Julian Blackmon has played a key role for the Colts defense
After a season where the Indianapolis Colts struggled to get into the winning category after losing franchise quarterback Andrew Luck it appears things may have turned around. During the offseason the Colts were able to snag free agent and long-time Chargers quarterback, Phillip Rivers, who has helped lead them to 3-1 out-the-gate — their best start since 2013.
General manager Chris Ballard has done an excellent job putting the Colts in a position to win games by accumulating talent in several different ways. As alluded to earlier he got Rivers in free agency as well as Justin Houston in 2019. Ballard has also manufactured some nice trades bringing in DeForest Buckner from the 49ers, for the 13th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Lastly, he has drafted exceptionally well — both Darius Leonard and Quenton Nelson were All-Pro’s in their rookie seasons.
Losing a first-round pick, despite bringing in a talent like Buckner still hurts. They were forced to give him a big deal — which was part of the reason San Francisco let him go in the first place — thus giving up what would’ve been a rookie deal. Regardless of the first round pick, Ballard and the Colts scouting team were able to go into day-two of the draft and pick-up some talented players.
In the second round the Colts selected Michael Pittman with the 34th overall pick and Jonathon Taylor with the 41th overall pick. Pittman has yet to have a break-out game, but Taylor has proven to be a solid option since Marlon Mack went down with a torn achilles in Week 1. In the third round, is where Indianapolis may have made their best value pick by draft Julian Blackmon.
After Malik Hooker went down with an achilles injury the Colts were forced to play Blackmon earlier than they would have liked, but the rookie has been able to hold his own and some. There was a reason Blackmon was selected in the third round — he was new to the safety position and had played corner in all but his final year at Utah. However, he has proven to be well worth the third round pick Indianapolis used on him earlier in the year.