The 2011 season couldn't finish soon enough for us Colts fans. It seemed to go on and on, and we had to suffer having the friggin' Patriots play in the Super Bowl in our building (thankfully taken care of by the Giants). Now, all we have to talk about is Peyton Manning (a big deal), and the draft.

While we'll obviously have tons of coverage of the Peyton Manning news, we here at Stampede Blue will be giving you top-notch draft coverage of the most important Colts draft in the past decade, and we'll have a front-row seat at the two biggest events.

The NFL Scouting Combine starts next Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium, and just like last year we'll be there to interview prospects, coaches, GMs, and other NFL writers. Both Stew and myself will be in attendance, along with Dan Kadar from Mocking the Draft and Kevin Ewoldt of Hogs Haven. Over the next week, I'll be laying out which players we'll be targeting, position by position, so you get an idea who we feel the Colts will be looking at, and for you to fill us in if we are missing anyone.

Once the Combine finishes up, we plan to overload you with draft profiles, coming two a day during the week and one on both Saturday and Sunday. Right now we have 86 players to profile, ranging from the first pick all the way to a couple players who will most likely be undrafted. We'll have a page ready for you by the time the Combine rolls around. I promise you we'll be covering every corner.

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Once again it's that time of the year for all of you to participate in everyone's favorite pastime between the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, a Mock Draft! We've done this the past several years, and I dropped the ball last year in getting only one round in, so we're going to get a full two rounds, plus the Colts pick at #65.

How do you join in the fun? Here's how it'll work:

• Each person is only allowed 1 team, as we have plenty of people here on the site to fill all the teams. Also, anyone who says "Give me any team" won't get a team. Be decisive, please. Also, in order to draft for the Colts, you have to have been a member at Stampede Blue for 2 years. I want to take care of our longer term members for the Colts pick. There are no restrictions on any other team.
• In addition to selecting one team, this year I'm also taking a back-up selector for each team in the off chance the original person doesn't get back to me. Again, only one team as a backup please.
• The draft will be done through email. This is the easiest way to do it, as getting 30 people together at one time is extremely hard.
  
• You will have 24 hours after I send you the email saying you are on the clock to make a pick. If no pick comes in, I'll go right to the backup, so don't be late.
  
• I will be posting two picks per day during the week, and one pick on each weekend day. IMPORTANT: The draft via email will (hopefully) be about 4 or 5 picks ahead of what is on the site, and I will include those picks in the "On the Clock" email. Please don't wait until you see all the picks before yours on the site, as it'll be way too late for you to make a pick.
  

The information I'd like for each pick is:

• Player, Position, School
• One or two paragraphs on why said player is the right choice for that team. Can include comments about best player available, scheme fit, you hate the team so that's why you picked that awful player, etc. I want a rationale.
  
• One to two sentences on how much of an impact you think he will have next season.

Be aware that we do not need anyone for the Raiders, as they've decided they didn't want to pick in the first four rounds this year, and the Falcons and Saints only have second round choices.

I'd highly recommend using Mocking the Draft and National Football Post for information on team needs, player profiles, etc. We'll also have quite a few here at Stampede Blue for you to look at.

After the jump you'll see the CONFIRMED LIST of drafters for each team. Please indicate which team you'd like in the comments, and also send me an email stating which team you would like, and your SB Nation username. You will not be confirmed until I receive an email from you. You also must post in this thread your team choice(s). I want to ensure everyone who participates is a member here at Stampede Blue. We'll be starting Monday morning, so whoever picks the Colts should be ready to go. Also, please look at the table, and the comments first before choosing your team.

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What do the Colts need?

Forget the QB position. The Colts will take Andrew Luck No. 1 overall. I keep saying that to all of you because 1) It's going to happen, and 2) you need to be ready for when it does. Retaining Peyton Manning or drafting Robert Griffin III just isn't in the cards. Andrew Luck is your QB for 2012, it just hasn't been made 'official' yet.

What else does this team need though?

Defensively, they are switching away from Tampa-2 to a 4-3, 3-4 hybrid. Corner play in 2011 was putrid. Robert Mathis might not get re-signed. Dwight Freeney might get cut.

Offensively, Reggie Wayne might not come back. Jeff Saturday may retire.

What are the key positions of need? Comment below.

With the 2012 season done, closed, and in the books, we now shift to the 2012 NFL Draft. A very key point in the process leading to the draft is the Scouting Combine, held every year in Indianapolis. Agents, coaches, and personnel executives will descend on Indy looking to evaluate talent.

