Perceived by anyone who watched the team the prior season I suppose. Hard to believe that anyone could see a team that's got an improving 1st round pick and a free agent signee coming off a good season starting at DT could go into a draft thinking a DT is such a need to use a 1st round selection at the position. BTW, as I recall Lanford had a good season with the Colts but then had an issue with his knee which pretty much did him in.
Not arguing. I don't remember what were their needs in the 2014 draft? They took LT, DT / S / RB / S / no 5th rd / CB, QB / OL, DB, DE, OL.
QB? They had Bradford. Unfortunately he was injured in preseason and missed the year.
OL? They had Jake Long at LT. Saffold at LG. Wells at C. The acquired Davin Joseph for RG and they had Barksdale at RT. They drafted GRob.
TE? They had Cook and Kendricks
WR? They had Britt, Bailey, Pettis, Quick and Tavon Austin. After
Watkins,
Evans and
OBJ, who was left?
Cooks went 20th.
Matthews,
Davante, ARob and
Landry went in the 2nd.
Six are still playing from that draft.
RB? They had Stacy, Richardson, Cunningham and Pead. They drafted Mason in the third (the 5th RB off the board) but that was a weak class.
The defense was decent.
They had Quinn, Chris Long and William Hayes who IIRC, played inside and DE.
Brockers and Langford inside. They drafted AD.
At linebacker they had Ogletree, JL and acquired Dunbar.
Corner was solid with Tru Jo, Jenkins and McGee. They drafted EJ Gaines.
Safeties were McLeod and McDonald. They drafted Joyner and Mo Alexander.
I don't remember what their specific needs were though. Looking back that seems like it was a weak draft anyway.