As the NFL Draft’s first round crawled to a close late Thursday night, Chris Ballard sat back in his basement, munching on popcorn, content with where his team sat. The Jordan Love chatter was out there — even a report that Ballard’s Colts had tried to trade up to grab the Utah State quarterback — but, truth was, he’d never even picked up the phone.
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No call. No offer. Nothing.
Ballard wasn’t biting. The Colts would wait until Friday to tackle their needs.
The fourth-year general manager had joked earlier Thursday that if he needed something to cheer him up while he sat there with no first-round pick, he’d just watch video of DeForest Buckner, the All-Pro defensive tackle he’d swapped his first-rounder for back in March.
But a quiet Thursday begat a busy Friday, and the Colts went to work. In a span of seven picks in the second round, Ballard and his personnel staff landed two premier offensive talents, two pro-ready weapons who will offer a jolt to an offense that staggered home in 2019, unable to push the ball down the field, unable to consistently score, unable to close out games.
That’s how 5-2 crumbled into 7-9.
In the days and weeks that followed the Colts’ dispiriting loss in Jacksonville to close the season, Ballard met with his staff to map out the coming months.
Where did they want to get better? And how were they going to do it?
Their wish list started with a dominant three-technique along the defensive line. Buckner checks the box.
Then they moved to the offense, where the need was obvious: more playmakers. More talent. More speed. More ability. All of it. The Colts weren’t hung up on exactly where it came from — wide receivers, running backs, tight ends, no matter — just that they added it.
After signing quarterback Philip Rivers to a one-year deal in free agency, that became the focus: help the 38-year-old as much as possible. Give him some young weapons to work with.
That’s exactly what they did with their first two picks Friday night.
In Michael Pittman Jr., the 6-foot-4, 220-pound wideout from USC, coach Frank Reich gets the big-bodied, power-forward-type target he loves having in his offense. It’s the role Devin Funchess was supposed to fill last season before a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter of the first game cost him his season.
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“Can win at all three levels,” Ballard said of Pittman. “Big, strong to the ball, competes, got better every year in college. He’s the type of teammate that we want, and we think he’s got the chance to become a heck of a player.”
Pittman was an easy choice for Indianapolis at No. 34 — “consensus,” one team source put it — and, undoubtedly, a talent who will ease the burden on T.Y. Hilton, who hasn’t had a reliable running mate on this roster since the days of Reggie Wayne. Hilton is 30 and coming off the most injury-plagued year of his career. In both Pittman and last year’s second-rounder, Parris Campbell, the Colts have added two young receivers with big-time playmaking potential.
Now comes the hard part. Now all they have to do is deliver.
A mere 15 minutes after Pittman heard his name called, the Colts were on the move, sliding up from 44th overall to grab Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor at No. 41. The surprise here isn’t the talent — Taylor put together one of the most productive rushing careers in college football history, finishing sixth all-time in yards — but the position. Few saw the Colts grabbing a running back in the second round, especially with Marlon Mack still under contract after a 1,000-yard season in 2019.
It’s the highest the Colts have taken a running back in 11 years. (Donald Brown went in the first round in 2009.)
But Indianapolis saw Taylor as too good to pass on. Too complete. Too skilled. So, at the urging of owner Jim Irsay, who reminded his GM and personnel staff just how enamored they’d been with Taylor throughout the scouting process, the Colts moved up four spots and turned in the card. In their minds, Taylor was worth it.
They see the Wisconsin All-American as a player who can make Mack better immediately, and lighten the load. Combine his talents with reserves Nyheim Hines and Jordan Wilkins, and the Colts will have the deepest running back room of the Reich era.
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As a courtesy, the third-year head coach reached out to his starting running back Friday night, letting Mack know the Colts planned on taking Taylor in the second round.
To hear Ballard describe it, Mack was supportive.
“Let’s go. Let’s go win,” he typed back to Reich.
“There’s nothing worse on draft day than when (your staff is sitting there saying), ‘This guy’s really gonna make us better,’ and then he goes the pick in front of you,” Ballard said.
The Colts feared Taylor would be gone if they didn’t do something. So they moved up. Now he’s a Colt.
Both Pittman and Taylor were polished and polite Friday evening, thrilled to hear their names called in the draft, no doubt, but more so to land in Indianapolis, with a respected play-caller like Reich and a veteran quarterback like Rivers. Pittman, son of Michael Pittman, the former Bucs running back who won a Super Bowl in Tampa after the 2002 season, was so confident the Colts would take him he wore a blue shirt on Friday.
“I think they brought me in to impact like right now,” he said. “They also have Philip Rivers, who I think is a Hall of Famer, and I couldn’t be more happy that I get to start with a Hall of Fame quarterback.”
Taylor twice starred on the turf at Lucas Oil Stadium as a member of the Badgers, chasing Big Ten championships. Now a pro, he wasn’t even ready to call his new quarterback by his first name Friday night.
“I’m definitely gonna be ready to go, learning a plethora of routes and a plethora of protections, so that if and when Mr. Rivers needs me, I’m there, I’m ready to go,” Taylor said.
In fairness, Taylor is 15 years Rivers’ junior. He might be calling him “Sir” by the time training camp rolls around.
(With their third selection Friday night, the Colts traded back in the third round, grabbing Utah safety Julian Blackmon, who’s coming off an ACL tear and will still be rehabbing when he arrives in Indianapolis.)
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But the headliners were Pittman and Taylor, the very types of talents this offense craved last season. They’ll make Rivers’ life easier. They’ll make Reich’s play sheet thicker. They’ll give the Colts so many more options, in so many more situations. The picks speak to where the Colts see themselves heading to a season that could go many ways: with a few critical additions, good enough to compete for a division title and make a playoff run.
Both Pittman and Taylor are the type of pro-ready talents who could have an impact early.
The offseason in Indianapolis has netted a new starting quarterback, a new Pro Bowl defensive lineman, a new starting cornerback and complementary pieces all over the roster. Very little has been lost.
Friday’s draft picks, particularly the first two selections, landed the Colts two young playmakers who will help shape this offense for years, starting in 2020.
“Chris Ballard is absolutely kicking the doors in on this draft. Again,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky wrote on Twitter Friday night. “Taylor is going to EAT behind that (offensive line).”
Added another former NFL QB, Chris Simms, who works for NBC Sports: “Chris Ballard got two first-rounders in the second round.”
No doubt the Colts are better than they were in January. Much better.
Will it be enough? That’s the fun part. We’ll have to wait and see.
(Photo of Pittman: Jordon Kelly)
