Speaking of draft and such, found this on Reddit, whoever wrote this must be crazy, in the sense of the scope and detail in this. Puts Kiper to shame. Anyway it includes analysis of each teams needs and a breakdown of the FO, their tendencies and statements. Then he mapped out free agency and the draft for each team. Interesting and completely sensible picks for the Colts.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...24/mobilebasic
I will paste in the Colts relevant bits.
Free agency:
Za’Darius Smith: Indianapolis Colts - I have the Ravens making the very difficult but cost-based decision to bring back Suggs and let Smith go and the Colts say thank you very much and they pounce. The playoff loss to the Chiefs was a microcosm of their issues - they can’t get any pressure on the QB. Well they’ve got a shitload of cap space and it says here they try and remedy that issue in the short-term (see below), the medium-term (with Smith) and the long-term (via the draft). This is the time - and the year - to get help at the edge.
Justin Houston: Indianapolis Colts (Trade) - The Chiefs are on the verge of cutting Houston outright, though frankly I think they’ve leaked that info so the NFL world knows hey, this guy’s available. Send us your offers. Well the Colts have the cap space to afford him, the dire need, and if he doesn’t pan out they can move on pretty easily from him after this year. Plus Ballard should be plenty familiar with him. He’ll shift to a true end position in the Colts 4-3 and I think it might do him wonders, I always thought he was better suited for it. I have them giving up the 130th pick in the 4th round for Houston though I could see it being slightly lower than that, the Chiefs won’t have a lot of options if they want to clear out Houston’s cap space. They might just take a fifth rounder. But for our purposes we’ll call it a fourth, he’s a steal at that compensation under most circumstances.
Draft:
26. Indianapolis Colts: Renell Wren, DT, Arizona State - I have a feeling a lot of Colts fans will hate this pick and demand I go WR but I have some issues with that. For starters, Chris Ballard has never been a part of an FO that drafted a WR early. The earliest was probably Alshon Jeffery in the 2nd round back when Ballard was in Chicago, but otherwise it’s been FAs and later-round guys. Also everything coming out of his mouth this offseason points to the idea that he likes the Colts WR corps more than the fans do, and I expect that’s especially true now that I’ve had him bring in Tyrell Williams. But he loves Deon Cain and likes Inman too (who I expect them to bring back), not to mention Daurice Fountain. Lastly I think Ballard knows they need to get heat on the QB. They’ve paid Za’Darius Smith and traded for Justin Houston in FA so they’ve got a lot of help on the edge, but the interior of their line is lacking. So, on Wren.... It’s seems way too high now but it won’t by draft day, he’s just too traitsy, and we know Ballard likes his traitsy guys as evidenced by his drafting of Kemeko Turay in the second last year. In fact Turay’s instructive... a guy with all the tools but up-and-down production. That’s Wren too. In fact Wren’s up-and-down production might be more excusable given there’s a better reason for it: his role at Arizona State was to occupy blockers, which is ridiculous for a man with his skill-set. I see him comped to Chris Jones a lot and I agree with that. Well Ballard was in Kansas City when they drafted Chris Jones, I have the strong suspicion he’s gonna see a lot of the latter in the former. I think it’s pretty clear he’s gonna test like a monster for a man his size, the only question is whether or not he can take the inconsistencies in his game and turn them into strengths the way Jones did.
59. Indianapolis Colts: Dre’Mont Jones, DT, Ohio State - Why not double-up on one of the remarkably few positions of need on the Indy roster? The Colts struggled mightily to get pressure on opposing QBs last year, now they’ve brought in Justin Houston, Za’Darius Smith, Renell Wren and Dre’Mont Jones, Holdovers Kemoko Turay and Tyquan Lewis should improve, Margus Hunt was already great... they’re going to have it Philly-style, wave after wave of unstoppable pressure. Jones struggles to hold up in the run game but I expect him to add weight (he played light at Ohio State last year) and if you want to get pressure from the interior there’s not a lot of guys out there with his skills. He wreaks havoc, and he’s got sideline-to-sideline speed. From the interior of the line! It’s bonkers watching him chase some of the running backs down, they almost never pull away from him. I think the Colts are gonna like him.