Ballard’s draft record
 

A theme amongst Ballard’s detractors has seemed to have emerged…that he doesn’t draft well. Let’s look at that.

2018
Quenton Nelson
Shaq Leonard
Braden Smith
Zaire Franklin
Tyquan Lewis

Nelson will be in the Hall Of Fame. Leonard would have been. Braden Smith has been a bookend RT from the day he stepped onto the field. Zaire Franklin was a tackling machine and a pro bowler. Tyquan was serviceable.

2019
Rock Ya Sin
Parris Campbell
Bobby Okereke
EJ Speed

Rock is starting for the Lions. Campbell had all the talent in the world. Bobby is starting for the Giants. Speed for the hated Texans.

2020
Michael Pittman Jr
Jonathan Taylor

Pittman is a upper echelon Receiver. Taylor is the best Running Back in the league.

2021
Will Fries

2021 was slim pickings. Ballard seemed determined to find an edge guy, so he rolled the dice with Paye and Odeyingbo. A small amount of redemption came in round 7 when he found Will Fries.

2022
Alec Pierce
Jelani Woods
Bernhard Raimann
Nick Cross

If 2021 was a bad year, ‘22 was a home run. In Pierce, he found a home run hitter who has developed into one of the best receivers in the league. Jelani gets mentioned because of the immense talent short circuited by injury. Bernard is a bookend Left Tackle. Cross is a stalwart in the back end.

2023
Anthony Richardson
JuJu Brents
Josh Downs

Richardson was a roll of the dice at Quarterback. He still has time, but the sands are running out. JuJu makes the list because saying Juju makes me happy. And Downs is the consummate slot receiver.

2024
Laiatu Latu
Adonai Mitchell
Matt Goncalves
Tanor Bortoloni
Jaylon Carlies

Latu is one of PFF’s top 10 edge players, racking up 11 sacks and 61 pressures. Adonai has all pro tools wrapped up in a fool’s head. He single handedly cost us a win. Goncalves and Bortoloni are cornerstones on the line. Carlies might be an answer at Linebacker.


2025
Tyler Warren
Justin Walley
Jalen Travis
Riley Leonard

Tyler is emerging into an elite TE. Walley looks legit at Corner. Travis might be a bookend RT forbthe next decade. And Riley Leonard opened a few eyes on Sunday.

After a decade on the job, Ballard has built a roster with only two holes…DE and cover Linebacker. This year’s draft is reportedly rich at Linebacker, so given his track record at the position, I expect him to fill the spot in round 2. At Defensive End, i suspect that the Irsay girls will slice off a chunk of money and give Ballard the latitude to sign the top guy on his wish lisy at DE.

Kray- you are under no obligation to disclose this, but there is general interest about your level of compensation as Ballard's internet message board PR associate.

He has built a team with 'no holes' and no impact players. Just a bunch of average to slightly above average player. Shit the 3 best players on defense we have we didn't even evaluate and draft. Nobody outside of hard core Colt fans think any of these picks are all proish, except maybe a guard and a running back. He did nail it his first year here, been so long I almost forgot.

The thing is that I don’t care if Dave from Denver or Andy from Albuquerque or Eugene from, well, Eugene doesn’t know jack squat about the Colt’s lineup. I don’t expect anyone but Colt fans, die hard or not, to be even passingly familiar with the likes of Bernhard Raimann or Zaire Franklin. Heck, the only reason that the guy from CBS who does play by play on Sunday knows anything is because CBS has a legion of producers who do a deep dive from Monday to Wednesday.

For all of its shortcomings, if you’re looking for a non biased opinion on talent, you can’t do much better than PFF. Their take is that 14 Colts starters receive grades higher than 70. They are:

Daniel Jones 71.7
Jonathan Taylor. 78.6
Bernhard Raimann. 82.0
Quenton Nelson. 84.5
Tanot Bortoloni. 82.6
Jalen Travis. 72.2
Josh Downs. 77.1
Alec pierce. 79.3
Michael Pittman. 70.4
Laiatu Latu 84.1
DeForest Buckner 74.0
Sauce Gardner. 76.9
Charvarius Ward 77.1
Cam Bynum. 70.3

5 players
rated higher than 79.3.

The seahawks have 15.higher than 70, 5 higher than 80.
The Jags have 11 in the 70’s and 3 who crack 80.
For Houston, 7 and 3

Impact players include Daniel Jones, Jonathan Taylor, Alec Pierce, DeForest Buckner, Quenton Nelson, Sauce Gardner and Charvarius Ward. In addition, even though I know it’ll stoke great disagreement, they say Latu is a top 10 edge player.

I wouldn't include guys who had very little impact or a negative impact for the Colts as successful draft picks. This would include Campbell, Woods, Brents, Mitchell, Carlies, and Walley.

Also, some of your comments are inaccurate or lacking nuance. For example:

Rock - Part time starter for the Lions (6 games), so a backup there. He basically became a journeyman backup. So not a terrible pick, but didn't live up to where he was drafted.

Speed - Again, a part time starter (9 games for HOU). Good value for a day 3 pick, but not the stud you make him out to be. Also, think I should point out that he tied w/ Franklin for 3rd in the league in missed tackles in '24 before we let him walk.

Latu - Where are you getting that he had 11 sacks this year? I'm seeing 8.5. Which isn't bad, but doesn't live up to where he was drafted. If he keeps improving maybe he'll get there.

I'm with you in that I could care less what other football fans think. I could also care less what PFF thinks unless their opinion get you wins. To me the best and most fair evaluation of the roster is the teams record. It has zero 'opinion' in it and is 100% factual based. I am not looking for a GM in love with rating like PFF or RAS scores. I would like one looking to 'just win baby'. If we were winning with the players Ballard drafted all this would be moot. The only reason this is an issue is all these franchises we used to laugh at have multiple AFC South titles since Ballard got here and we have zero. It sucks

PFF credits him with 11. The difference is that they give full credit for half sacks, which makes sense to me. He got to the Quarterback 11 times, and that’s all that counts.

Also, at no point did I imply that Speed is a stud.

It may be fair to evaluate a team based on record, but not when Philip Rivers or Riley Leonard is lined up under Center, not when your Quarterback is playing with a broken leg. The Colts played 7 games after Jones broke his leg. They lost 5 of them by a combined 16 points.

So what I’m hearing is he just needs another year and then this a championship contending roster? If it’s not then what? One more year?

I feel like it’s about the 5th yr in a row I’ve heard that from Ballard supporters. I pray this time you guys are right.

The thing I can’t understand is why do you want such an unlucky guy as your GM? I mean the results speak for themselves. There is no opinion in the results. Straight facts. So if he’s as good as you say, then he’s obviously extremely unlucky. We aren’t talking one season here. He’s been here for almost a decade. I personally would prefer to keep the bad luck away from the team.

This is totally fair if you judge just on this year. We have 9 years wihl all sorts of reasons we are middling. However, listening to our owner I believe she sides with you on this.