There has been a litany of grades coming out over the past week as the after-effect of the 2022 NFL draft spreads across rosters.
While grading the process for the draft just days after serves a purpose in terms of looking at how the process played out during the moment, it doesn’t truly matter because the results of the decisions that were made will be what helps teams find success this season and beyond.
Put me in the camp of not knowing who a player is or on his way to being until his third season in the league.
We are now three years away from the 2019 NFL draft and I think it’s a good time to look back and see how Chris Ballard did:
First round trade out
The Indianapolis Colts have only selected one player in the first round over the past four draft classes, which was in 2021 with Kwity Paye.
2020 was traded for DeForest Buckner and the pick in the 2022 class was in the deal for Carson Wentz. The rare appearances on Day 1 started in 2019 when Chris Ballard traded the No. 26 pick to the now Washington Commanders’ No. 46 pick and a 2020 second-round pick.
That No. 46 pick was then traded to the Cleveland Browns for their No. 49 pick (Ben Banogu) and the No. 144 pick (Marvell Tell). This trade ended up giving Indianapolis little to no impact. I will discuss the players later on but long story short, both have hardly any production, and their future on the roster is up in the air.
While that part of the process does leave a major dent in the grade of the decision to trade out of the first round, it didn’t leave the Colts completely empty-handed from the deal. They just didn’t see the payoff until they used the acquired 2020 second-round pick from Washington and selected Michael Pittman Jr. in that draft.
Indianapolis does have their WR1 entering this season from the move get to Day 1 of the draft but the purpose of the exercise is looking at the 2019 class, not 2020. The two players acquired from the series of trades are…