Colts GM Chris Ballard Talks Daniel Jones, Alec Pierce, NFL Draft, More wRich Eisen

Colts general manager Chris Ballard joined The Rich Eisen Show for a wide-ranging post-draft interview that touched on the new eight-minute first-round clock, his class out of Indianapolis, the Daniel Jones contract, and a long detour through Indiana football.

Rich opened with the new draft pacing. Ballard, a self-described pacer, gave the eight-minute clock a full endorsement.

"It was great," Ballard said. "Because we're not there till midnight. We can get it done. Teams know what they're going to do. If we're going to make a trade, there's been enough talk beforehand."

Ballard would go further. Five minutes a pick in round one would be fine with him. So would shorter clocks on day three.

"If we've not got in our minds what we're doing, like if we're on the clock and we're still debating who we're taking, it's a little late," he said.

Rich pushed back, jokingly, that Roger Goodell had cut into his own NFL Network airtime. Ballard was unmoved.

On the Colts' top selection, Georgia linebacker CJ Allen, Ballard pointed to the standard he applies to any young Bulldog who plays early.

"Anytime a young player goes in and plays right away at Georgia on defense, they got something to him," Ballard said. He cited Allen's mentality, athleticism, and toughness, and said he expects an early ascent. Players still have to prove it, Ballard added. That's the draft.

The class hit defense hard, added to the offensive line and running back room, and produced a Day 3 surprise. Wideout Dyshon Burks, who Daniel Jeremiah had ranked in his top 70, fell to one of the final picks of the draft.

"I started pulling out tape from Purdue the other day, this is after we took him, and I called Shane," Ballard said. "I said, holy cow, what luck. How this kid was here this late, I don't know. I'm just glad he was."

Rich raised the harder topic. Last season's Achilles injury to the Colts' starting quarterback came right after Ballard had flipped two first-round picks for cornerback Sauce Gardner. Was that bad luck?

Ballard refused to play the card.

"Nobody cares about your problems," Ballard said. "They're just glad you got them. It's our job to figure it out no matter the circumstances. We didn't get it done. I'm not going to sit there and use injuries as an excuse."

On Daniel Jones, Ballard sounded settled. He compared Jones to Alex Smith from his Kansas City days for steady daily preparation. He admitted he had underestimated Jones's accuracy before getting him in the building.

"This dude is accurate now," Ballard said. "When he's in rhythm and really in a groove, he is excellent."

The two-year, $88 million contract took work. Both sides, Ballard said, had to leave a little stinging. He gave credit to the Athletes First team of Brian Murphy and Andrew Kessler.

"It's usually when you get one done at any big contract, both sides are going to sting a little bit," Ballard said. "You're not going to get everything you want. But these are human beings. You don't ever want a guy to sign with you and then be looking around going, man, these guys just screwed me. That's not good for your team."

On the Alec Pierce extension, Ballard offered a clean line.

"You never overpay a good player," he said.

He credited Pierce's third-year leap to a refusal to sulk after the Colts drafted AD Mitchell. Pierce came into Ballard's office and asked what the pick meant for him. The answer Ballard gave him was four words. Nothing. Means nothing. Go to work.

On Anthony Richardson, Ballard kept it tight. Richardson is still a Colt as of right now. They'll work through it. Riley Leonard remains on the roster.

The interview closed on Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti, whom Ballard, a Wisconsin man, has been studying from a distance. The turnaround Cignetti has engineered, in Ballard's view, is among the great ones in college football history.

"In the history of college football is there a better turnaround?" Ballard asked. "What gets swept under the rug is how good an evaluator he is. They went and got players that he knew fit what he wanted and he believed in them."

Rich and Ballard closed by trading shots about Michigan basketball cutting down a net in Indianapolis. Ballard, briefly, had the last word.