The Indianapolis Colts

Losing your top picked QB never helps and it sure didn’t help the Colts this past season. Richardson was sidelined most of the year with a shoulder injury. After getting the surgery and making all repairs, even going back to his Florida days Richardson looks to put the league on notice as to why he was a top pick. Let’s review the first four picks of the Colts draft that will surely help Richardson make his run to being a top QB in this league and talk expectations for them as a team.

Number 15 was, if not, the highest risk but highest reward of the draft in Laiatu Latu (EDGE). Latu had dealt with a neck injury and was told to quit football and even contemplated himself but decided to keep going. Putting together an eye popping year at UCLA Latu caught the eyes of many and was deemed the top pass rusher of this draft. He will be tasked with a lot but if he stays healthy Latu can be a premier pass rusher very fast in this league.

Pick number 52 Adonai Mitchell (WR) caught eyes when he was still there past round one and the Colts could not pass up. Needing a speedster to pair with Pittman Jr the Colts grabbed Mitchell and expected him to be an impact maker from the jump. With Anthony Richardson having one of if not the strongest arm in the NFL Mitchell will be tasked with putting fear into the secondary with the risk of getting beat over the top every single play.

Another high risk but high reward player came at 79 in Matt Goncalves (OT). Matt only appeared in 3 games this past year due to injury but showed lots of promise at both RT and LT giving him a leg up on some of these OT in the draft. Matt has plenty of snaps so the play time is not concerning but he will need to learn, sit and continue to work and earn his spot in the lineup.

Colts may be looking to get a replacement in for Ryan Kelly with pick 117 Tanor Bortolini (OC). Tanor has experience all over the o-line but played his final year at center taking all 868 snaps there. Bortolini provides a cheap answer for Kelly and adds depth for the line with his experience at several positions.

The Colts had a very good draft and got right to business in addressing needs and looking to the future. There may be some risk but the reward outweighs it ten fold. With that the Colts earned an A+ in this year’s draft. I think the expectation after last year still being a year where the Colts put up good points without their starting QB for most of the year and RB in the lineup for only 65% of the year is to win a division title. Playoff win might be in the cards but each team in the South besides the Texans seems to have a lower ceiling for what they have.