If you’re the kind of football fan who likes mock drafts, this is a great time of year. Unless your team does not have a first-round pick. The Indianapolis Colts currently do not have a first-round pick. They traded it as part of the deal that brought Sauce Gardner to town last season.
As such, the Colts are one of four teams that, barring a trade, can take the first day of the draft off. Atlanta, Green Bay, and Jacksonville are the others. They came away with James Pearce, Micah Parsons, and Travis Hunter in exchange for their picks. (The Falcons and Jags’ trades involved other assets as well.)
So, fans of those four teams are kind of sitting on the bench, at least in terms of all the mocks that are beginning to flood the market. Because this is early in the process, almost everyone doing a mock is focusing exclusively on round one.
Fans of the Cowboys, Rams, Browns, and Jets can all be excited (That would be a qualified excitement in those last two cases.) They have two first-round picks and can double the fun when reading through the mocks.
Indianapolis Colts go for a high-ceiling linebacker in new mock draft
However, thanks to The Athletic, Colts fans can get into the game, at least to a small degree. Nick Baumgardner and Scott Dochterman recently released a two-round mock. And with the 47th pick in the 2026 NFL draft, they have Chris Ballard selecting Cincinnati linebacker Jake Golday.
It’s an intriguing pick, and I can’t say I like it. But I really should qualify that opinion by admitting that with exception of likely first-rounders and a handful of other miscellaneous prospects, I haven’t personally watched most of the draft class. That goes for Golday. I have read up on him and watched a few highlight reels, but that usually provides a superficial perception of a player.
Golday has the physical tools to be a plus linebacker in the NFL. He combines excellent length with a long stride and very good closing speed. He looks even taller than his 6’4” frame. He moves well laterally for a man of his height. He may not have the bulk at this point to deal with play in the middle, but as a weakside linebacker, where he can blitz, drop into coverage, and chase down ballcarriers from the back, he could really shine.
The risk is that his tall, relatively light frame (239 pounds) may not be able to stand up to NFL linemen. His burst and straight-line speed are excellent. But does he have the anchor to hold his ground in the pros?
The other potential issue is his relative lack of experience at the upper levels of the FBS. He began as a defensive end at FCS Central Arkansas before playing his final two years at Cincinnati. He does have a lot of football under his belt, but we have not seen him playing against elite competition often.
In a way, Golday reminds me of Jamin Davis, the physically-gifted Kentucky linebacker who flamed out as the first-round pick in Washington a few years ago.
None of that means Chirs Ballard should not take him as early as round two. But it does seem a little high to me.
The concern here is that a pick like Golday is a bit of a reach based on need. If Ballard is convinced Golday is a future star, that shouldn’t matter. But if he is elevating him over several other more reliably high-impact players because the Colts have a very thin linebacking corps, that is a mistake that good teams don’t make.
After Zaire Franklin and Germaine Pratt, Indianapolis has nothing but question marks at linebacker. Pratt is a pending free agent. Franklin had an up-and-down 2025, though he did play better after Pratt joined him.
Even if Pratt re-signs and Franklin bounces back, the Colts need depth. Perhaps Jaylon Carlies can return to form after an injury-plagued 2025. That remains a question.
So the Colts need help at the position and Golday has a very high upside. Sounds like a good pick.
Maybe it would be. But in that Athletic mock draft, there are a couple of players still on the board who I think have similar ceilings with a little more certainty. The most obvious one is Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter.
Hunter has 52 FBS games under his belt and has been a consistently powerful force on the interior of the line over the last three seasons. Is defensive tackle a position of need for the Colts? That depends on what DeForest Buckner decides about his future. If he returns, then Indianapolis doesn’t need an interior lineman as much as they may need other positions.
But that should not matter. Hunter would be a valuable addition from day one, whether he steps into a starting role or becomes a rotational player.
In the second round, Chris Ballard needs to make sure he gets a player who will contribute at a high level for years to come. That requirement is heightened due to the lack of a first-round pick, but it would have been true regardless.
If a player like Jake Golday is really deemed to be the surest thing, it is a perfectly reasonable pick. If he is elevated out of need, it’s a mistake.