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NFL Draft Grades 2016: Football Outsiders compiles GPA for Colts' draft

Football Outsiders looked at seven different draft grades to provide a GPA for each team's draft class.

Butch Dill-USA TODAY Sports

NFL Draft grades aren't the most exciting or useful thing in the world, but what they do is portray a picture of what a person thinks of the players drafted by each team.  This is usually based off of the work done on the players beforehand, so it can be helpful.

I find that these draft grades are most helpful, however, when looking at several of them rather than just one or two.  Of course draft grades are subjective and done before a single game is played, but when comparing what several different analysts say, an overall opinion begins to emerge.  That's exactly what Football Outsiders does, as they compiled seven different draft grades to make their draft GPA.

For the Colts this year, their GPA is at 3.09 - which ranks them 12th in the NFL.  They had a standard deviation of 0.50, which was 13th in the league - meaning that there was somewhat of a consensus.  The highest grade the Colts received among the seven surveyed was from CBS's Pete Prisco (an A) while the lowest was from Rotoworld's Chris Silva (a C+).  Here are all of the grades for the Colts that were included in the GPA:

Mel Kiper, ESPN: B

Rob Rang, NFLDraftScout.com: B

Pete Prisco, CBS: A

Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News: B

Evan Silva, Rotoworld: C+

Chris Burke, Sports Illustrated: B+

Dan Kadar, SB Nation: B

In short, the Colts had a nice, solid draft class that was acknowledged as such by the majority of those in the media.  I think that this metric of accounting for several different mock drafts does help to provide a clearer view of the team's draft, and their GPA this year is at 3.09.

The emphasis on adding offensive linemen to help protect Andrew Luck certainly added to the positive reception, as numerous people were clamoring for just that for months leading up to the draft.  The Colts certainly addressed that in a major way by adding Ryan Kelly in the first round, Le'Raven Clark in the third round, Joe Haeg in the fifth round, and Austin Blythe in the seventh round, grabbing one sure starter and three other talented players who could also make the roster.