GREGG DOYEL

Doyel: I don't know what Colts' Grigson and Pagano are doing

Gregg Doyel
gregg.doyel@indystar.com

The Indianapolis Colts didn't have a glaring need for a receiver but picked one in the first round. They didn't have a glaring need for a cornerback but made one their next pick. They signed a defensive end for their 3-4 scheme as a free agent, then picked another one in the third round.

They need a safety now. They picked a safety in the fourth round – one who the experts at NFL.com say isn't ready to be productive.

I'm not mocking the 2015 NFL draft picks submitted over the past three days by Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano.

I just don't know what they're doing.

Caveat to throw out, to be fair: They know. Or they think they know. And they deserve much wiggle room because they're the ones who oversaw the franchise's post-Peyton rise – the Colts went 2-14 in 2011 – to an 11-5 record in each of the three seasons since. They're the ones who put together rosters that have advanced one step further in each of those seasons: playoffs in 2012, AFC semifinals in 2013, AFC Championship Game in 2014.

Super Bowl comes next. And it's Super Bowl or bust for the Colts in 2015. That's the standard by which we – fans, media, the Colts – will judge this 2015 season: Super Bowl. Or bust.

Is that what this draft did? Did it put the Colts closer to the Super Bowl?

I'm asking, because I don't know. And not in that meta sense, that none of us ever really know until we see draft picks on the field. No, I don't mean like that. I mean, like this:

I don't know what Grigson and Pagano just did.

They spent a ton of money this offseason on Super Bowl-or-bust free agents, signing aging – but still productive – receiver Andre Johnson (he'll be 34 this season), running back Frank Gore (32), outside linebacker Trent Cole (33), guard Todd Herremans (33) and defensive end Kendall Langford (29).

The Colts' message during 2015 free agency, which made me stand and applaud: This year, or bust!

The Colts' message during the 2015 draft, which makes me sit and shrug: The next few years, too!

Sounds great, on the surface: The Colts are going for it today, and protecting their flanks for tomorrow.

Big NFL seasons don't happen on the surface.

They happen when a franchise is all in. This sport is too hard, this league too competitive, for anything less. Maybe a franchise like the Patriots (sorry) can afford to look at the upcoming season and also to look ahead, but the Colts are not the Patriots. Off the field, that's awesome. Who wants to be those guys? But on the field, the Patriots have eliminated the Colts in each of the past two postseasons, in humiliating fashion, by shoving the football down the Colts' throat. After a 45-7 loss in the AFC championship game, owner Jim Irsay said the Colts had to get tougher. At the NFL Scouting Combine, Grigson and Pagano said much the same.

The Colts entered this offseason with the ability to improve every position but quarterback, but with glaring needs at four spots: running back, defensive tackle, both safeties. They took care of running back with Gore and one safety by re-signing Mike Adams (34 years old). Defensive tackle? Nothing, though Langford lines up next to him. Sorry, that's the best I got. The other safety? Not much. Veteran depth in Dwight Lowery, who ranked 19th among free agent safeties by Pro Football Focus.

To the draft we go.

And what happened next – what has happened over the past three days – was just … what? What did happen? The Colts drafted Miami receiver Phillip Dorsett, who will be their third wideout (behind T.Y. Hilton and Andre Johnson), maybe fourth (behind Donte Moncrief), and possibly even fifth (behind CFL star Duron Carter). That was the Colts' first-round pick. An offensive player at arguably their deepest position. Look, as Irsay says, Dorsett might just be sensational. But that won't help the Colts tackle anyone.

With their next pick, the first pick of the third round, they drafted cornerback D'Joun Smith of Florida Atlantic – even though they return starters Vontae Davis and Greg Toler and nickel corner Darius Butler. Did the Colts, needing upgrades at safety and defensive tackle, really use their first pick on a backup receiver and their second pick on a backup corner? Looks like it.

They added in the third round a guy who plays the same position as free agent signee Kendall Langford. Former Stanford defensive end Henry Anderson was a "tremendous value pick," Grigson said, meaning he was a great player to get with the 93rd pick. Even if he wasn't a player the Colts needed with the 93rd pick.

The Colts needed a safety, and this is the one they got: Clayton Geathers from Central Florida, a project with a seventh-round (or undrafted free agent) grade, according to NFL.com. The Colts took him in the fourth. Defensive tackle David Parry of Stanford, drafted in the fifth round, projects as a rotational player. With whom will he rotate? The defensive tackles already on roster, the same ones run over by the Patriots in January.

The Colts used their best draft picks to get better at positions they didn't have to get better at, and used the rest of them – the projects, the long shots – to address positions they have to improve right now.

This isn't me yelling at Grigson and Pagano. This is me scratching my head, wondering if they're smarter than everyone else.

Or the alternative to that.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel