The Indianapolis Colts, along with several other teams, were massively outbid in the Matthew Stafford sweepstakes as the Los Angeles Rams gave the Detroit Lions a haul on Saturday night.
Now, the Colts have to continue their search for a quarterback. They can look at the options in free agency, though they aren’t appealing in the slightest. Or they can explore a trade up during the 2021 NFL draft.
Given where they stand with the No. 21 overall pick, it won’t be easy for the Colts to move up to grab one of the top four prospects. But they may have a potential trade partner in the Lions.
Part of the deal that sends Stafford to L.A. is Jared Goff. The embattled former first-round pick is now in Detroit. This means the Lions may be less inclined to take a quarterback with the No. 7 overall pick and thus can open the trade talks to add even more selections to their rebuild.
Now, it should be noted that this is merely speculation. There haven’t been any reports suggesting the Lions are open to trading the No. 7 pick. In fact, it may behoove them to take a prospect like Trey Lance or Zach Wilson, let him sit a year or so behind Goff, and then move forward with a potential franchise option.
But at this point in the offseason, all options are on the table. With so many teams in the top-eight potentially looking for quarterbacks, the Colts must find any suitor they can in order to move up.
Doing so will be expensive. The starting cost to move up that high will likely be two first-round picks—No. 21 and a future first—to go along with potentially a future Day 2 pick.
If that’s what it takes to get the Colts a potential franchise quarterback, then they should be looking to pull the trigger. It’s a high risk, high reward scenario, though, and we aren’t yet sure if Ballard is willing to take that big of a risk.
That said, there may be a path to moving into the early part of the first round if Detroit is willing to sell.
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