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Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning (Darron Cummings/AP Photo)
It's March 31 – the day before April and a little more than three weeks before the 2010 NFL Draft. Time to start getting deep into draft coverage, and we'll kick off Indy Football Report's 2010 NFL Draft coverage with the same caveat any Indianapolis Colts fan knows well.
If you're trying to predict who the Colts will select, do so with:
1) A sense of perspective.
2) A sense of history.
3) A sense of futility.
Because if anything is true about the Colts under President Bill Polian, it's that not only is it going to be difficult to predict the Colts' selections because they're picking so late in the first round, it's going to be tricky because Polian is just very hard to predict on draft day.
One reason is he likes it that way.
But the biggest reason is while many executive say they they're not making draft-day decisions based on the opinions draftniks and common perceptions about need, Polian means it. As much as any executive in the NFL, and as much as any team, Polian and the Colts have a plan and they stick to it when it comes to the draft. That has been bad for mock drafters, but it has been great for the Colts.
Remember? Last year? Draftniks and hard-core Colts fans spent the March and April debating the pros and cons of players such as Peria Jerry and Hakeem Nicks and Evander “Ziggy” Hood,” ignoring for the most part Polian's past draft-day tendency to not select defensive tackles at the end of the first round. Reason being defensive tackle is a position at which elite-level players typically get selected early in the first round if they're first-round level talents and that if a player is available at the end of the first round at such positions, they're typically a reach.
Polian instead selected Donald Brown from the University of Connecticut, and if Polian has a draft-day prototype, Brown came as close to fitting it as could reasonably be expected.
While Polian is known in NFL circles as not only one of the best judges of talent, but as someone adept at finding quality players late in the draft and in free agency, his approach in the first round typically is actually quite basic with very little risk.
The Colts in the first round typically selected productive players from big conferences, and Brown – who rushed for more than 2,000 yards in 2009 at Big East member Connecticut – fit that criterion in the same way WR Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State), CB Marlin Jackson (Michigan), RB Joseph Addai (Louisiana State) TE Dallas Clark (Iowa), DE Dwight Freeney (Syracuse), WR Reggie Wayne (Miami), etc., etc., did before him.
We'll get started with the 2010 IFR NFL Draft coverage today with a quick run-down of the Colts' positions and just how much the team needs each position, and we'll do so offering the caveat the needs we list here and those needs you see around the blogosphere in the coming months very likely aren't what Polian sees as needs. His version of a need position often is drastically different than that of observers and analysts.
A couple of other quick notes to remember when thinking of the Colts' draft.
One is that Polian has been consistent over the years in saying he doesn't see the draft as a one- or two-round process. What that means is just because guard or linebacker might be an area the Colts need to address, that in no way means they believe they have to address such positions in the first round, or even in the first few rounds. Polian long has built the Colts with all rounds of the draft and collegiate free agency, and the reality is there are some positions Polian typically does not believe in taking in the first round.
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