The draft contest this year was both ugly and beautiful.
First, the ugly. There were only 21 entries this year. I thought we might get more entries by being on the main page, but the understood need to get all the draft information on the site, saw the post slip from the main page relatively quickly. Maybe there is just not that much interest? I will likely move it back to The Feed next year. The other ugly aspect was our picks. I’ve checked this twice and if someone finds an error, I’m happy to retract,
but as I see it we had one entry that picked A.J. Haulcy. We also had one that picked Boettcher, one that picked Gumbs, and one that picked McGowan.
So, no one had Allen, Farmer (at least not the one we selected), Curry, or Burks. We had 210 picks, that produced only FOUR correct guesses. In our defense, this was a tough year. Without a first round pick and the likelihood of trading back in the second round, it took a lot of desirable names off of the board. But, we did follow a draft need agenda that most agreed upon. We drafted a starting level Linebacker, two Edge players, a Safety, OL depth, RB depth and a WR that was thought to have 3rd round talent.
It was bad enough that if our contest would have went to a tie-breaker, the correct percentage of entries with zero correct, would have been a whopping 86%.
With all of this ugly, how could it be beautiful? Well, the Clydesdales managed to pick two of those four new Colts. I managed to produce Haulcy as solid 3rd round pick. Deleted pulled into a tie with the Boettcher pick in the 4th. Then there was a little lightning strike hit. The Colts saw the same upside in Gumbs that I saw when looking at late round Edges. Even in guessing him right, it happened before I expected. This gave me a 2 – 1 lead that stayed safe until Strategy9000 nailed a redemption story by selecting McGowan. So a win was in my sites unless Deleted or Strategy managed to get our last pick correct. No one had Curry, so my first contest with two correct picks, also produced my first win!
I invite you to go back and double check, by seeing the entries on this post: www.stampedeblue.com/indianapolis-colts-draft/123634/the-colts-draft-contest-is-officially-open#comments
I haven’t spent the winnings, so if there is a mistake, I’m happy to make it right. I should give zherebyata a quick mention. Although that entry produced no correct new Colts, the 10th pick selected me as a winner as I head into retirement from teaching. So no points, but a good call?
As for my thoughts on the draft, of course I thought we did well. I’d love to be a fly on the wall and we of course will never know, but how cool would it be to know who the Colts had as the 6 players that they were still content with, should the trade back see a bad run for us. We obviously had Allen ahead of Hill, but we can be less sure if we had him above Golday. Either way, we appear to have a starter in the middle, who likely will take the green dot at some point.
Unless you thought that a WR should have been the pick in the 3rd, or you feel that Barham will make a quick impact, Haulcy was an awesome pick. It satisfied a need with what appears to one of those guys that the offense may have to locate. If a player allows me get to read “Bob Sanders” as a comparison, I’m in. He is obviously not Bob Sanders yet, but man, I loved me some Bob.
In the 4th we took a couple more players at positions that we acknowledged as needs. Farmer was a two year starter in the SEC at Guard. Who knows what the staff’s plans are, but the loss of Pinter created a need for a backup on the interior. I had never heard of him, but I also never heard of Travis until he became our pick in the 4th of last years draft. Farmer was projected as a 3rd or 4th rounder, so his value seems in step with his pick and I’m curious to see how and where he is developed. He has that kind of size that translates across the entire line.
Boettcher was a guy that I did see a couple of times. I didn’t get that “He’s everywhere” vibe, but his name was called a lot. I like that he has a Safety background, which may make him useful on passing downs. I’ve been harping on production over measurables, so I won’t take away points when it happens. He projected as a 4th, so he’s not an overdraft and at minimum should be valuable on special teams on day one.
Our fifth round pick came out of nowhere and I would guess that many in Colts Nation would call this a Ballard being Ballard pick. Maybe so, but some of those hit. He has WR and TE in his background, so my mind tells me he was ultra athletic until he grew out of the WR role. I would guess his TE experience gave him insight into how Edges attack the line of scrimmage. He’s played against the some of the best there are, so I don’t think he will be intimidated. I obviously had a little crush on him, so I may as well be optimistic about his future contributions.
We went after another player who’s body of work, was better than his measurables in round 6. Curry had 11 sacks in the what was the best conference in football last year. Two of those were against a stout IU line in the Conference Championship. I see nothing that says “wasted pick”, even if projecting greatness might not roll easily off the tongue. The DL is suddenly a little crowded, so he will have to show something to avoid the practice squad.
Our two picks in the 7th are both a bit of departure from the way CB has conducted player searches. McGowen and Burks each have a past. We’ve not often been tolerant of those who have been on the wrong side of the law, or even rules. McGowen’s trouble is well behind him from 2021. He’s taken baby steps on his way to getting a senior season with KY in which he was very effective. We have a need in the RB room and you’d have to believe that he is going to give everything he has to rewrite his story. I offered a fan post that asked which school might see us double dip from. I was referring to rounds 2 and 3, but none of us had Kentucky on our radar.
Burks had a DUI in 2024. It would be hypocritical of me to bash a kid for this crime during college. I had one in 1987 at 26 years old, which is old enough to know better. Some might say that he doesn’t fit the profile of the player he is looking to replace in Pittman. My expectations are that Pierce will take on the role of the guy with the most targets and I think he will thrive in it, as defenders will have to respect his deep threat capability. If Burks can take Pierce’s old role of stretching from the outside with his 4.3 speed, he could open up things for the rest of the receivers.
I think we had a productive draft and when you add Wohlers, Walley, and some Sauce, it looks like a nice infusion. We currently have 27.5 mil in space and are widely believed to have two contracts on their way off of the books that could add another 10 or million to that total. Without a 1st round pick, our rookies will pull in no more than 4 million in salary, so now that the dust has settled from the draft, the next date we can look at is June 1st. This is another milestone date that sees teams cut players. Who knows who might become available at that time?
I see no reason for this optimist to change his stripes, with the draft in the rear view mirror.
