Colts hosted 26 prospects at local pro day Wednesday

Today was an eventful day at the Colts’ West 56th Street complex, as they hosted 26 prospects hoping to make an impression in advance of the NFL Draft in a couple of weeks.

The Colts each year host a number of local prospects, whether that means from local colleges or from local high schools who went on to play elsewhere collegiately. Some of the prospects will be drafted, while others are simply hoping to get their name out there so that the Colts - or some other NFL team - notices and gives them a shot.

It’s not too uncommon to see the Colts wind up giving some of these guys a shot, so this list could be useful to have bookmarked for the undrafted free agent signing period after the draft, as it’s possible we could see a couple of them brought back.

This year’s Colts pro day was bigger than it has been in some past years, and that was becasue the NFL now allows Big Ten players to take part in it. So 17 of these players are actually from Big Ten schools (Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue).

Here’s the full list of participants, according to Colts.com’s Kevin Bowen:

Rob Bain, NT, Illinois

Deyshawn Bond, C, Cincinnati

Jarrod “Chunky” Clements, DT, Illinois

Michael Demos, OT, Butler

Dan Feeney, OL, Indiana

Ryan Frain, P, Illinois

Jakhari Gore, RB, Marian

Justin Hardee, WR/CB, Illinois

DeAndre Herron, OT, Emporia State University

Krishawn Hogan, WR, Marian

Ricky Jones, WR, Indiana

Jason King, G, Purdue

Tim Kimbrough, ILB, Georgia

Wes Lunt, QB, Illinois

Marcus Oliver, ILB, Indiana

Mitchell Paige, WR/PR, Indiana

Evan Panfil, DE, Purdue

Cameron Posey, WR, Purdue

Joshua Posley, DE, Ball State

Gimel President, OLB, Illinois

Devine Redding, RB, Indiana

Jordan Roos, G, Purdue

Dawuane Smoot, OLB, Illinois

Jon Toth, OT, Kentucky

Anthony Warrum, WR, Illinois State

Domonique Young, WR, Purdue

Some of these players surely caught the eye of the Colts, as they were put through Combine workouts and individual drills by the coaching staff. Colts GM Chris Ballard told Bowen about some of the positions that in particular were impressive: “I was really impressed with the O-line and the outside linebackers, really good movement. There’s a couple of big wideouts that could really run, so that’s exciting to see.”

What’s interesting about that is the Colts could really be looking to add competition up front along their offensive line, while you can never really have enough wide receiver competition either. And for a Colts team that will be looking to get as much pass rush help as possible, it also makes sense that they’d bring in several outside linebackers. So some of the players that caught the eye of Chris Ballard seem to be at some areas that it’s very possible the Colts want to address. That means we should be paying attention to some of these guys as potential undrafted free agent signings.

That’s one of the biggest bonuses of having this local pro day: it gives the Colts a chance to get to see these prospects up close. That should help them decide whether to draft any of them, but more importantly it should help the Colts decide which (if any) players might be worth bringing in as undrafted free agents shortly after the draft. And the fact that these prospects participated at the Colts’ local pro day should give Indy a slight advantage in that UDFA signing process if there’s multiple teams in pursuit.