INDIANAPOLIS – When the 2015 offseason began and mock drafts began to roll out, it seemed like a long shot.
The Colts, in need for a young safety, were picking way too late in the first round to see Alabama safety Landon Collins last until pick No. 29.
Collins, who almost every draft pundit has ranked as the top safety, is starting to see his name appear in the 20s of mock drafts.
Could the Colts be the beneficiaries of seeing Collins' name still on the board at pick No. 29?
"A guy like Landon, he can do it all," Ryan Grigson said last week.
"There's only so many of those guys. In the draft, there's really not any."
Even after signing seven-year veteran Dwight Lowery this offseason, the need for a safety later this week is still there for the Colts.
Jim Irsay alluded to such last Friday and a glance at the current safety crop on the roster would indicate the same thing.
If the Colts season began tomorrow, the likely starters at safety would be 34-year-old-Mike Adams and 29-year-old-Lowery.
Depth behind those two includes just a pair of players who saw any defensive action for the Colts in 2014 (Colt Anderson played 38 defensive snaps, Dewey McDonald logged 10 snaps).
The Colts desire for a safety falls in a year where the safety class doesn't have many top-end prospects.
Earlier this offseason, former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah tried to shed some light on why the safety position is without a ton of elite prospects this year.
Jeremiah points to the evolution of spread offenses in the college game as diluting the quality safeties at that level.
"You are a college coach, you recruit this five-star athlete. He shows up. He's played safety in high school. He's played receiver. Well, you want to put the ball in his hands because you want to score and make plays so those guys end up playing on the offensive side of the ball," Jeremiah said.
"You can negate the effectiveness of a safety when you are just throwing bubble screens and quick hitters. It's not really a difference maker in the college game where it is in the NFL where it's a different style."
Even Grigson admitted last week that trying to sift through the safety position lately is difficult.
Come late Thursday night, the Colts could see the ideal prospect in Collins there to take at No. 29, but if he's gone…
"We've been digging and going through every single (safety)," Grigson said. "The further down you get on your board the more warts appear with those spots. There might be a guy that plays his tail off and you love the film, but then you look at the height, weight, speed and he ran 4.9 (40-yard dash), so you're like, 'How am I going to draft a 4.9 safety?' There might be a guy that plays lights out, but he's only 185 pounds. You're going to have significant drawbacks in some of those guys later.
"There's more of a trend for not the traditional safety anymore. It's more of a free safety type, if you will, that has cover ability, kind of has that corner background."
