Sometimes things work out a certain way. It isn’t always planned, but it just makes sense. The draft board could have worked out a thousand different ways for the Indianapolis Colts over the weekend, but as it stands, a common theme emerged. Chris Ballard loves the trenches, but he also has an affinity for physicality. He knew exactly where he needed to go to get it.
The SEC is the premier conference in college football. It has been for a long time. Despite the dominance, the Big Ten has something
to say about college football supremacy after supplying the last three national champions. Either way you slice it, the SEC and the Big Ten are the crème de la crème. Fans know it, and Ballard and the Colts know it too. That explains why they used all eight draft picks on players from these two conferences. Not that Ballard is afraid to dip into other conferences but he could sense the physicality he desired was right there.
It was heavy SEC from the jump with C.J. Allen out of Georgia, A.J. Haulcy from LSU, and Jalen Farmer from Kentucky. That was followed by selections out of Oregon, Florida, Ohio State, a second Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Ballard understands the competitiveness that these conferences bring citing that the SEC is the closest thing to the NFL. Needing microwave ready rookies, they went to the sources most likely to produce instant-ready players; those that play week after week against the country’s top talent across a brutal schedule. That is about as tailor-made for the NFL as you can get.
Was it the strategy all along? Most likely not, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t special emphasis put on scouting players from those schools and making moves when possible to obtain them. The better question is, will it bear fruit? In the draft, no one really knows much. Drafting players from proven programs who have gone up against the best that college sports has to offer certainly gives them a leg up, though. It’s not the boldest or most daring strategy, but it has a chance of working out well for the Colts.
