Colts Mailbag: Why Chris Ballard Targeted D-Line In NFL Draft

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Mar 19, 2019
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Kevin V., Indianapolis, Ind.: Why double down on defensive linemen in the first two rounds when we need a tackle?


JJ Stankevitz:
This was a popular question this week, and it's one general manager Chris Ballard talked about quite a bit last week. A few things to consider:


1) Yes, replacing Anthony Castanzo is a difficult challenge. But the Colts, more than anything, stuck to their draft board — and with a philosophy that, more often than not, leads to better rosters.


"We talk about this all the time, when you force something you usually create two holes and you can't do that in the draft," Ballard said.


The Colts are high on Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo and believe both players will make their team better in the long run. And more than anything, isn't that the point of the draft?


2) Paye and Odeyingbo filled a need, too.


The Colts needed to replace free agents Denico Autry and Justin Houston, and in landing Paye and Odeyingbo in the draft believe they've done that. And the depth on the Colts' D-line is impressive beyond the two picks — rolling with DeForest Buckner, Grover Stewart, Kemoko Turay, Isaac Rochell, Ben Banogu, Al-Quadin Muhammed, etc. should give Brian Baker and Matt Eberflus a strong rotation to keep guys fresh throughout the expanded 17-game schedule.


3) This draft may have been deep on tackles, but it may not wind up being deep on left tackles.


This is something Ballard hinted at over the weekend.


"Anytime you have a player like Anthony Castonzo retire, it's a need and we signed some guys who we think are pretty good football players," Ballard said. "But saying that, it just didn't match up at that point in the draft. I'd be honest, how many true left tackles were in the draft – I don't have the number exactly but prototypically, some of these guys, maybe they end up playing left tackle. We'll see if they end up staying there their whole careers. But if you're going to draft a guy that high and you're drafting him to play left tackle, you'd like to know that he's going to be able to do it for his whole career."


Consider this: A "prototypical" NFL left tackle has arms greater than or equal to 34 inches long. Among the top 10 tackles in this year's draft as rated by the Athletic's Dane Brugler, only two had 34+ inch arms.


Arm length is not an end all, be all for projecting tackles, of course — a lot more goes into evaluating these guys. But finding a slam-dunk, long-term option at left tackle may not have been as obvious as some folks may want to believe.


4) Roster building does not end when the draft ends.


The Colts like Sam Tevi's experience (44 regular season starts and two playoff starts), for one. But also, I'll leave you with this last quote from Ballard:


"We're happy with the work that we've done up to this point," Ballard said, "but we still have a long way to go before the season."
 
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