The Bears will listen to offers for the No. 1 overall pick. It’s what every team does that has the first selection, especially those that aren’t in the market for a quarterback.
The Jaguars obviously didn’t get an offer they thought enough of to move down last year and stayed put to draft Travon Walker.
The Colts draft fourth, two spots behind their division rivals in the Texans, who also are in need of a quarterback. So, it’s natural for everyone to wonder whether the Colts will attempt to leap frog Houston.
Colts General Manager Chris Ballard pumped the brakes on speculation of a move up the draft board.
“I know this was coming up, because I know all the speculation out there,” Ballard said. “One, to move up, there’s got to be a guy worthy of it. This is what’s great right now: Everybody has just automatically stamped that you’ve got to move up to one to get it right. I don’t know if I agree with that. I don’t. But that’s going to be the narrative, and that’s OK. . . . But I don’t know if that’s the right course of business. When we meet as a staff and we say, ‘OK, this is what we need to do. This is the guy for the next 10 to 15 years,’ and we think he’s the right guy, sure we’ll do it. But who’s to say we won’t get one at four?”
Ballard said the only way the Colts consider the move is: “That we were just convicted. That this is no freaking doubt the guy.”
Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are considered the top two prospects, ahead of Kentucky’s Will Levis and Florida’s Anthony Richardson.
While the Colts might not move up in the draft, it seems certain they will draft a quarterback. The team has failed to get the position right since drafting Andrew Luck with the No. 1 overall selection in 2012.
The Colts have started seven quarterbacks since Luck’s abrupt retirement on the heels of the 2019 season. Matt Ryan, for whom the Colts traded a year ago, remains on the roster for now.
But after four consecutive bridge quarterbacks — Jacoby Brissett, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz and Ryan — it’s time for the Colts to try a different route.