| Carl Setterlund. 22nd May, 2006 - 3:44 pm
 Indianapolis Colts
Picks:
1st Round: Joseph Addai, RB, LSU (30)
2nd Round: Tim Jennings, CB, Georgia (62) 3rd Round: Freddy Keiaho, ILB, San Diego State (94) 4th Round: none 5th Round: Mike Toudouze, OT, Texas Christian (162) 6th Round: Charlie Johnson, OT, Oklahoma State (199); Antoine Bethea, S, Howard (207) 7th Round: TJ Rushing, KR, Stanford (238)
So who else thinks this is the beginning of the end of Indianapolis’ run. I won’t get into Marvin Harrison’s age, or the lost of Edgerrin James and two key defensive cogs. No, that is for another day. For now, there is plenty to lament over the Colts’ draft. A lot of draft pundits are willing to let Indianapolis off for this selection but I’m not so willing.
The Colts allowed a vastly superior running back in DeAngelo Williams be drafted just three spots ahead of them and settled for a player in Addai who is a second round talent at best. Addai never dominated in college and it will be the same story in the NFL even if he should stay healthy. In round two Indianapolis made another blunder taking smallish cornerback Tim Jennings.
Even if this hadn’t been a deep cornerback class, I wouldn’t have expected Jennings to be taken until late in the first day. The Colts could have addressed other needs and waited to take Jennings until the third round or they could have taken a much nicer cornerback in a guy like Ashton Youboty.
With another reach in the third round, the Colts opted for Freddy Keiaho who is half the player Gerris Wilkinson (also an ILB), who was drafted two spots behind him is. As if they thought it would make things any better, Indy chose two mediocre offensive tackle prospects in rounds five and six. Had these been good value picks I might have let it pass, but there were far more pressing needs than to find the better backups for Tarik Glenn and Ryan Diem.
I’m not sure how harshly to grade the Colts’ draft but one thing is certain, they didn’t do too great. Running back needed to be addressed and LenDale White probably wasn’t the answer. Addai should do decently, but how much of that is Addai’s performance and how much of it is that of the stellar offensive line and a guy you know as Peyton Manning.
I felt all through the draft that Indianapolis was taking the popular New England Patriots’ approach of drafting “their guys”, which I commend. The problem was that in drafting “their guys”, Indianapolis failed to get good value at any point in this draft. This was a year the Colts really needed to do well in the draft to stay at the level of play they left off at. Bill Polian and company failed to do as much and so I have to grade them accordingly.
Grade – C - |
