wabashalwaysfights

The hiring of Mudd is phenomenal! A proven guy who has done it here once. Mock draft article from Colts.com found here. Compilation of several "experts," several of whom go with Lawrence or Wilkins, the two Clemson DTs I blanked on earlier. A majority seem to go with defense, but credit to you punttheball, there are a few WRs in there too... Does anyone know which of the AAF teams have rights to the Colts practice squad players by chance? I am a little wary yet of suggesting that NFL team seriously consider using the AAF as a talent pool just yet, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but would still like to know moving forward.

I watched quite a bit of last nights game. The league seems pretty solid. It is obvious that this is truly a "developmental" league, especially up front. The offensive line play was pretty suspect in the SD/SA game.

Destin gave me the opportunity to begin my career in education and I will be forever grateful to him. God bless...

I know I am not the only Colts fan that has been saying since the early Manning days that we need to focus on the defensive side of the ball, and even given the way this defense overachieved, I still think that is your focus. I think the discussion around TY and whether he is a #1 receiver seems silly to me because the Colts' focus this year was on multiple formations out of multiple personnel groups, especially with multiple tight ends, and TY is able to fit into just about any of those groups. He is your #1 because first, he has the ability to play it multiple positions and second, because the focus of the offense is on tight ends. Also, what happened to the perimeter screen game? It seemed like that was a huge part of the offense in spots this year, but they kind of got away from it late in the year. That was an area where TY thrived, maybe the ankle injury took away from this? Back to the defense, there were two times this year where injuries made me nervous. One was Ryan Kelley, but Evan Bohem stepped in nicely. The other was when Leonard went down on literally the first or second play against the Dolphins. Forget all the talk about the Pro Bowl snub, whether he is the DROY/DPOY, all of it; if he doesn't come back there the Colts are done. The d-line is good for what they needed to do and that is keep Leonard clean, they deserve a lot of credit for those 190 or whatever tackles. As much as I loved Dwight Freeney, and I mean loved, I don't want a player like that for this defense. Freeney took himself out of the running game a lot, not because he didn't like contact or anything like that, just stylistically he was so fast up the field that a lot of times you didn't even need to block him. For a pass rusher, I would love to see an outside linebacker type, a la a Dee Ford actually, someone who not only has the edge speed needed to give elite tackles issues, but also the awareness to understand when to use that speed and when to stay anchored to the LOS. That or a big time "pocket pusher" in the middle, like one of the Clemson DTs (names escape me now), someone who can push the pocket and make QBs antsy with their feet, but also still draw doubles in the run game. The DBs had a surprisingly good year, Hooker is solid when he is healthy, and Kenny Moore had a pretty great year as well. On both sides of the ball Ballard's genius was that he gave Reich and Company players who could do multiple things well, that needs to be the focus. I agree that Antonio Brown as a player would be nice, but this has never been an organization that puts up with a lot of off the field issues (call them distractions). Not that I begrudge AB, or anyone for that matter, for being a big personality, but when it becomes detrimental to an organization, that is a problem. Same kind of deal with a Le'veon Bell. I'm sorry, but Trent Richardson is still fresh in my mind. I know it is a different situation, with a different GM and much better, more proven back, but you are still talking about a big name running back in the modern NFL where running backs almost always come in pairs anyway. With 9 picks, I would almost like to see them try to trade a couple of them to move up, I mean like top 10 or top 5, to take a guy that they really like. Again, don't go crazy, I'm talking like 2, 3 picks max, to move up into that top area and only if you are going to get a guy you really feel can be a long term guy. I love that the Colts have simply pieced things together, and it has worked, to an extent, for a while, but every now and then you've got to make a big move, not a desperate move, but a big move.