To me, it is all about wins. If sweat gets 15 sacs but we win the Super Bowl or even get close I'm good with it. This is how Ballard runs his draft. Every GM has misses. His way of thinking got us Nelson/Leonard and also traded out of 26. This is a damn good front office. My money is on us 'winning' this trade

I certainly wouldn't bet against them and they've undoubtedly earned our trust. And as I've said to Dam, we have absolutely no idea how the Colts doctors interpreted Sweat's condition.

All I'm saying is that I think there's a realistic probability that we look back in 2-3 years and second-guess the decision with hindsight. I'm not saying that's the most likely outcome, just that it's something I'm interested in keeping an eye on.

Kiper and McShay we’re both on ESPN radio this morning. They both loved the Colts draft. Just about everyone did. Some interesting things mentioned:

• Kiper said we nailed our first five picks
• Everyone agreed Ballard just gets the draft and knows what to do.
• 16-70 most people had the players rated similarly so trading down was a good idea bc you didn’t lose value but also gain a second in the next draft. Said you really had to nitpick the players to create any separation between them in this draft.
• Willis was his number 50 rated player and was a good value
• Mcshay was pushing Kiper’s buttons and Kiper made the bold predictions of the Raiders getting 10 wins and the Colts representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.

How I see this draft. I think we wanted to improve dline but Sweat was the only guy there and they weren’t willing to gamble on his heart. They only liked the top guys for dline so when none were there they traded down. They concentrated on speed, character, and length. They wanted to get faster and longer on the back end. I think Ballard saw the QBs we would face this year and wanted to get better and faster at the second level. All these guys are versatile and will move around different spots. Sub packages will feature a lot of these guys. This will allow Eberflus to get more creative in his defensive strategy and you guys know what he can already do just last year. Expect to see some more exotic packages and strategies. Say a passing down you could have Turay, Autry, Leonard, Banagu, Gellis, Okereke, and Speed our there in the front seven. Who is going to rush and who is going to drop into coverage?

The biggest help will be the speed and length, just getting more stops will help the team overall and allow our oline to wear down the other team’s defense. And the addition of Campbell should give us yac machine who has a chance to score on every touch. Even if he does all the jet screens and other short throws we did last year. He still has room to grow as s receiver too.

I agree with you. To bad we don't know each other personally. I'd love to make a side bet (one guy pays for the super bowl tickets-colts of course), wait two years and maybe have Omaha make the decision as to who won the trade.

The Colts doctors are the ones at IU Sports Med. I have a family member who works with the doctors thoughout the IU Med system, and these people know their stuff. The doctors and residence of IU Med School are the people giving the phyicals and reading the scans and tests. IF they told me I had a heart condition, I would believe them and let them treat me. Oh, wait, that actually happened.

If the combine doctors found a problem, I would want my own doctors to see the guy before I drafted him. Just saying.

I won’t look back. Backwards looking keeps you in fear. You have to keep going forward with what you have and ignore the misses. Just like a QB who throws a pick. You have to shake it off and learn from it.

Heard an interesting thing on radio today. Rams wanted to draft Hines last year and we grabbed him a few picks before. So they drafted Henderson this year, interesting how things fall and influence each other. Also means Hones would have been in the Super Bowl. Maybe he would have been the difference and beat the pats since Gurly was injured.

They very well may have misdiagnosed him, it happens. I suspect his past characters issues combined with uncertainty with his heart made him less appealing to Ballard at 26, vs getting a shot at 2 guys with by trading back.

That's a great way to never learn anything. Reflecting on mistakes and the reasons they were made can help you grow, while reflecting on successes can help you learn to maximize them moving forward.

What's more is that we already know that Ballard agrees with me. He said that he did a lot of reflecting after Zach Banner didn't pan out and has made a conscious effort not to make that same mistake again.

Yep, I'm sure his reflection went like this (I'll never trust a damn thing Pagano tells me when evaluating a player.)