Colts named among the best teams at drafting in the first round

Pro Football Focus recently compiled its list of the five best teams at drafting in the first round over the last decade and the five worst teams during that stretch.

The Indianapolis Colts found themselves listed among the best during that stretch of years, along with the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Buffalo Bills.

Two of the five worst drafting teams are members of the AFC South, with both Jacksonville and Tennessee listed.

Below are the Colts first-round selections that contributed to their top-five ranking and a snippet of what PFF had to say about the picks:

2023: QB Anthony Richardson

2021: Edge Kwity Paye

2018: G Quenton Nelson

2017: S Malik Hooker

2016: C Ryan Kelly

2015: WR Phillip Dorsett

“The Colts didn’t have a first-round draft pick between 2018 and 2021, but that leaves them with an impressive run of hits, particularly if Anthony Richardson can build on an impressive start and become a true franchise quarterback.”

At this early stage of Richardson’s career, we obviously don’t have enough of a sample size to determine whether that pick in last year’s draft was a home run or not, but the upside he possesses is tremendous.

Paye, meanwhile, has continued to progress each season and set a career-high in sacks in 2023 with 8.5–the second-most on the team, behind only Samson Ebukam.

The combination of Nelson and Kelly form one of the best guard-center duos in the NFL and are the core of the Colts’ offensive line unit. Among all guards and centers last season, Kelly ranked first in pass-blocking efficiency, while Nelson ranked ninth.

Injuries in 2017 and 2020 would unfortunately derail Hooker’s career with the Colts to a degree, but he was a starter on the back end during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. In 2018, he was PFF’s 15th highest-graded safety and has spent the last three seasons in Dallas, two of which he was a starter.

As PFF noted, the biggest miss was on Dorsett, who possessed lightning-quick speed but never turned into that reliable vertical presence that the Colts hoped he would become.

Dorsett lasted only two seasons in Indianapolis, catching 54 percent of his targets for 753 yards with three touchdowns. The 528 yards he posted in 2016 with the Colts have been the most in a single-season during his career.

The Colts hold the 15th overall pick in this year’s draft and will hope to keep this largely good trend of strong first-round selections going.

Unless GM Chris Ballard goes off-script, receiver, cornerback, and edge rusher seem to be the three positions most likely for the Colts to add to in this year’s draft.