We've officially hit draft week and in just a few days, the future of the Indianapolis Colts will be a bit more clear under new head coach Shane Steichen.
Many teams do hit big in the NFL Draft each year and are among the best in the business. However, some teams fail year after year and are always picking in the top five picks of each draft. Some of the most historic franchises that frequently find themselves in the top five every season include the Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and often one of the two New York teams.
Since the 1998 draft, where the Colts selected Peyton Manning first overall, the Colts have not regularly been this high in the draft. In fact, since then, the Colts have drafted first just once (Andrew Luck '12), third (traded back to No. 6 to draft Quenton Nelson), and now fourth overall in this year's draft.
Now you could say this is Chris Ballard's fault because we've been bad enough to be top five twice during his tenure. This is the first chance he will get at drafting his quarterback, so I will give him a break.
The trade back from three to six was a dream scenario for the Colts. The New York Jets gave a plethora of picks away to move up three spots to draft Sam Darnold in that draft. In hindsight, I imagine they wish they would have stayed at six considering Josh Allen was selected 7th overall.
In that trade, Ballard was able to get an additional three second-round picks in the 2018 and 2019 NFL drafts. With one of the second-round picks in 2018, the Colts selected Braden Smith and then traded the other to the Philadelphia Eagles. In return from the Eagles, they received the 52nd and 169th overall picks where they selected Kemoko Turay and Jordan Wilkins. In 2019, the extra second round pick was used to select Rock Ya-Sin, who was later traded for Yannick Ngakoue.
So what is the dream scenario in this year's NFL Draft? Is it moving up or back in the first round for a franchise changing amount of picks in the draft to build a dynasty? Is it as simple as making the perfect picks that results in championships? Let’s take a look.