Chris Ballard, Chuck Pagano set to hold press conferences at next week’s NFL Combine

The NFL Scouting Combine gets underway in Indianapolis next week, and there are a lot of different aspects of the Combine that people like to follow. The top prospects in the upcoming draft have the chance to meet with teams and conduct workouts, but there’s also another significant thing that happens: the NFL’s general managers and coaches meet with the media.

We don’t get to hear from GMs and coaches during this stretch of the offseason much at all, so it’s always a very valuable time to at least hear from them. For the Colts, both Chris Ballard and Chuck Pagano will speak with the media next week. Ballard will hold a press conference on Wednesday, March 1, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Pagano will then have a press conference on Thursday, March 2, at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Here’s the full interview schedule for coaches and GMs next week:

I’m sure Colts fans will be far, far more interested in hearing from Ballard on Wednesday than Pagano on Thursday, as we haven’t heard from Ballard in a few weeks. He gave his introductory press conference with the Colts, then a Colts.com interview, and then an interview with 1070 the Fan’s JMV, but since then we haven’t heard from the new GM. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say about his thoughts on the team, their needs, the draft, and free agency, since he’ll now have had more time to get acclimated with the Colts and where they need to go.

As far as Pagano goes, it will be interesting to hear his take on the upcoming offseason too, such as what they might be thinking of doing with re-signing guys, in free agency, and the draft. We actually haven’t really heard from Pagano at all about the offseason, as the last time he’s spoken with the media was the day after the season ended, on January 2, in an awkward press conference in which he filibustered before eventually admitting he didn’t know what his future with the Colts would be. He now knows it, however: he’ll be back for a sixth year with the team. So we’ll get a chance to hear from him about where the team might go from here this offseason.

At the very least, it’s good to have the chance to hear from Ballard and Pagano again, and hopefully we’ll get some hints or clues about what they hope to do this offseason. We’ll have complete coverage of both press conferences for you next week.