The Indianapolis Colts entered the bye-week with a win against the Kansas City Chiefs, a feat no one had done up until that point. Even with the win while lacking on defense, the Colts still have some holes they need to shore up in the upcoming draft and free agency period.
Chris Ballard has made some strong draft picks in recent years. Those picks include, Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, Khari Willis, and Marlon Mack; all players important to the current roster. But even as successful as the Colts have been this season, they do still need help at a few positions mainly wide receiver and defensive line.
T.Y. Hilton is the only receiver on this team that is a threat at this point. Sure, Jack Doyle and Eric Ebron are great pass catchers, but they don’t play much on the outside and are more matchup plays. The Colts looked to bolster this position with the signing of Devin Funchess to a one-year contract in the offseason but in week 1 against the Chargers, he went down with a collarbone injury and isn’t expected to return anytime soon.
Even on defense, the defensive line is the weakest point for this team, and so is the secondary which lacks the depth to it. You wouldn’t know it by the way they played last Sunday night against the Chiefs, but the Colts defense has zero depth to it at the defensive line and secondary positions. The team has looked to such players as Trevon Coley who they signed from the Browns practice squad last week.
The defense has been a historical issue for the Colts, but in recent years Chris Ballard has made sure to invest money and draft picks into the offensive line and defense first. Also, the Andrew Luck retirement hits everyone in the feels who is a Colts fan, but the good news is the Colts now have an extra $25 million in cap room every year – there’s an upside to everything, I guess.
The Colts have 9 draft picks in 2020, including a first-round pick, two second-round-picks (one from Washington), one third, fourth, and fifth, and seventh-round with two sixth-round picks (one from the Jets). Presumably, the Colts will finish the season as a contender, or at least a wild-card playoff team so we can assume they will be picking in the bottom third of the draft (picks 24-32). With that said, here is my mock draft for the Colts in 2020.
The Colts defensive line is one of the weaknesses of this team. The Colts brought back NT Margus Hunt on a two-year contract in the offseason worth $10 million. While he has a cheap price, he hasn’t been performing as well as I’d like him to. Denico Autry has been the force at the defensive tackle position with 2.5 sacks on the season and a career total of 22.
Pro-football Focus rates Denico Autry at an overall of 74.2 with a pass rush skill of 70 and a run defense of 67. While nothing special in terms of skill, Autry and Hunt are working together as a team. However, this team could use more than one pass-rushing nose tackle. This is where Derrick Brown comes into play. For his size, he’s extremely fast and agile. He can penetrate behind the line and can also rush the passer. At 6’5″, nearly 320 pounds, the senior decided to stay in school for one more year.
However talented he is, some are saying he can make the top 10 in the 2020 NFL draft, and if that’s the case the Colts could trade one of the second-round picks they have and a first to move up the board to take him at possibly 8-12.
Brown will have some weaknesses as well. He tends to not use his size to his advantage, something NFL guards and centers will have no problem with taking advantage of. Given Matt Eberflus’ talent at pulling skills out of anyone, I don’t see how Brown won’t be a good fit for the Colts defense. Brown would Join a defensive unit that has improved over the past few years under the team of Frank Reich and Matt Eberflus.
Shenault is a receiver who doesn’t have many touchdowns, but he’s a possession receiver. The 6’2″, 220-pound receiver is also a big body. The Colts offense is lacking in a big threat receiver in the red-zone besides the tight-end Doyle and Ebron.
Shenault can help with that. PFF ranks him in the top 10 players of the draft, but his recent injury can cause his draft value to drop. Not only that but playing on a Colorado team that lacks wins won’t help either. In his sophomore season, he caught 86 passes for 1,011 yards and 5 touchdowns with 29 tackles missed as well.
Shenault will join a team that needs an outside threat which has mostly speed on the team. Deon Cain and Parris Campbell are both speed receivers combined with another speed receiver of T.Y. Hilton. The only possession guy they have is Eric Ebron, but the Colts have been putting Jack Doyle on most of the snaps with 253 to Ebron’s 175.
