{"id":218703,"date":"2025-02-23T15:15:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T20:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=218703"},"modified":"2025-02-23T07:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T12:03:04","slug":"drafting-a-quarterback-early-is-the-dumbest-thing-colts-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/23\/drafting-a-quarterback-early-is-the-dumbest-thing-colts-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Drafting a Quarterback Early is the “Dumbest Thing” Colts Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will the Indianapolis Colts take a quarterback within the first three rounds of the draft? On the Bring the Juice<\/a><\/em> podcast, Derek Larger said such a move would be the \u201cdumbest thing you could do if you are Chris Ballard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now people are telling us, What if the Colts take a quarterback in the first round or even the second round, or the third round?\u2026 I\u2019m sitting here and I\u2019m saying to myself, that I think that is probably the dumbest thing you can do if you\u2019re Chris Ballard<\/a>\u2026He has said specifically that Anthony Richardson is going to be a project. Anthony Richardson is going to take some time\u2026If you go and get a quarterback this draft class that is going to try to take his job and you promote that guy from within over Anthony Richardson, I think it turns out to be a really bad look on Chris Ballard and the entire coaching staff for the Indianapolis Colts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larger has a point. Drafting a quarterback early would make Colts general manager Chris Ballard look bad, seeing that he knew Anthony Richardson needed time to develop into a star.<\/p>\n

Drafting a Quarterback Early is the “Dumbest Thing” Chris Ballard and the Indianapolis Colts Can Do<\/h2>\n

Quarterbacks the Colts Could Likely Land During the First Three Rounds<\/h3>\n

Who could the Colts get if they drafted a quarterback within the first three rounds? Indianapolis currently holds the 14th overall pick. Unless they trade up, they won\u2019t be able to land Miami\u2019s Cam Ward<\/a> or Colorado\u2019s Shedeur Sanders<\/a>. Both players are expected to be top-five picks. Ward could go No. 1 to the Tennesee Titans while Sanders might end up with the New York Giants at No.3.<\/p>\n

Yet, during rounds 2 and 3, the Colts could get a quarterback like Ole Miss\u2019 Jaxson Dart<\/a>, Alabama\u2019s Jalen Milroe<\/a>, or Texas\u2019 Quinn Ewers<\/a>. While Dart, Milroe, and Ewers aren\u2019t projected to be first-round picks, they could each provide competition for Richardson in 2025. As every NFL fan knows, you don\u2019t have to be a first-round pick to make a major impact.<\/p>\n

Would It Be Dumb to Draft a Quarterback Early?<\/h3>\n

Ever since Anthony Richardson was drafted<\/a> by the Colts in 2023, he has had a not-so-spectacular career in Indy. The former Florida Gator has battled injuries and has had accuracy issues. Richardson competed less than 48 percent of his passes last season. He still could develop into a superstar, though, in the future.<\/p>\n

This offseason, the Colts will bring in somebody to compete with Richardson. That newcomer could give Richardson a much-needed push to become a better player.<\/p>\n

If Anthony Richardson doesn\u2019t make a giant leap<\/a> in 2025, it makes sense to select a quarterback early next year. But the team needs to avoid doing that this year. The Colts need to be patient and give Richardson at least another year to prove that he can be the franchise quarterback in Indianapolis. So like Larger said, taking a quarterback early would be the dumbest thing Ballard and Co. could do.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Vasha Hunt – Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An analyst believes the Indianapolis Colts shouldn’t select a quarterback early in the 2025 NFL Draft to compete with Anthony Richardson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4890,"featured_media":218818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,54],"tags":[9564,1619,7800],"class_list":["post-218703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colts","category-editorials","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-chris-ballard","tag-indianapolis-colts-news"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218703"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218819,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218703\/revisions\/218819"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}