Pre-draft press conferences are exercises in searching for breadcrumbs outside a closed bakery. No general manager is going to give away his team's draft board; any bit of information that leaks out at this stage of the pre-draft process can and will be used by 31 other teams.
On Monday, Colts general manager Chris Ballard held his annual pre-draft press conference, and as usual, he provided some context for this week's NFL Draft – but no specifics. We won't know any specifics until each of the seven picks the Colts currently hold are announced later this week.
Maybe a better way to put it is Ballard did not rule anything out from the start of Round 1 on Thursday through the end of Round 7 on Saturday.
"Whether we're at 14, whether we're at 10, whether we're at 25," Ballard said, "we will have a player we like that will be good for the Colts that we will take."
With that in mind, though, there were a few specific positions Ballard was asked about on Monday that are worth digging into:
Tight Ends
A majority of the mock drafts we've collected here at Colts.com have predicted the Colts will take a tight end – either Penn State's Tyler Warren or Michigan's Colston Loveland – with the No. 14 overall pick on Thursday.
Ballard on Monday reiterated a point he's made at various points this offseason: He'd like to find a tight end who can do everything – block in the run game and catch in the passing game – but that's easier said than done.
"That's to me the hard one to find," Ballard said, "... to be able to play on all three downs, to be able to be functional in the run game to where you don't necessarily know it's always a pass when he's in the game, and then to be able to finish and make plays at critical times and have him give the quarterback an option in the middle of the field."
As for whether the Colts believe there's a player who fits that description in the first round who will be available when they pick Thursday night – well, we'll figure that out in a few days. But Ballard did stress this year's tight end class is deep, and based on recent history, teams have found those difference-making tight ends at various points during a given draft.
"It's a really good class, and I think at every level, but it's a good class," Ballard said. "The one thing – it was funny when – if you look at some of the better tight ends in this league, they come from everywhere. (Travis) Kelce was a (third-round pick), (Mark) Andrews was a (third-round pick),, (George) Kittle was a (fifth-round pick), like they come from every – (Brock) Bowers was a (first-round pick) last year. They come from everywhere. But it's a good class and we think there's some good depth in this class."
At the line of scrimmage
The Colts have drafted an offensive linemen or defensive linemen in the first three rounds of all but two of Ballard's drafts in Indianapolis, with 2020 and 2023 being the exceptions. Attrition up front will happen, and Ballard has always emphasized having a steady pipeline of reserves to either step in for an injured player or provide quality play on a rotational basis.
"You can never have enough O-line, D-line," Ballard said. "Over the course of a season – they're just not hanging out on the street corner. Those guys are very difficult to find."
This doesn't necessarily mean the Colts' evaluations of players will align with who's available when they're picking, of course. And this is hardly a new viewpoint from Ballard. But, as we approach Thursday, Friday and Saturday, it's certainly worth keeping in mind.
Quarterback
Ballard said on a recent episode of "The Colts Show" podcast that the Colts did some work on Daniel Jones prior to the 2019 NFL Draft – which took place months before the team knew Andrew Luck would retire that August. Six years later, the scouting and digging Ballard and his staff did on Jones wound up making the former top-10 pick a top target in free agency.
So that the Colts have done their due diligence on quarterbacks in this year's draft class – even with Jones and Anthony Richardson on the roster – doesn't, in reality, carry a whole lot of intrigue.
"Even when we had Andrew we brought quarterbacks in," Ballard said. "I think you do that all the time. And we also, believe it or not, like we worked out a couple. We went and visited a couple.
"I think you do that every year. The one thing you can see with the quarterback position now, you better get to know them in the draft process because you never know when it's going to come back around to you. You just don't know.
"That's the one thing I always kind of giggle when a quarterback turns us down like, 'No, we're not going to visit with you.' Okay, three years from now, we'll see how that plays out because you just look at it. I mean, the changing of teams now, the lack of patience. Everybody's developmental curve and journey is different. So, you never know when it's going to come back around to you."