It’s important the Colts have a second option at wide receiver who is fast, agile, and a big target in the end zone. On contested catches, he converted 8 of 9 last year, showing he knows how to catch the ball in traffic. He’s a dynamic player in that he can play outside, inside, or in the slot too. About 50% of his yards came from the slot position.
However, his weakness is his route running ability. With only 35 of his 108 targets coming over 10 yards and has struggled to get open in zone coverage. He still has some work to be done to develop him, but he’s a good weapon for the Colts to draft.
Weaver is a powerful defensive end for the Boise State Broncos. The third-year edge rusher has had ups and downs in his career. However, the Colts need more pass-rushers. Justin Houston is a player with a lot left in the tank, but he’s aging.
Curtis Weaver played 90% of his snaps in 2018 outside the tackles. At 6’3″ and 264 pounds, he’s very fast for his size. 2018 was his best season with a total of 507 snaps with 12 quarterback hits and 12 sacks. The Long Beach, California native has a PFF overall grade of 91.2 with nearly a 93 pass-rush overall with a 77.7 rush-defense grade. What’s most impressive about him is his 30% pass-rush winning percentage.
Weaver also played both sides of the ball in high school. He’s extremely fast and can rush up the field quickly. However, his weakness is gap control and setting the edge. He can get off quick but against rush-blocking offensive tackles and swinging guards, he has a hard time getting leverage and getting underneath the tackles to push them back.
He also only has one move with the swat move and lacked elite college level tackles leading to ballooned production and also has a hard time against doubles. Even with his weaknesses, Weaver will be a steal in the second round.
If it’s anything we’ve learned this year with the Colts, it’s the depth of the secondary needs some work. The Colts could get a great player in the third round in Gladney. The senior at TCU played most of his snaps on the outside rather than the slot.
The Colts have Kenny Moore III so I’m not looking for a slot corner. I’m looking for a corner that will fit in the Colts zone cover-2 defense. A little underweight at 183 and only 6’0 tall, I wouldn’t let his size take away from his coverage ability. In 2018 he played a total of 885 snaps, with 703 in 2017 and 657 in 2016. He has a lot of experience than some of the other corners in his grade like Shyeim Carter who only played 170 snaps between 2016 and ’17.
Gladney not only has a lot of experience but has a knack for finding the ball. His coverage rating is 88, the college average is 61, and a quarterback rating of 45.6 when they targeted him. Out of his 885 snaps, 802 were played on the outside which means he follows the #1 receiver around the field and locks them down with a 45 QBR against his receiver while only allowing 1 touchdown against him with 2 interceptions.
Out of 71 targets, only 27 were caught with a 38% competition percentage for opposing quarterbacks. His strengths are his speed, running an unofficial 4.38 40-yard-dash, has quick feet in press-coverage, and has only committed 6 penalties in his nearly 2,250 snaps. However, he doesn’t have a lot of strength to take on NFL receivers like Julio Jones who are big-bodied and because of that, his arm-bar doesn’t slow receivers down. Even with those cons, his third-round projection would lead to lots of production for a Colts defense that needs more depth.
Woodward is a coverage linebacker who has the incredible tackling ability. He reminds me of Kuechly when he was in his college days. Woodward is always around the ball when the player tackled. Even going as far as swinging out wide against a tight end and covering running backs out of the backfield.
In 2018 his overall grade was 92.4 after playing nearly 800 snaps (788). He had 79 solo tackles and 39 assists with most of his snaps coming on either run-defense or coverage. His tackling grade is 90.9 with only 7 missed tackles in 788 snaps – less than 1%.
His pass-rushing grade is weak at 62.2 but the Colts don’t ask their linebackers to blitz that much – if they do it’s usually Leonard. I’ve been begging the Colts for years to find a run-stopper and tackler who can tackle anything that comes his way.
