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The 2018 NFL Draft class for the Indianapolis Colts was arguably the best haul in the NFL — composed of eight players who started three games or more Youth Devin Funchess Jersey , the Defensive Rookie of the Year and arguably..."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Colts StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Colts NewsYahoo Colts Team PageYahoo Colts ReportYahoo Colts Depth ChartYahoo Colts TransactionsYahoo Colts PhotosShop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub ✕NFL DraftThe ‘misses’ of the 2018 NFL Draft for the Indianapolis ColtsNew,27commentsESTShareTweetShareShareThe ‘misses’ of the 2018 NFL Draft for the Indianapolis ColtsTrevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY SportsThe 2018 NFL Draft class for the Indianapolis Colts was arguably the best haul in the NFL — composed of eight players who started three games or more, the Defensive Rookie of the Year and arguably the best guard in all of football. But who were some of the names Chris Ballard and the Indy front office missed out on?Not every draft pick is a slam dunk, and not every athlete reaches his full potential in Year One. Even with as good as this class was, some talents taken later in the draft may turn out better five or 10 years down the road. Here are some of the best players from the 2018 NFL Draft that the Colts could’ve had, if not for their actual selections.Round one, pick sixThe pick: Guard Quenton NelsonThe miss: Safety Derwin JamesIt’s extremely hard to argue that any prospect taken after Quenton Nelson would be considered a ‘miss,’ after the Colts locked up a generational talent at the guard position and started a movement toward protecting Andrew Luck. Nelson started every game this season and earned Pro Bowl and All Pro honors in his debut season, the first guard to do so since Zach Martin.Beyond Nelson (and the Colts next draft pick), safety Derwin James of the Los Angeles Chargers (pick No. 17) and linebacker Leighton Vander Esch of the Dallas Cowboys (pick No. 19) were the two rookies selected after Nelson to make either All Pro team. I’ll give the edge to James over Vander Esch, since the rookie out of Boise State had a slow start to the year, but it’s hard to say either would've been a better pick over Nelson.Round two, pick 36 & 37The picks: Linebacker Darius Leonard & tackle Braden SmithThe miss: Wide receiver Courtland Sutton? Josh Jackson?Between the picks of Leonard and Smith, there weren’t too many eye-popping talents that hinted at a clear miss from the Indianapolis organization. With that in mind, these selections came down to two of the Colts’ bigger position needs this season — wide receiver and cornerback.Sutton grew into a nice No. 2 role in Denver with 704 receiving yards and four touchdowns, while Jackson had 49 tackles in 10 starts for the Packers. However, much like the Colts first-round selection, it’s impossible to say the Colts regret drafting the defensive rookie of the year and a right tackle who would start 13 games in 2018.Round two, pick 52The pick: Defensive end Kemoko TurayThe miss: Safety Jessie BatesOf the 11 players drafted between Turay and Indianapolis’ final second-round pick, a few missed 2018 with injury and some just did not pan out. Meanwhile, Turay appeared in 16 games and started in three, totaling 13 quarterback hits, four sacks and one forced fumble.Out of Wake Forest, safety Jessie Bates was a full-year starter for the Cincinnati Bengals and amassed 111 tackles, seven pass deflections and three interceptions. Indianapolis does have a young duo of safeties in Malik Hooker and Clayton Geathers, but Bates was an all-rookie selection had one of the best opposing passer ratings (46.4) for a full-time safety.Round two, pick 64The pick: Defensive lineman Tyquan LewisThe miss: Safety Justin ReidThe 2018 class of safeties is one of the most deep position groups from last year’s draft, and yet another one makes the all rookie team after being selected four picks behind the Colts selection of Tyquan Lewis out of Ohio State.The Stanford product ranked inside the top 20 safeties by Pro Football Focus this season, and had 88 tackles and 10 pass deflections to go along with an impressive 101-yard pick six. Lewis was able to muster two sacks in six career starts J'Marcus Webb Jersey Stitched , but also missed the first two months of the NFL season while on the injured reserve list. Round four, pick 104The pick: Running back Nyheim HinesThe miss: Defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand? Maurice Hurst? Maybe a punter?Two of the bigger fourth-round names were both on the defensive line: Da’Shawn Hand was an All-Rookie selection for the Lions despite missing three games, and Maurice Hurst had four sacks in 10 starts for the barren Oakland Raiders. Hand’s fit in Indy is a little shaky given he’s more suited for a 3-4 base scheme, but he was one of the best interior defensive lineman in his debut year, while Hurst played in an aggressive 4-3 scheme under Paul Guenther. Aside from those two, Michael Dickson was terrific on special teams for Seattle