Re-Grading the Colts 2017 Draft

Let’s take a look back and regrade the Colts Drafts of the Chris Ballard era. Starting with the 1st year of his tenure: 2017.

Let’s go back to 2017...

Distracted boyfriend became the meme of the year.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 were hitting the big screens.

Kendrick Lamar dropped DAMN. and everyone was listening to Despacito.

It was a simpler time.

The Colts hired Chris Ballard to be their new General Manager after the tumultuous end to the Ryan Grigson era, kept Chuck Pagano as a lame duck Head Coach, and were hoping to get Andrew Luck to come back from his shoulder injury that required offseason work (spoiler alert: it took much longer than expected).

How did Ballard’s 1st draft class turn out? In this series, we will regrade all of Ballard’s drafts from 2017-2022 that have had the standard minimum of 3 seasons of tape needed to evaluate in chronological order. Let’s start with the one that started it all: 2017.

Full 2017 Draft Results

• Round 1, Pick 15: Malik Hooker, S, Ohio State | C+
• Round 2, Pick 46: Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | F
• Round 3, Pick 80: Tarell Basham, DE, Ohio | F+
• Round 4, Pick 137: Zach Banner, T, USC | F+
• Round 4, Pick 143: Marlon Mack, RB, UCF | B+
• Round 4, Pick 144: Grover Stewart, DT, Albany State | A+
• Round 5, Pick 158: Nate Hairston, CB, Temple | C
• Round 5, Pick 161: Anthony Walker Jr., LB, Northwestern | A-

This one is a weird class to grade. On the one hand, none of Ballard’s first 4 draft picks were hits at their value (though Hooker is at the “meh” level rather than bust of the other 3). This class was also a perfect example of why you can’t evaluate a class after 1 or even 2 years, as many players had their careers take stark and sharp turns after Year 1 (or Year 2) that really changed how this class was graded.

Malik Hooker was a high impact ballhawking Free Safety, but injuries limited his availability to just 36/64 possible regular season games during his rookie deal, including ACL and MCL tears, 2 hip injuries, a pedal foot injury and a meniscus tear, leading to him not being retained afterwards. Ironically, Hooker has remained completely healthy since signing with the Cowboys in 2021, becoming a crucial starter for them over the last 4 years.

Ballard’s evaluation wasn’t off here, he took a risk on a fantastic collegiate playmaker who had some injury concerns coming out, and Hooker showed both the promise of playmaking (7 INTs in first 3 seasons, phenomenal deep safety ability) as well as other injury red flags popping up. Still for a mid 1st round pick, you hope the impact extends beyond 2 seasons’ worth of games in his rookie deal, as well as long term beyond...