GM Chris Ballard indicated Colts tried to trade up for offensive player from #15 pick

The Colts were active in trade talks trying to trade up from the 15th overall pick, but couldn’t find a willing trade partner.

According to general manager Chris Ballard, the Indianapolis Colts tried trading up from the #15th overall pick for a top offensive player, but were obviously unsuccessful in their attempts to find a willing trade partner—despite making “big offers” (via StampedeBlue’s Chris Shepherd):

This candor by Ballard indicates that some of the recent smoke connecting the Colts as one of the teams most aggressively trying to trade up into the Top 10 may have been actually accurate.

That being said, it’s all for naught, as the Colts couldn’t find a taker willing to swap back to #15—and it’s likely that one of the top 3 wideouts and/or Georgia tight Brock Bowers were the intended targets.

Instead, the Colts selected UCLA edge Laiatu Latu making him the first defensive prospect selected after the first fourteen picks were all on offensive players (including six quarterbacks within the draft’s first twelve picks).

What does this mean going forward on draft weekend?

Well, if I were a betting man (which I’m not), I think there’s a fairly strong likelihood that the Colts look to provide 2nd-year starting quarterback Anthony Richardson a wideout (and likely one with deep speed) within ‘Day 2’ of the 2024 NFL Draft.

So stay tuned, Colts fans—as it appears that offensive help is incoming, even if it’s not necessarily the ‘big fish’ that Indianapolis was initially hoping for early on.