gutted in January..

I thought the new masterminds did a great job...

I cant tell you hiow impressed I am that we didnt draft as if we were Philadelphia, Baltimore or Pitrtsburgh...outdoor cold weather teams in some what (in Phily's case) smash mouth divisions..

We drafted as if we were Indianapolis...an indoor team playing warm weather foes..

When does training camp start?

[ColtsPacersfan]

We should have could have, wish we could have. You can't have every player in the draft. Yes they probably missed out on some guys. But all teams misses out on some guys. I thought it was a good draft some players just fell in our laps others did not. We drafted some people like Chapman which Polian would have not. I will give it a strong A. But we will see what they do on the field. But I thought Grigs, Pags did a great job on their first draft and keep in mind this is THEIR first draft that they have done.

[Gavin]

I still think if we were going wide receiver we could have went Streeter he is taller and blazing fast but Ballard is a bruising runner I think and that is one thing I wanted, the two tight end sets are good for us with the potential to be great and chapman if healthy can be very good for us and a big ugly in the middle of that line, putting aside what I wanted to do I would give the grades out like this

Luck-A, With potential to be an A+ if we can just buy him enough time to be protected in the pocket, yes I know he can run but I dont want him do alot of it

Fleener-B+

Allen-B+

TY Hilton-speedy guy an upgrade in our return game will have to prove he was worth that high of a pick, C+ with potential to go up

Josh Chapman-stout at point of attack commands double teams but slipped to the 5th round do to ACL surgery, when healthy the guy is a beast in the middle but has alot to prove coming off surgery C+ with major potential to go up

Vick Ballard-Natural between the tackles bruising back, can pass block very well, a good checkdown target, protects the ball well

C+ with potential to go up

Lavon Brazil-quick and explosive off the line, strong hands, Poor blocker in the running game C-

Justin Anderson-bring size and can mirror defenders and move them in the run game, durability and weight concerns-D

Tim Fugger-special teams player and hard hitter, one year of production-D with potential

Chandler Harnish-likely wont even make the team

[LJpalmbeacher2]

I really don't know how someone can actually grade a draft, it's not like it's a history or math test and you know the answers.

But my opinion is that the first half or so our draft was pretty good. The second half I was not crazy about.

I wanted us to focus on offense early but was disappointed we didn't draft a big WR somewhere.It seams besides Reggie all we have are small slot receivers.

But overall I liked our draft.

[shakedownstreet]

grading the draft is just asking for opinions. if you don't feel like giving a opinion on the subject then don't. saying you can't grade a draft until years down the road is just a cop out

[GrizzColt]

We almost totally re-stocked our offense that we gutted in January..

I thought the new masterminds did a great job...

I cant tell you hiow impressed I am that we didnt draft as if we were Philadelphia, Baltimore or Pitrtsburgh...outdoor cold weather teams in some what (in Phily's case) smash mouth divisions..

We drafted as if we were Indianapolis...an indoor team playing warm weather foes..

When does training camp start?

I agree with you. I am shocked that others don't see how good of a draft this is. Everyone that was drafted is going to see the field as a starter or an important rotational player. Fugger and the Olineman are the only ones I'm not sure about. That's absolutely incredible when you think about our last few drafts where our 1st round picks didn't even get on the field. Just think about that. The Giants just won the Super Bowl and I can promise that the RB they picked in the 1st round is going to play.

[unitaswestand]

I thought it to be a very good draft. Grigson hows he really can find talent anywhere. I love the two TEs to really help Luck and the running game. And the NT sounds like a really good player. Hilton is a guy I had been reading about for months and was just hoping the Colts would get him.

I think another thing people have to remember is that our secondary may not be as bad as what you think. The system they are running has a lot to do with it. Take Tim Jennings. I think every Colt fan hated him because of the cushions he gave up. He goes to Chicago, is a solid starter, and just got a new contract. It is amazing how pressure and unpredictable fronts can suddenly make DBs look much better because they don't have to cover as long as they aren't giving huge cushions.

[Vance]

Yehh...I hate these draft grades a day after it's all over. How about 700+ days later?

And FWIW NFL Network said the Texans had the best draft in the AFCS. Well, at least Lombardi said it.

But it's fairly meaningless.

