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The Indianapolis Colts have had as weird a year as anyone in the NFL bar the Washington Commanders.
Indianapolis entered the 2022 NFL season with high hopes, a veteran quarterback, one of the best run games in the league and a seasoned head coach.
Fast forward about a year and now Indy has none of those things.
The Colts flamed out with 4-12-1 record this past season. They fired head coach Frank Reich, shockingly hired Jeff Saturday as the interim, and star players Jonathan Taylor and Shaquille Leonard spent significant time on the shelf.
Former NFL MVP Matt Ryan looks like an eventual salary cap casualty, though he may stick around in a mentor role should Indy opt to draft a quarterback in the upcoming NFL Draft.
And according to general Chris Ballard, that may well be a real possibility. Ballard had the following to say when asked about potentially drafting Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.
“That we were just convicted that this is no freaking doubt the guy,” he said.
…
“I know all the speculation out there,” he said. “To move up, there’s got to be a guy worthy of it. … Everybody has just automatically stamped that you’ve got to move up to [No.] 1 to get it right. I don’t know if I agree with that. But that’s going to be the narrative, and that’s OK.” – via ESPN
He then revealed that the team could target a quarterback even it remains at pick No. 4 rather than trading up.
“If, when we meet as a staff and we say, ‘OK, this is what we need to do. This is the guy for the next 10 to 15 years and we think he’s the right guy,’ we’ll do it. But who’s to say we won’t get one at [No.] 4?”
There’s no question that Indy needs a franchise quarterback. It has ever since the shock retirement of Andrew Luck. But whether the franchise believes that quarterback is in the 2023 NFL Draft is yet to be seen.