Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
The Indianapolis Colts used their 24th pick in the NFL Draft Thursday night on DE Bjoern Werner out of Florida State. The pick was a solid one for the team as they needed to address that position. The defensive front was pretty thin last year as they had to adapt to a new base 3-4 scheme with 4-3 players.
Indianapolis brought in veteran Cory Redding in free agency last year but didn’t really have anyone else to play those positions. In this year’s free agency they brought in Ricky-Jean Francois who can play both defensive end and tackle but still needed at least one more guy.
That’s where Werner came in. He can help out on both the defensive front and in the outside linebacking spots.
Now, many Colts fans are wondering where to go with their weekend picks starting with tonight’s third round pick. As of now that’s the only pick the Colts will have tonight as they traded their second and fifth round picks last year. A lot of fans want them to make a trade to move up to the second round and get two picks tonight, but if the draft plays out to their favor don’t expect that to happen.
The next position the Colts will likely address is going to be another guy for the outside linebacker spot. Most mock drafts have two guys available for the Colts to pick at their spot that could come in and contribute immediately.
The duo is Corey Lemonier out of Auburn and Sean Porter out of Texas A&M should be around with the Colts’ pick in the third round. They honestly couldn’t go wrong either way with picking one of these two. Both could honestly rival new addition Erik Walden for the starting spot opposite of Robert Mathis and would only add depth to the linebacker spot.
Getting a solid outside linebacker with the third round pick means the Colts would have both the defensive line and linebackers solidified. There’s really no threat of these two going in round two or too early in the third round. Why trade up when this is the next need?
I wouldn’t expect the Colts to make any other moves the rest of the night and use their three picks Saturday on the rest of their needs.
There’s some solid corners in the fourth round that should be available for more depth at that spot. From there they could go safety, offensive line or running back. Basically Saturday’s picks will be used for depth and depth only. Indianapolis won’t be looking for starters or really even second-string at that point.