[Horseshoe]

I still think if we were going wide receiver we could have went Streeter he is taller and blazing fast but Ballard is a bruising runner I think and that is one thing I wanted, the two tight end sets are good for us with the potential to be great and chapman if healthy can be very good for us and a big ugly in the middle of that line, putting aside what I wanted to do I would give the grades out like this

Luck-A, With potential to be an A+ if we can just buy him enough time to be protected in the pocket, yes I know he can run but I dont want him do alot of it

Fleener-B+

Allen-B+

TY Hilton-speedy guy an upgrade in our return game will have to prove he was worth that high of a pick, C+ with potential to go up

Josh Chapman-stout at point of attack commands double teams but slipped to the 5th round do to ACL surgery, when healthy the guy is a beast in the middle but has alot to prove coming off surgery C+ with major potential to go up

Vick Ballard-Natural between the tackles bruising back, can pass block very well, a good checkdown target, protects the ball well

C+ with potential to go up

Lavon Brazil-quick and explosive off the line, strong hands, Poor blocker in the running game C-

Justin Anderson-bring size and can mirror defenders and move them in the run game, durability and weight concerns-D

Tim Fugger-special teams player and hard hitter, one year of production-D with potential

Chandler Harnish-likely wont even make the team

Each round gets a lower grade then the round before? You do know that its very hard to find top notch starting talent in the bottom rounds, even team GM's that hit pro bowl guys down their say much of it is luck (no pun)...........

Also way to low grade on a Hilton , he was rated 2nd tier talent by most pundits......we got him at the bottom of the third.........that is an amazing pick. Forget his receiving skills, he has top notch return talent, he brought it to the house against top teams, Alabama etc. Most pundits seem to think we got a steal in our Dt which everyone says would have went much higher if he wasn't injured. Grigson feels good about his health going forward so I trust him. Brazil was a good value pick as well....... Those grades seem like talent grades without taking into consideration the Round the players were chosen in, and where they were projected.

[lollygagger8]

The only team that got an A+.......wooooO!!!!!! Kudos to Grigson and the F.O.!!!!

Maybe this is why Polian looked like he needed to be on Zoloft while staring deadpan into space on ESPN.

Man, that was hard to watch him.

[04DarkShadowGT]

I like our draft alot except for the last pick. I am not sure I would want a rookie backup with a rookie starter. Just seems kinda counter productive. They could have gotten another QB as an UFA if they wanted a young third stringer.

I would have rather taken Burfict at the last pick, he stays straight and you get tremendous value, if he messes up you cut him and lose almost nothing.

[chad72]

Maybe this is why Polian looked like he needed to be on Zoloft while staring deadpan into space on ESPN.

Bill Polian is a big Joe Pa fan. He was touting Devon Still even before round 2 started. I was not surprised at all when I heard that. If he was our GM, he probably would have picked Devon Still, continuing the Big Ten theme.

Now, the other Big Ten theme going in the AFC South is the Texans. Whitney Mercilus Illinois, round 1, Devier Posey Ohio state, then Jared Odrick of Nebraska, it was a Big Ten dominance in the Texans' draft.

Polian never drafted a Pac-10 (or Pac-12 whatever it is) in round 1 in 14 years - SEC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten and MWAC (Rob Morris and Jerry Hughes). When you have 2 Pac-10 players back-to-back, you know it is not a Polian draft. lol

Grigson, in his press conference, stated that once he missed out on the CBs he wanted, the offensive players he had on his board were graded MUCH higher than the defensive ones. The remaining CBs after round 5, he said, were rated mostly backups and the offensive players on his board had better starter potential, so he went with them. Its his board, so that is his evaluation and call.

It is not the end of the world that we did not get the defensive players he wanted, I will grant everyone that. But it is definitely not an A+ draft to me, a B+ at best due to the later RB and WR in Ballard and Brazill being luxury picks, IMO. UDFA market is flooded with RBs every single year. Plus, WRs like Dwight Jones and Jeff Fuller were still UDFAs in this WR deep draft when it ended. In a run happy division, we could have gotten some run down LBs or DLs with those picks. That is what drops it to B+ for me. The first 4 picks will end up being starters, till then it was an A.

[haseo15]

Yehh...I hate these draft grades a day after it's all over. How about 700+ days later?

And FWIW NFL Network said the Texans had the best draft in the AFCS. Well, at least Lombardi said it.

But it's fairly meaningless.

I thought Texans had a great value pick in Crick in the 5th round i think or whenever he went. I love the potential we have offensive wise now and i believe Chapman was a top 3 nose tackle in the draft could have gone late 2nd early 3rd without injury. I thought Jags had a good draft up till they drafted the punter 3rd. I also liked the titans Draft as well. Getting weapons for locker and they have 3 potential future solid to star LB's if they work out down the line. Grabed a Run Stuffing DT/NT in Mike Martin for well but the titans secondary may struggle now.