Woodward can be that person. What’s most impressive about him is his awareness. He can take on a blocker without ever losing sight of the ball carrier and always knows where the ball is on the field.
His burst of explosive speed makes his run defense very strong, but he isn’t’ asked to do much in the simple Utah defense, which brings down his skill level a little bit, and he tends to be aggressive on the play actions which can cause him to lose sight of receivers on the crossing patterns. Even with his flaws, coverage and run-stopping linebackers could do well in the Colts system with Eberflus.
Richie Grant is a safety that has playmaking ability. He’s very fast but can over-pursue at some times. His angle taking isn’t strong, but he has great tackling ability. Not to mention he’s a deep coverage safety which is what the Colts need in their defense.
Grant played nearly 1,000 snaps in 2018 with 951 so the experience isn’t an issue, but rather physical skills. Starting his first year in 2018 he was a strength and a weakness for the team. Some games he’d make the play to win the game and others he’d lose the game on a play.
However, he logged 92 tackles on the season and proved to be a tackling monster with only 13 assists. On 92 snaps he did miss 14 tackles with an over 10% whiff rate which is high among safeties.
However, he doesn’t bite on double moves and always keeps his eyes on the quarterback. He doesn’t fall for pump fakes either when in coverage, which is an asset to any team. With 3 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles, he makes plays when he needs to, but missed tackles are a liability for the team. He also lacks in slot coverage skills while sometimes slipping and losing his footing. Overall, Grant could be a great pick up for the Colts in the fifth round if he falls there.
Niang is a run-blocking, right-tackle for TCU. Looking for depth in the last few rounds, Niang could come in and provide depth to an offensive line that’s one of the best in the NFL right now. In 2018 he played 885 snaps and all of them were at right tackle.
With 417 pass snaps and 468 run snaps, he only allowed 3 hits and 7 hurries. He can lock down the right side on pass-blocking and can move defenders out of the gaps in the running game.
His run blocking grade is a 75 with his pass blocking at 86 with nearly 300 snaps coming on zone blocking rather than man blocking. At 6’7″, 328 pounds, he can get out of his stance much faster than most tackles, even some at his size.
However, his weakness is his stance and footwork. He can tend to stay on his heels and get pushed around a little by defensive ends who use the bull rush. His height is a weakness and an advantage for him.
Rico Bussey is a receiver with a lot of potentials. He’s got size at 6’2″ and a speedy frame at 192 pounds. The North Texas receiver caught 12 touchdowns last year on 68 receptions with over 1,000 yards receiving with a 15 yards per catch average. With 11 catches of 20 or more yards, 371 of his yards came on said plays. He also had 5.8 yards after catch average with 11 broken tackles.
However, his weakness is his dropping percentage at nearly 13% over the course of his career at North Texas with consistent body catching rather than using his hands and he requires a little bit of time to set up routes. Late round draft picks are always a work in progress and Bussey is no exception to this.
Going back to the first-round pick of this draft, the Colts defensive line is probably their weakest point in this draft. With aging players and players who aren’t playing to their potential, Williams could be a good pick up for the depth on the line.
What’s important about him is he’s a run-stopper. With a run-stopping grade of 90, the Colts could use his skills to help stop the run more and get the opposing offense off the field. With only 2 sacks on 607 snaps, you can tell his strength is on run defense.
However, his weaknesses are obviously on pass-rushing, but all of his non-coaching abilities are below average. He also has an issue getting off blocks, but he can set an edge and force the runner inside of the tackles. He’s also projected as a 3-4 defensive end first, but he can play in the 4-3 lineup at a defensive tackle. Being only 6’4″, 298 pounds, he lacks the size of other players at his positions in the NFL.
It may seem early to start talking about next year’s draft, but this is what the scouts do year-round. It’s never too early to look at possible new talent.