Colts Draft: Review, Grades and In-Depth Analysis
By Dave McKee
Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
The 2015 NFL Draft is now behind us and for most football fans and writers, it is now the day after Christmas and we must now accept that there are still 123 days until the Thursday Night Football 8:30 pm kickoff on September 3rd featuring the Steelers and Patriots.
This will be the first of the two dates in the entire season that a Colts fans looks forward to a Patriots game. The second being in week six on October 18th when the Colts host the Patriots, and every Colts fan awaits Indianapolis impending redemption against Brady, Belichick and their gang.
One might ask why am I talking about the [expletive delete] Patriots in a Colts Draft review. Well that’s easy because the Indianapolis Colts added the pieces to close the gap on the Patriots and in my humble opinion are ready to usurp the defending Super Bowl Champions. The Colts raised a few eyebrows by making some controversial selections and even managed to stump NFL Draft Guru Mike Mayock with their seventh round selection. Overall, the Colts did well enough to make even the Dark Lord of the Sith, Bill Belichick want to cringe.
The Colts did not overwhelm the pundits, analysts, and fans with super star selections, nor did they adhere to the big boards of the draft analysts. This is evident from my previous article highlighting the first round scenarios and who would be available at the end of the first round. Instead of selecting the Strong Safety, Inside Linebacker, Offensive Tackle, Nose Tackle or Running Back everyone wanted, the Colts followed their own big board and stuck to what they and their scouts knew.
Starting on Thursday night and throughout the 3-day event, the Colts relied heavily on their familiar talent pipelines. General Manager Ryan Grigson and Head Coach Chuck Pagano reached back into the well several times selecting players from three Florida universities including Miami (#29), FAU (#65) and UCF (#109). Not to be outdone, the Indianapolis Colts’ Stanford alumni club which includes Offensive Coordinator Pep Hamilton, Andrew Luck, Coby Fleener, and Griff Whalen added two additional members (#91 & #151).