[HungarianColtsFan]

The 2012 season will give the real grade for this draft.

However I personally think this draft wasn't bad at all.

[Warhorse]

But.....but........drafting the BPA over need makes it appear that we are building for the future, not for need, which means less wins THIS season

and that makes me a saaaaaaaaaaaaaad panda.

Lol. Grading a draft now is silly. What I believe this thread is about is not to show how good it was period, it is to counter the massive negative response to how bad it was.

Love the draft, the new approach, the side of Grigs in his last telecon where he admitted that he got downright pithed when he missed out on a player. Just cant say enough about how much I love this. Last year was a hard year, and I personally am gonna ride this good feeling all the way into next season. Beats the crap out of looking for cornflakes to water.

[jskinnz]

I still think if we were going wide receiver we could have went Streeter he is taller and blazing fast but Ballard is a bruising runner I think and that is one thing I wanted, the two tight end sets are good for us with the potential to be great and chapman if healthy can be very good for us and a big ugly in the middle of that line, putting aside what I wanted to do I would give the grades out like this

Luck-A, With potential to be an A+ if we can just buy him enough time to be protected in the pocket, yes I know he can run but I dont want him do alot of it

Fleener-B+

Allen-B+

TY Hilton-speedy guy an upgrade in our return game will have to prove he was worth that high of a pick, C+ with potential to go up

Josh Chapman-stout at point of attack commands double teams but slipped to the 5th round do to ACL surgery, when healthy the guy is a beast in the middle but has alot to prove coming off surgery C+ with major potential to go up

Vick Ballard-Natural between the tackles bruising back, can pass block very well, a good checkdown target, protects the ball well

C+ with potential to go up

Lavon Brazil-quick and explosive off the line, strong hands, Poor blocker in the running game C-

Justin Anderson-bring size and can mirror defenders and move them in the run game, durability and weight concerns-D

Tim Fugger-special teams player and hard hitter, one year of production-D with potential

Chandler Harnish-likely wont even make the team

Here is another one for you...

Dear God.

[Coffeedrinker]

This thread is hilarious. People don't seem to understand the people that love the draft and the people that hate the draft are exactly the same... you are all basing your opinion on nothing at the moment.

Also, I've been around a few NFL organizations and I will let you in one a little secret. All teams pick the best player available, that is the whole idea behind the draft. What happens though is each GM has their own criteria for who is the best player available. And just because some draft site has Player A as the best player available does not mean that a.) he is the BPA and b.) the Colts think he's the BPA.

I thought the Colts should have drafted Glenn in the 2nd round. They did no, but that does not mean I think they had a bad draft because they didn't pick the player I wanted them to pick.

I had the Colts draft Chapman in the 5th round but that does not mean I think they had a great draft.

They drafted some players who they thought would help the team. We will find out over the next 3 years if they did good or bad.

[buccolts]

This thread is hilarious. People don't seem to understand the people that love the draft and the people that hate the draft are exactly the same... you are all basing your opinion on nothing at the moment.

Also, I've been around a few NFL organizations and I will let you in one a little secret. All teams pick the best player available, that is the whole idea behind the draft. What happens though is each GM has their own criteria for who is the best player available. And just because some draft site has Player A as the best player available does not mean that a.) he is the BPA and b.) the Colts think he's the BPA.

I thought the Colts should have drafted Glenn in the 2nd round. They did no, but that does not mean I think they had a bad draft because they didn't pick the player I wanted them to pick.

I had the Colts draft Chapman in the 5th round but that does not mean I think they had a great draft.

They drafted some players who they thought would help the team. We will find out over the next 3 years if they did good or bad.

I've never been around an NFL organization, but understand, and have always imagined what you describe.

I was a little surprised that we didn't come away with a CB, only because we had few on the roster. However, I did find it a bit humorous that many of the DBs we 'had to have' to make this a good draft went undrafted altogether. I suppose no one saw them as we did.....even the Colts.

[Rich Cannon]

Draft grades 1 day after the draft mean very little to me.. How will it be graded in 2 or 3 years??

totally agree

[southwest1]

This thread is hilarious. People don't seem to understand the people that love the draft and the people that hate the draft are exactly the same... you are all basing your opinion on nothing at the moment.