No matter what someone says regarding the unimportance of 40 times, or how much a player can bench press, the reality is those measurements are VERY important. If they weren't, then why is everyone going back to Indianapolis in February to see a bunch of college kids run, jump, and throw? The Combine is a very big deal. Very.

We now have the official invite list for the Combine. Dan Kadar at Mocking The Draft has some notes regarding who was and wasn't invited:

Notable snubs include Levy Adcocok (OT, Oklahoma State), Brandon Brooks (G, Miami-OH), Donnie Fletcher (CB, Boston College), Aaron Henry (S, Wisconsin), Julian Miller (DE, West Virginia), Bobby Rainey (RB, Western Kentucky), Brad Smelley (TE, Alabama) and Keith Tandy (CB, West Virginia).

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Last week, the de facto No. 1 overall pick for the 2012 NFL Draft, Andrew Luck, was in Indianapolis for five years to do a round of interviews while also doing some corporate product pimping for Gatorade. We posted one of his interviews from that junket already, but yesterday Peter King of SI transcribed his very brief sit down with Luck and included it in his final Monday Morning Quarterback article for the 2011 season.

The interview is a bit light on substance, including a rather obvious pitch for the Gatorade products he was pitching while in Indy, but a few nuggets of info are worth highlighting.

• Luck is working out in Los Angeles with Athletes Performance Institute.
• He called the experience in Indianapolis, answering all sorts of questions about his future, made him feel like 'a laboratory rat.'
• At Stanford, he didn't just call his own plays at the line of scrimmage, but made suggestions for the game plan.

Luck ended his interview with King with this:

Me: What else do you think will help you as you take the next step to the NFL?

Luck: "I pretty much have an unquenchable thirst for football knowledge.''

As King points out in the article, somewhere, after reading that Luck quote, Indianapolis offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has a big, fat grin on his face.

Since 2007, the New York Giants have won two world championships while the Indianapolis Colts have... none. A big reason why is the spectacular draft record of Giants G.M. Jerry Reese, and the rather putrid record of former-Colts president Bill Polian during that span.

Yes, from 2007-2011, the Colts made the playoffs four times. They also played in a Super Bowl. However, their overall playoff record during that stretch was 2-3, with three one-and-done trips.

The Giants made the post-season only twice during that same stretch. Both times, they won the Super Bowl.

No matter how much we argue, the Giants are indeed more successful during that span than the Colts. Team greatness is based on championships, and a franchise that makes the playoffs only twice in five years, but wins the Super Bowl during both those trips, will be viewed as having a better five years than the team who seemingly got to the playoffs every year, but did little when they got there.

So, how did New York get so good? Simple, they drafted better than Indy did.

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Super Bowl XLVI is in the books, and we now have a full and complete draft order for the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. SB Nation's Ryan Van Bibber has posted his first post-Super Bowl mock, and it should come as no surprise that he has selected Trent Richardson, RB from Alabama, with the No. 1 overall pick.

Ha! I kid. I kid. He took Luck. Of course he took Luck.

1. Indianapolis Colts, Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford

Unless you've been living in a Tebow-induced state of semi-rapture, you know the ugly dance going on between the Colts and Peyton Manning. He's leaving town next month, iffy neck and all. Lost in ridiculous cable shouting matches is the fact that the Colts have a new regime. New regimes mean new quarterbacks, especially when the incumbent quarterback is in his mid thirties, coming off major neck surgery and due a gazillion dollars. At the end of the day, the NFL is just a business. Peyton Manning is just another redundancy on the ledger sheet.

After Luck, it gets interesting,especially for teams looking to trade up and get Baylor's Robert Griffin III.

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The Colts are going to draft Andrew Luck No. 1 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft.

You can write that down. No, check that. You can chisel that in marble. It will happen.

The reason it will happen is because, for the last two plus years, Andrew Luck has played at a very high level. He's shown remarkable consistency regardless of circumstances. It didn't matter if Jim Harbaugh or David Shaw was his head coach. Luck still went out there and threw for 3,300-plus yards, 30-plus TDs, and completed 70% of his passes the last two years. Remarkable consistency, and it is that consistency which people often cite as giving him a leg-up on other players, like Baylor's Robert Griffin III.

RG3 had a spectacular junior year last year, but that was the only year where he put up big, impressive numbers on par with Luck's. Other quarterback prospects from years past in the same boat with RG3, in that regard, are named Leaf and Harrington. I'm not saying Griffin will bust like those guys did, but a BIG red flag about early first round quarterbacks is often, 'How consistent was he in college year-to-year?'

Want another comparison between RG3 and Ryan Leaf? Like Leaf in 1998, who trash-talked Peyton Manning prior to the April draft, Griffin is yapping about Andrew Luck.

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