Indianapolis Colts 2015 Draft: The Good, the Bad and the Baffling
The 2015 NFL draft is now complete, after months of preparation and hype.
Now, the waiting begins.
The Indianapolis Colts added eight new players to the roster over the weekend, filling out the roster at eight different positions and getting strong value on the majority of their picks. In the end, the draft is about long-term acquisition of talent, and needs shouldn't be taken into account as much as they often are, but the Colts still did a good job of spreading the wealth among their 2015 needs.
But even if I think it was a strong draft, there were still areas where the Colts surprised and shocked people. Although we can't really judge this draft until we've seen the players suit up, we can record our initial reactions in this year's version of "The Good, The Bad and The Baffling."
The Good: Henry Anderson
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The Colts needed a disruptive playmaker on defense in this draft if one fell to them, and they appear to have gotten great value by drafting defensive end Henry Anderson out of Stanford in the third round.
At 6'6", 294 pounds, Anderson is a long, deceptively strong lineman who projects as a five-tech defensive end for the Colts' base defense with ability to move inside on passing downs. The latter is likely where he'll see most of his action as a rookie, as the Colts desperately need pass rush from the interior.
Not only did the Colts address a need with this pick, but the team appears to have gotten great value. Pro Football Focus' analyst Sam Monson called the pick one of the best in the draft, as they had Henry Anderson rated as a first-round talent. Pro Football Focus gave Anderson top-four grades among interior linemen in both run defense and pass rush in 2014, and the Stanford product had more quarterback pressures of any interior lineman in 2014.
Anderson may not be the athlete with the most upside in this draft, but he's very quick and more explosive than his draft slot would make one assume. He should fit in perfectly in the Colts' hybrid defense.
The Bad: No Offensive Line Early
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Now, I can't complain too much about the Colts' passing up of offensive lineman early in this draft, as the players they did get all fit well with what they are trying to do.
But if there is one thing that the Colts failed to really address, it's the lack of a long-term plan at offensive tackle. The Colts don't have any players behind Anthony Castonzo and Gosder Cherilus with any kind of experience, and the players who would replace them currently are naturally guards.
Jack Mewhort is the only young player who could potentially take Cherilus' spot at right tackle, but moving him away from left guard would take away the Colts' lone strength on the offensive line: the left-side tandem of Mewhort and Castonzo.
With Cherilus' injury issues and Castonzo's upcoming contract negotiations, it seemed that the Colts would look for a contingency plan in this draft, but things didn't fall their way on that front. Again, it's not a judgment on the team's decision-making, but it is one area that would have benefited greatly from an additional talent boost, and Denzell Good of Mars Hill isn't quite what we were looking for.
The Baffling: Phillip Dorsett
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The pick that started a firestorm of criticism in Indianapolis on Thursday night, Phillip Dorsett out of Miami is not exactly what most people had in mind in the first round.
Wide receiver was probably sixth or seventh on the list of needs for Indianapolis, while Dorsett himself was seen most commonly as a second- or third-round prospect by most analysts before this draft. As the draft got closer, Dorsett began to occasionally get mocked in the first round, but Indianapolis was never a part of those projections.
It's not that Dorsett is a bad player; it's just that the selection astounded just about everybody for a variety of reasons. For some, like Pro Football Focus, the selection of Dorsett over Devin Smith as a deep threat was a big oversight. For others, like Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star, drafting an offensive player at the team's deepest position made little sense after the team's defensive embarrassment in New England in January.
But while the selection was a surprise to everybody, the process behind the pick is defensible. The Colts, according to Mike Wells of ESPN.com, had Dorsett rated as a top-20 talent in this draft, with his speed being one of the elite traits of any player in this draft. That speed will definitely help the Colts offense, which often struggled in 2014 when opposing teams focused on shutting down T.Y. Hilton.
I can't fault a team for grabbing the best available player on their board, even if the need was much lesser than other positions. The draft is about what players can do for you in the long run, not rookie year production. While Dorsett should certainly make an impact in 2015, the real value will be if he turns out to be a top-20 player in this draft class, as the Colts project.
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The Good: Secondary Depth
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While many focused on the ability to stop the run as the Colts' biggest need in 2015, largely prompted by the team's shellacking in New England in the AFC Championship Game, one could make a compelling argument for depth in the secondary as being the most glaring omission from the roster.
The cornerback position had virtually no depth after the top three of Vontae Davis, Donald Butler and Greg Toler, and safety is being held down by two veterans who have bounced around the league for their entire careers (Mike Adams and Dwight Lowery).
The Colts took steps to amend that problem over the weekend, drafting cornerback D'Joun Smith with the first pick in the third round on Friday and safety Clayton Geathers in the fourth round on Saturday.
The two were actually connected in their draft picks: The Colts traded down four spots at the end of the second round for the rights to move up 19 spots in the fourth round. The team gambled that Smith would still be on the board four picks later, and they were right. They then used that fourth-round pick to select Geathers.
Smith is smaller than the corners the Colts usually prefer at 5'10", 187 pounds, but he's feisty and can play both inside and outside, as well as safety if need be. He'll likely be a dime corner in 2015 with the potential to replace either Toler or Butler. Geathers is best fit as an in-the-box safety, and while he probably will only be a backup in 2015, he could develop into a hard-hitting strong safety once Adams retires.
The Bad: Not Much Else
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It's hard to complain about what the Colts were able to do in the draft, outside of the philosophical issues many had with the Dorsett pick early on and the lack of a high-impact future offensive tackle.
The Colts addressed the depth issues at each position on the defensive side of the ball while still managing to get a potential playmaker in the front seven in Henry Anderson. The Colts could still use an upgrade at inside linebacker, but the position was somewhat weak in this class, and the Colts did draft Georgia linebacker Amarlo Herrera in the sixth round. Herrera will be depth for now, but his SEC production over the last two years (227 tackles, 10 tackles for loss in 2014) is exactly what teams look for in a sleeper inside linebacker.
The Colts also managed to get an upgrade at running back with Josh Robinson late in the draft. While Robinson probably is a bit small to carry a full-time workload (5'8", 217 pounds), he has the power and versatility to work well as a committee back in the Colts' system.
If you don't like the Colts' draft, it probably centers around the Dorsett pick, and while it wasn't my ideal scenario at that spot, it will be fine if he becomes the special player the Colts believe he is.
The Baffling: Denzell Good, Mars Hill
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The Colts have a habit of surprising people late in the draft, and the 2015 draft was no different.
With the selection of Denzell Good from Mars Hill University (what?), the Colts had everybody running to Google. The general public has, in large part, never heard of Mars Hill, much less Good himself.
Good was not profiled by either NFL.com or CBS Sports prior to the draft, which in itself is an amazing fact. But what may be more fantastic was the on-air stumping of Mike Mayock of NFL Network. Mayock is one of the most well-versed draft analysts out there, and he had never heard of Good.
That late in the draft is the time to take a chance on fliers, so it's hard to criticize the pick, but it certainly was one of the most baffling picks of the draft.
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