Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwaysSunnyinIndy
But was that emotion (both disappointment and happiness) related to being able to draft a new QB1 in general or specifically AR?
Midway through the 2022 season, the Colts went into tank mode to try to get the highest draft pick as possible. That pick turned out to be #4. There were 3 QB's (Stroud, Young and Richardson) that many thought would be worth to draft at #4. All of those QB's had weaknesses in their profile / game so the Colts decided to stay put at #4 and (hopefully) pick the leftover from that group...assuming that they didn't get drafted at #1, #2 and #3.
Just think...if another team would have swooped in and drafted Richardson at #3...that would have really screwed up Ballard's weekend. What was their backup plan? Reach and draft Levis at #4? Trade back and accumulate more picks and hope to pick up Levis later in the first round? Draft BPA at #4 and hope to pick up Levis later (even though they spent 2 months tanking to draft a QB)
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I read this morning and I planned to come back and post the exact same thing. I always saw the exhale as a response to a non-QB team trading up which meant QB3 was still available... not necessarily that AR was available.
Ballard has felt this roster was a decent (not spectacular) QB away for year after year, and threw darts at the board year after year with reclamation vets. Some darts were better than others. Rivers was like a double-20, Wentz was like a 14, and Ryan got stuck in the wall to off to the right (and he fumbled).
Then the pressure and realism of where '22 was going to land them in the draft led them to ditch that approach.
And eventually, after banging their head against the wall for two years with the premium draft pick... they went back to the reclamation vet dart board. Halfway through the season, it's been a bullseye.