Also, I've been around a few NFL organizations and I will let you in one a little secret. All teams pick the best player available, that is the whole idea behind the draft. What happens though is each GM has their own criteria for who is the best player available. And just because some draft site has Player A as the best player available does not mean that a.) he is the BPA and b.) the Colts think he's the BPA.

I thought the Colts should have drafted Glenn in the 2nd round. They did no, but that does not mean I think they had a bad draft because they didn't pick the player I wanted them to pick.

I had the Colts draft Chapman in the 5th round but that does not mean I think they had a great draft.

They drafted some players who they thought would help the team. We will find out over the next 3 years if they did good or bad.

I agree with you 100% Coffeedrinker. There is no such thing as a paper champion. This league is all about on the field production not projections & college careers. Any player taken in the draft can only be effectively evaluated 4 years from now. No college player has earned their NFL stripes just yet IMO. No player deserves a ticker tape parade just quite yet. Hold your jubilant fan enthusiasm in check for right now please.

[SteelCityColt]

On the bright side we didn't take a punter in the 3rd.... Real head scratcher. I mean sure it's a undervalued part of the game but how good a punter can you ever really be to justify going that high. All draft grades at this point are projections based on opinion, expert or otherwise but it gives us something to talk about

[Larry Horseman]

I wanted us to focus on offense early but was disappointed we didn't draft a big WR somewhere.It seams besides Reggie all we have are small slot receivers.

This is the exact type of offense that Arians likes to run. Despite what many fans want, Arians does not historically utilize "big receivers." That is what the two TE's are for. Fleener's size/speed combo is basically like a big receiver...heck, he is taller, weighs more, and is as fast or faster than, say, Vincent Jackson and Larry Fitz.

[Luck2Fleener]

We could have drafted Luck and forfeited the rest of the picks and they'd have graded us an A. Getting Fleener to go with Luck gave us the A+. lol

I give the Colts a B-. I didn't care for the last 5 picks and imo 3 of them were a complete waste.

Most 6th and 7th rounders will fail to make an impact in their career. If you're going to grade our draft you should consider only the first 4 rounds and not give too much consideration for rounds after that.

[Jason_]

Most 6th and 7th rounders will fail to make an impact in their career. If you're going to grade our draft you should consider only the first 4 rounds and not give too much consideration for rounds after that.

Well if you're only concerned about the first 4 rounds then that's fine, that's your prerogative. However, I feel differently, and would prefer to strive to make every pick the best pick possible. I completely understand that not every pick is going to work out but that's true of players in all rounds, not just the last 3. Many people feel, and I agree, that GM's and scouts really show their worth in the later rounds, by finding guys in those final rounds that can still contribute in some way. I'm not saying our draft sucked if we didn't find a playmaker in round 7, but we should still try to make every pick be the best pick possible. We may not find a playmaker in round 7 but it's entirely possible to find a solid role player or quality depth in rounds 6-7 and in the UDFA pool.

So therefore, I disagree. Every pick counts towards the final draft grade. Personally, I also take UDFA's into consideration as well. I would still like to see a couple more DL prospects (3-4 DE's or DT's) brought in for camp. I know we can't go into the season with 12-15 DL on the roster, but we certainly can go into training camp with that many. I'm sure many consider me to be overly picky/critical or, as some would say, "whiny" (love the condescension) but I want the very best for the team and don't want to settle for good enough. I would hope that Irsay, Grigson and Pagano feel the same way.

[RGIII]

The Rotoworld grades seemed pretty generous all around. Silva gave the Skins an A- but our grades elsewhere have been all over the place and probably average out to a B-.

I don't know that I would give the Colts an A+ but they did have a darn fine draft regardless. I expect you guys will focus on defense next season after your coaching staff has a better feel for what your existing talent is capable of (esp. Freeney and Mathis in their new roles). It's somewhat the opposite approach of what we took (defense heavy drafting initially, offense heavy this season).

[fvantagio]

I really don't know how someone can actually grade a draft, it's not like it's a history or math test and you know the answers.

But my opinion is that the first half or so our draft was pretty good. The second half I was not crazy about.

I wanted us to focus on offense early but was disappointed we didn't draft a big WR somewhere.It seams besides Reggie all we have are small slot receivers.

But overall I liked our draft.

Question? Marvin Harrison? Or Darius Heyward Bey? Plus sure we didnt get 6'4 receivers...But we did get a 6'6 and a 6'3 TE. And 2 receivers with 4.3 speed. Those have gotta count for something right?