For the first time in a long time, the Colts welcomed 31 other teams to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine with their starting quarterback situation settled.
A year ago, 16 of the 17 press conference questions general manager Chris Ballard fielded at the Indiana Convention Center were about quarterbacks, underscoring the Colts' opportunity with the No. 4 overall pick. With Anthony Richardson answering that question, we'll see a different line of questioning when Ballard and head coach Shane Steichen venture to their respective podiums on Wednesday.
But quarterbacks still rule the day here – and, indirectly, will impact the Colts' 2024 NFL Draft plans.
Specifically: How many quarterbacks are drafted before the Colts go on the clock with the No. 15 overall pick will impact the group of players available for them to select.
"You have some legit dudes — the top three are going," NFL Network draft guru Daniel Jeremiah said on Tuesday's Official Colts Podcast. "That's happening. Now it's, do we get a fourth, do we potentially get a fifth."
The top three Jeremiah referred to are USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake Maye and LSU's Jayden Daniels (one media member speculated Daniels – the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner – could impress to the point he's in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick).
Then there are the cases for Michigan's J.J. McCarthy and Oregon's Bo Nix as the fourth and/or fifth quarterbacks off the board – specifically before the No. 15 overall pick. Jeremiah recently mocked McCarthy to the Atlanta Falcons with the eighth overall pick; a big Combine week for him or Nix could help those guys trend into the top half of April's draft.
With that in mind, Jeremiah offered a survey of the landscape the Colts could face with the 15th overall pick.
"You could get a chance to be near the front of a couple runs," Jeremiah said. "The pass rusher run will probably start a little bit before then. But I think the corner run, where they're positioned, there's a good shot to be there on the corner run. And I'm fascinated too on the tackles because it's so deep, they'll be quality players there.
"But to me there's three elite pass rushers, and I think in a normal draft at pick 15 you're probably not going to see one of those guys. I think because the quarterbacks get pushed up, there's a chance you see one of those top three pass rushers.
"And then the (Brock) Bowers thing is kind of its own discussion just because of the position and things of that sort, but he's obviously one of the top 10 players in the draft."
For Jeremiah's full breakdown of Brock Bowers and more, check out his interview on Tuesday's Official Colts Podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
There's still plenty of unknowns in late February. The NFL Combine is just one piece of the draft puzzle, which will be continue to be put together through pro days, private workouts and lengthy internal discussions in the coming months. But just because the Colts have their starting signal-caller set doesn't mean they won't be impacted by this year's crop of highly-drafted quarterbacks.
