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The Colts are hosting standout LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers for a pre-draft visit on Thursday. Nabers compiled 1,569 yards and 14 touchdowns with the Tigers last season and is projected as one of the top wide receivers in the draft. It’s a position of need for the Colts, without question, so they should definitely be interested in targeting that position in the draft. But by all accounts, Nabers will be long gone before the Colts even sniff the board with the No. 15 overall pick. Is there more than meets the eye and are the Colts planning a massive swing on draft night?
The most logical answer is: No.
For Chris Ballard and company to be high on Nabers is one thing but barring a massive trade up they are never going to even get the chance to even draft him. That kind of swing would be completely foreign to the Colts under Ballard, especially for a position that Ballard has historically de-valued as his time as General Manager.
Not only that but the compensation the Colts would have to give up in order to move up from 15 to in the range of Nabers would be costly. I haven’t seen Nabers going any lower than No. 6 on mock drafts, meaning the Colts would need to find a way to move up at least nine spots in a draft that is loaded with big name talent at the top of the draft. Those spots aren’t going cheap, which means the Colts are likely sending multiple high-value picks on top of their No. 15 overall pick.
I just don’t see any of that happening, which makes the visit with Nabers ever more head-scratching. There’s doing your due diligence and then there is being incredibly over optimistic of your draft status or Nabers taking a huge tumble on draft night (even so, you’d still have to likely move up to have a shot at him). Washington’s Rome Odunze seems to be the only potential receiver of the top 3 projected that could maybe be in and around 15, but even he is shown going off the board in the top-10.
Maybe there is something we don’t know and won’t be privy to until draft night but we’ll have to wait and see on that. For now, it seems like an odd visit for a player who should be long gone before the Colts even appear on the bottom crawl of the screen to show their draft position.
