With the choice made and more time to think about the choice, Ballard went on to explain why Richardson was her type in the episode.
“I didn’t want to look up and see him being a superstar somewhere else,” Ballard said. “If he becomes a superstar, he becomes a superstar for the Colts.”
Richardson to the Colts was a fairly well-kept secret, and Ballard was heard imploring his fellow scouts not to name QBs ahead of the draft. Some believed Will Levis might be the Colts’ pick, but the Kentucky QB fell through to Round 2, where he was drafted by division rivals Tennessee.
Richardson appears to have the highest ceiling of all this year’s QB prospects, as Colt’s director of college scouting Morocco Brown dubbed him “a unicorn with purple horns” because Richardson’s combination of athleticism, height and arm talent is so rare.
“I’ll give it to Chris,” Brown said. “He has a hard stomach to sit and wait and he didn’t flinch.”
Ballard has downplayed the importance of the Colts’ picking No. 4 throughout the pre-draft process, but it could undoubtedly be tied to his own future at Indianapolis along with the futures of the staff he has been building there. The Colts fired head coach Frank Reich midseason last year and did not bring back interim head coach Jeff Saturday this season.
Now Richardson is in the hands of Shane Steichen and his staff, and it will be the rookie head coach’s job to elicit from Richardson what he did to MVP runner-up Jalen Hurts when they were in Philadelphia together.
“There are certain things he brings to the table that we’re so excited about,” Steichen said.