Quick Hits: Chris Ballard Talks Dayo Odeyingbo, Night 2 of NFL Draft

The Indianapolis Colts made some noise on Friday when their second pick in the 2021 NFL Draft mirrored their first: a defensive end.

The Colts needed a defensive end going into Thursday before adding Kwity Paye, absolutely, but they had other needs to address before adding another in Dayo Odeyingbo.

That is the thought among many fans Friday night, at least.

The man behind the picks, general manager Chris Ballard, spoke to reporters following the second day of the draft on Friday and explained the team's thought process.

Here are the quick hits.

Picking Odeyingbo was a risk the Colts were willing to take: Odeyingbo tore an Achilles tendon in January while preparing for the draft. Despite the injury, his talent was too much to ignore. When asked if picking Odeyingbo was similar to the Colts picking a rehabbing Julian Blackmon last year because the talent was too good to pass up, Ballard agreed.

We thought it was worth the risk. This kid is a unique, unique talent. We would've considered him in the first round if he hadn't got injured. And I think a lot of teams would have. To be honest with you, I was kinda sweatin' it out where we were pickin' if we were gonna be able to get him because we had targeted him. I'm pretty sure he would've gone pretty quickly after us. There were some teams I know that really liked him...

There's no timeline on when he's gonna be ready. We'll let the young man get healthy and when he's ready to go, he'll go...

He is a unique, unique talent. Morocco Brown did a lot of work on him, as did Chad Henry. Morocco gave him a really good nickname, called him "The Human Hurricane."

He's all of 6'5" and 280 pounds with really long arms and really big upside as a rusher. He is as disruptive of a defensive player as we saw on tape this past fall. But excited to get him.

I think we've made our front better on defense. With the losses of (Denico) Autry and Justin (Houston), we knew we had some work to do. And we've still got players there we like. When you wanna have great competition to play, you've gotta have talent. I think we've added talent, and I think it's gonna up the intensity and tempo of the group. They all play hard anyways, but now it's gonna be competition for snaps, and that's a good thing.

Where will Odeyingbo play on the Colts' line?: At 6'5", 285 with 35" arms, Odeyingbo is both big enough to see snaps inside at defensive tackle but agile and mobile enough to play outside at end.

I think he can play anywhere to be quite honest with you. He can play left end, he can kick inside and play the three (technique). I think he can play right end. I think he's got a lot of flexibility.

I think that's the one thing even with Kwity, he can go inside and rush. Tyquan (Lewis) can go inside and rush. (Isaac) Rochell can go inside and rush. So, we've got some guys who've got a lot of flexibility and it's gonna give our staff a chance to really mix and match defensively.

Look, this league's about getting to the quarterback on passing downs, and the ability to keep guys fresh and mix-and-match and get your best four rushers on the field, it's important. It's critical. It's how you win games.

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Two straight defensive linemen aren't too many when you want to create elite depth: Some skeptics might think adding two of the same position creates a luxury rather than addresses needs, but the Colts don't see it that way.

I think you know defensively we're gonna be front-driven. We wanna be able to play eight, nine guys if we can in a rotation. And with the added 17th game, I think it's gonna be really important that we have a strong rotation.

Does drafting two defensive ends mean that veteran free agent Justin Houston will not return?: Now with seven defensive ends on the roster, including five of which are young players who need to get snaps so the Colts can evaluate them, is there room to bring a 32-year-old veteran back?

You know, we've got a pretty full room. We've got a pretty full room. I love Justin, but we've got a pretty full room at this time.

Why offensive tackle wasn't the pick: With Paye addressing one of the Colts' two biggest needs on Thursday, many fans hoped to see the other big need, left tackle, filled on Friday. However, the Colts won't just pick a player to fill a position.

We understand how important the offensive line is. We had some guys go right in front of us. To be honest with you, we had Dayo ranked higher. You just can't force it. We've got time. We've still got four more draft picks, and we've got until September, so we'll continue to work through it...

We’ll see. There are some guys we like that are still in this part of the draft, so we’ll see. Finding a left tackle is not the easiest position to find. There were a lot of really good players on the offensive line and there still are, guys that are going to start in the league, but specifically, a left tackle, we’ll see. Sometimes you need a little luck when you hit on one after the second, third round.

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