this season and was one of the better punters in football.Hines fit a niche role in the Colts’ offense this year, as the speedy, change-of-pass back to complement Marlon Mack and their fifth-round draft choice. He was third on the team in receptions and was fourth in total yards from scrimmage. In an offense that wants to feature as many personnel as possible, Hines was one of the better late-round gets for Ballard.Round five, pick 159The pick: Wide receiver Daurice FountainThe miss: Running back Jaylen SamuelsIf the Colts had passed on Nyheim Hines with their last pick, his NC State teammate Jaylen Samuels would’ve done just fine in his place. After hiding behind James Connor in Pittsburg, Samuels made the most of his three appearances while Connor was injured — averaging 5.5 yards per touch (7.7 yards per reception) for 455 combined yards and three receiving touchdowns.Fountain struggled to get things going in his rookie season, and appeared in just one game in Week 14 after spending the previous 13 weeks on the practice squad. The Northern Iowa product did remain on the active roster from Week 14 on, but didn’t appear again until garbage time in Kansas City — where he dropped a would-be touchdown.Round five, pick 169The pick: Running back Jordan WilkinsThe miss: Wide receiver Marquez Valdes-ScantlingWilkins served as a complement to Mack and Hines this season, and averaged 5.6 yards per rushing attempt with a smaller sample size of just 60 attempts. He did start three games for Indy, and had his first and only touchdown in Week 11 against Tennessee.Valdes-Scantling saw his role in the Green Bay offense fluctuate throughout the season. He had two 100-yard receiving outings, but also had six games with under 20 receiving yards.Round six, pick 185The pick: Wide receiver Deon CainThe miss: Wide receiver Equanimeous St. BrownIn round six, the Colts trade a budding wide receiver who missed the season with injury for another Green Bay wideout that had an okay (?) season. The potential that Cain showed in the preseason is something the Colts will want to hold onto in hopes for a healthy return in 2019. Meanwhile, Brown had an up-and-down year that finished with a career game against the Jets with five catches for 94 yards.Round seven, pick 221The pick: Linebacker Matthew AdamsThe miss: Wide receiver Marcell Ateman (but actually no one)It’s so rare to find a starter in the last round of the NFL draft, but the Colts were able to get five starts, 33 tackles and five tackles for loss from the rookie out of Houston. The only draft pick between Adams and their final selection to start more games was wide out Marcell Ateman for the Oakland Raiders — who had 154 receiving yards in six starts for the black and silver.Round seven, pick 235The pick: Linebacker Zaire FranklinThe miss: Running back Justin JacksonExcluding those who were picked up as undrafted free agents, Northwestern running back Justin Jackson seemed to be the most productive in the last 20 picks of the NFL draft. In 13 games and one start for the Chargers, Jackson had 341 yards from scrimmage two rushing touchdowns on 50 rush attempts.Franklin, out of Syracuse, appeared in every game this season and made two starts at linebacker — racking up 29 tackles and one pass deflection. Despite a really critical loss last week to the Jacksonville Jaguars Youth Chester Rogers Jersey , the hit to the confidence of Colts fans in our weekly FanPulse survey was minimal. What I believe this shows is that our most informed fans understand that this season was never only about the results in the win-loss column. A lot of our confidence has been determined by the progress we have observed.This season the Colts have shown promise in all the ways we hoped they would. They have a key piece in Darius Leonard who can anchor the defense for years to come. Tyquan Lewis and Kemoko Turay might not be the answers to all the defensive line’s problems, but they have shown promise. Free agent additions like Denico Autry and Eric Ebron have had strong showings and have looked great over stretches.On offense, they seem to have truly “fixed” the offensive line with the incredible performances of their two rookies Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith. Mark Glowinski has been another pleasant surprise, and when healthy this line is one of the better lines in the league. Their tight end group has a lot of talent, though they’ve struggled when Jack Doyle is out, which he has been for much of this season. As a team, they are greatly improved in terms of talent and upside.There are plenty of questions that remain though. The wide receiver group is one of the worst in football. Behind T.Y. Hilton is a vast echoing abyss of nothingness with only the sound of a football being dropped reverberating across its space. The cornerbacks are equally rough, unable to play with consistency from one week to the next. They have made some truly middling quarterbacks look very talented.The defensive line will likely need to be upgraded as well, as guys like Al Woods get older and they continue to look for disruptive pass rushers who can make an impact. The talent they have