Throughout the majority of the offseason, the Indianapolis Colts were thought of as a team that might’ve traded up to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, but it appears they were never major players to do so.
During the NFL owners’ meetings Monday in Arizona, Ballard gave a bit of insight into why the Colts were never truly in talks for the No. 1 pick, which eventually was traded to the Carolina Panthers.
“Didn’t want to make a blind decision without all the information,” Ballard told reporters Monday. “I know for people, they might not understand that. But I think history kind of tells you that when you do that, you better know what you’re getting. And we weren’t quite ready to do that at that time. And then we feel like there’s enough depth in the draft that we were gonna be okay.”
Typically when a team trades up in the draft, they are doing so for a specific player. The top of the draft is a bit unique because the selection includes the entire draft class, but the Panthers felt comfortable enough with the quarterback class to make the blockbuster deal.
But it wasn’t a move Ballard was going to make without first knowing how they truly felt about the quarterback class.
“Carolina, give them credit,” Ballard said. “They feel like they’ve done their work, they felt like they were able to do it and they made the move.”
The result is that the Colts still hold the No. 4 overall pick and are guaranteed one of the top four quarterback prospects if they want one. The expectation is that the Colts will walk away with one of those prospects even if Ballard did his best to show they’re willing to wait on a quarterback later in the draft.
“Everybody talks about the top four, but there’s some more guys out there — pretty good players,” Ballard said. “And I think history has shown here, especially in the last few years with Jalen (Hurts) being one, Brock Purdy coming in and playing really well. They come in every level. We’ll do our work on every one of them and at the end of the day we’ll try to get one that we like and fits us and we think we can win with.”
With roughly a month left until the draft, the expectation is that C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young will be the first two quarterbacks selected, which means the Colts could be choosing between Florida’s Anthony Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis.
Both players are scheduled for top-30 visits during the month of April, but we won’t truly know how the Colts feel until the draft is essentially here.
There’s still a chance the Colts trade up to the No. 3 pick if they feel convicted about a player, but it appears they never were major players for the top overall pick.
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