1. Why the Colts didn’t trade up to No. 3 – and how that benefitted the rest of their draft.
Once the Colts came to a collective decision that Anthony Richardson was the quarterback they wanted, they still had to draft him. That led to some tense moments in the Colts’ draft room after the Carolina Panthers, as expected, picked Bryce Young No. 1 overall.
There was some uncertainty as to what would happen next. After months of back-and-forth speculation, the Houston Texans indeed selected a quarterback – Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud – with the second overall pick. The Arizona Cardinals were on the clock, and it was clear they were trying to trade the No. 3 overall pick.
Maybe to a team that needed a quarterback. Maybe not. Maybe they wouldn’t be successful trading the pick at all. But these were all maybes a little before 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Colts general manager Chris Ballard said he did call Arizona about trading up one spot, from No. 4 to No. 3. But Ballard, notably, has proven to adept at having a good feel for when he needs to be aggressive, when he can stand pat and when he can trade back and still get a player the team likes.
“I don’t know how he does it, personally,” Colts director of player personnel Kevin Rogers said last year on an episode of the Official Colts Podcast. “… Chris is phenomenal at exercising his resources, talking to as many people as he can and he does more reconnaissance work on who’s into what, what players, what coaches are on and with what programs. He’s phenomenal at it.”
“We just said, you know what, we’re just going to sit and wait,” Ballard said.
Instead of burning pick(s) this year or next year, Ballard was confident Richardson would be available at No. 4. But as the seconds melted away on Arizona’s 10 minutes on the clock, there was some understandable uneasiness in the Colts’ draft room.
“There is some tension with every pick, but with that one, obviously knowing, is someone going to trade up? We didn’t know,” Colts chief…
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