1 pick, their selection likely would’ve been the same. Owner Jim Irsay on Saturday acknowledged that even if the Colts owned the No. “I think we’ll get the best player in the draft,” he said.Īlmost two months later, Ballard’s boss is convinced his GM pulled it off.

It was widely assumed the Colts wouldn’t have their first (or possibly second) choice. I’d pushed him on the dicey position he was in: needing a quarterback in a QB-heavy draft, but in a less-than-ideal spot, picking fourth. Kravitz: When will Anthony Richardson see the field? Sounds like Jim Irsay and Shane Steichen prefer sooner – much sooner – rather than later. “I think y’all feel more pressure than I do,” he said at one point.Īfter the Colts drafted Richardson, I thought back to a comment Ballard made at the NFL Scouting Combine seven weeks prior. He’d known for the better part of a month, pulling aside his top lieutenant, Ed Dodds, in March to let him in on a secret: For the Colts, Richardson was “The Guy.”īallard, in his pre-draft news conference six days before the first round, seemed unmoved by everything riding on this pick, the burden of getting it right and lifting the Colts from the quarterback abyss they’ve been stuck in for almost four years or - worse yet - getting it wrong and not being the man tasked with cleaning up the mess.īallard seemed convinced he was going to land his prize.

In the lead-up to the NFL Draft, Ballard knew what he wanted. What transpired Thursday night backed up that premonition: It took Ballard absolutely no time to turn in the card for Anthony Richardson at No.

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