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Draft day is finally here, and it should be a very interesting day with a number of story lines. The most notable one is that of Marcus Mariota, and it will be interesting to see which team - if any - moves up to get him. The Eagles remain a real possibility, it seems. And also, what about Adrian Peterson? Will he be traded tonight? And will players like La'El Collins and Randy Gregory fall out of the first round? These are some of the story lines to be watching, but for the Colts, here's another one: will the Colts make a trade?
We looked at the possibility earlier this week and how the team isn't ruling it out, and this morning came an interesting report from the Monday Morning Quarterback's Peter King saying that teams near the top of the second round may be looking to jump back in near the end of the first round, particularly to grab offensive lineman T.J. Clemmings or USC wide receiver Nelson Agholor. Writes King:
I could see Tennessee (at 33), Oakland (35), the Jets (37) and Jacksonville (36) being aggressive for a wideout, if they didn't land one earlier in the first round. I could see Tampa Bay (34) trying to get up for Clemmings.
As for teams that could move down: Carolina (25), Baltimore (26), Indianapolis (29) and particularly New England (32) would be logical candidates.
Note that King doesn't mention that the Colts are looking to trade necessarily, but what this report does seem to indicate is that the team would have potential trade partners if they do indeed want to trade out of the first round. General manager Ryan Grigson didn't rule out this possibility earlier this week either.
"It's not just a big talent grab," Grigson said of picking 29th overall. "You have to be pretty specific and again, a lot of times, you really hope and pray that somebody you thought would be at picks 15 through 20 falls to that spot at the bottom of the draft because other areas I feel are pretty deep. We're hoping that happens and we don't get stuck."
The language that Grigson uses of getting stuck is particularly interesting, because it sounds like the team would be willing to move out of the first round if nobody they really like falls to them. As for team owner and CEO Jim Irsay, he also didn't rule out trading either up or down in the draft, saying that they are both possibilities.
In short, I don't anticipate the Colts entering tonight's draft with trading out of the first round as their top priority. But at the same time, I don't think they're going to just force a pick at 29 that they don't love but would instead seek to trade back. According to Peter King, it sounds like there might be several teams early in the second round looking to do so. The value of the Colts' first round pick and their second round pick would be similar, and Indy could gain an extra pick by making a trade. So hopefully a player the Colts love falls to them at pick 29, but if not, it's entirely possible that we could see them make a trade with one of the teams that sounds willing to do so.