With six of the first 135 picks in this year’s draft, the Colts had more draft capital than many other teams.
They didn’t have an enormous draft board to consult before using those picks, however. General Manager Chris Ballard said that the team has steadily shrunk the size of their draft board over the course of his tenure with the team and expects to continue doing so in the years to come.
“I’d say this year we had 170 players on the board which is way down from where it was before,” Ballard said, via Albert Breer of SI.com. “I think last year we were at 220, I can’t even remember the number from my first year. But yeah, it makes it easier to navigate when you have fewer names that you know fit what you want. I think when we really get it right, and we get it down to about 125, 150, that’s when we’ll have really honed down exactly what a Colt is for our schemes. And not only from a player perspective, how he’s going to fit on the team, but also from a character perspective.”
Regardless of how many players are under consideration, you still have to pick the right ones once you’re on the clock. Ballard hit on that front in 2018 and more of the same this year should only make it easier for the Colts to stick with the same approach for years to come.