drafted and signed have no doubt improved the group, and their rookies could continue to develop, but until they can land a true difference making pass rusher, they won’t be able to really take the next step as a defense.They are still a roster with a great deal of need, but with a quarterback playing at a top 5 level and a head coach who has transformed their offense into a much more dynamic and modern attacking group, they have been able to place themselves in a position to compete this season. Because of this, it would be easy to be frustrated if this team doesn’t achieve a playoff berth.We don’t watch teams to see them improve, we want them to win. However, Chris Ballard was pretty straightforward in saying that this process would take time, and a look at the scarce talent hanging around from Ryan Grigson’s drafts (Luck, Hilton, Geathers, Kelly, Clark, Haeg) is all you need to see to know how tall the task was to rehab this roster. It was never going to happen overnight, but it is happening perhaps faster than was fair to expect.Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty ImagesThe 2018 draft went perhaps better than any in recent memory, and while it is too early to know for sure how good this class is, they have certainly jump started the “rebuild” of this roster. While some like Darius Leonard and Quenton Nelson are bona fide stars, there are many that have contributed a great deal and could improve with time.In addition to the impact of the picks made this year, the trade last year with the Jets is the gift that keeps on giving. While the Colts were able to use their picks from the Jets to take Quenton Nelson and Braden Smith, that last 2nd round pick is now starting to look like a pretty nice cherry on top as well. If the season were to end today Chester Rogers Jersey Stitched , it would be the 36th pick in the draft. This year’s 36th pick? Darius Leonard. In other words, there are very good players available at that spot.As it currently stands, the Colts have the opportunity to add 3 picks in the top 50 of the coming draft. If Chris Ballard has a comparable draft to the one he had in 2018 I don’t think it is a reach to say this team has the potential to be a real contender in 2019. On top of their draft, there is the Colts’ cap space for 2019. They’ll have $123.65M available according to Spotrac when the new league year begins. While I don’t expect Ballard to dramatically alter his strategy, I do expect him to spend. He’ll probably re-sign some players, work extensions with a few, and bring in a fair number of free agents if there are solid options are available.Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty ImagesThose expecting him to break the bank for players have a) not been paying attention and b) will likely be very disappointed. Overpaying for a player isn’t a good strategy, even if you have the money to do it. In the long run, it hurts the team, and that is not how Ballard operates.He will need to spend, and given how well the Colts did, I expect them to be looking for pieces that might have been considered less likely for them to pursue last season. However, the big name flashy guys are rarely going to be fits for what Chris Ballard is looking for. He has been crystal clear about his philosophy, and that is that you build the primary part of your team’s talent from the draft. However, I do expect him to spend, as well as to reward the play of those in the building who have earned it. On top of the additions to the roster, there is the inherent improvement of a team that is both very young and playing for the first time in a scheme on both offense and defense. The Colts have had more snaps given to 1st and 2nd year players of any team in the NFL this season. Player growth and improvement alone will account for team wide improvement as these players hone their craft.Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty ImagesAndrew Luck will enter his second season with the same offense. He has only had two other times in his career where his offensive coordinator has remained the same two years in a row. Those years? 2014 and 2016. If you’ll recall, he had pretty good seasons during both those years. If his second year working with Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni yields the same kinds of improvements in terms of his own play, we could easily be looking at an MVP type year for Luck. In other words, the Colts look like a team that has outperformed expectations this season despite having a lot of known holes on their roster. They have all the pieces in place to take the next step forward, and Chris Ballard has shown himself to be level headed, intentional, and adept at selecting pieces that fit well in the Colts’ system and improve the roster. It has been perplexing to many when we have posted the fan base’s FanPulse results, why Colts fans have remained so optimistic despite some truly disappointing losses and a very rough start to the season. This is the reason. While there have been some bumps this season, over all, it has been a success. We can see the makings of a very good team. What’s more, that reality is not far off.