4 worst trades in Indianapolis Colts history
3. Colts move up and get Jeff George
In 1990, Indianapolis native Jeff George was entering the NFL draft. It was time to bring the player who won two state championships for Warren Central High School home.
This was a costly mistake, though. The Colts had to send both OT Chris Hinton and WR Andre Rison to the Atlanta Falcons to obtain the first-overall pick in the draft that year.
In his six years on the Colts, Hinton had been a five-time Pro Bowler and selected to be a second-team All-Pro twice. Once traded to the Falcons, he was selected to one Pro Bowl and was a first-team All-Pro in 1993. He played for Atlanta for five seasons.
Rison only played for the Colts his rookie season before being shipped off to the Falcons. In that season, he was second in voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year. He received one vote against Barry Sanders who received the other 69 votes. In that season, he started 13 of the 16 games he played in. Rison had 52 receptions for 820 yards and four touchdowns.
For the Falcons, he became a four-time Pro Bowler and was selected to one first-team All-Pro team and three second-team All-Pro teams. In 1995, he moved onto Cleveland and a few other teams.
George on the other hand was not nearly as successful. He played for just four seasons before being traded to Atlanta in 1994. For those calculating the time periods for each of these three players, all three played in Atlanta in 1994.
In the trade the Colts made in 1994 to send Jeff George to the Falcons, they received a 1994 first-round, 1996 first-round, and a 1994 third-round pick.
The Colts traded the 1994 picks to move up and select Trev Alberts with the fifth-overall pick. That was just two picks after selecting Marshall Faulk.
The first-round pick in 1996, the Colts took Marvin Harrison. So I guess Indianapolis got something out of this. Harrison went on to be a Hall of Famer, something which Rison never did. This was the one bright side of this entire trade history between the Colts and Falcons.
On the Colts, George had a career record of 14-35 and had a 41:47 touchdown to interception ratio. Not a great look. Not only did he play for the Falcons, but played for the Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings, and the then Washington Redskins as a backup for most of those years.