Colts: Chris Ballard should target team’s three biggest needs with these moves
By Jerry Trotta
1. Draft a Cornerback
Regardless of their offseason moves, the Colts should target a CB in the draft.
To their credit, the Colts did incredibly well to retain the likes of Xavier Rhodes and TJ Carrie, both of whom seemed poised to leave in free agency this offseason. However, those moves didn’t do much to change the fact that they still have a pressing need at cornerback.
After all, two-year starter Rock Ya-Sin looked anything but the part last season, as he struggled with penalties and logged a lousy 48.2 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus. As a result, the 2019 second-rounder saw his playing time reduced down the stretch of the regular season.
While we rate both Carrie and Kenny Moore’s coverage skills, it goes without saying that both players are better served defending the slot. In other words, the Colts could be in for more struggles on the perimeter if they don’t take a cornerback in next week’s draft.
Assuming they trade for Brown and sign Houston, Indy can forget targeting a left tackle or pass rusher in the first round and focus their attention on one of the top cornerback prospects.
The latest projections indicate that Patrick Surtain will be off the board early, but there’s a real chance that Jaycee Horn, Caleb Farley, Greg Newsome II could be available at No. 21 overall. If that happens, the Colts couldn’t justify bypassing the opportunity to draft one of them.
While the draft is largely a crap shoot considering that you never know which prospects will pan out, both Horn and Farley have the requisite intangibles to start from Day 1 as rookies (while Newsome could take some time to learn alongside Rhode and Carrie), making them a perfect fit for the cornerback-needy Colts.
