Chris Ballard was completely happy that the Colts have been in a position to land quarterback Anthony Richardson with the fourth choose within the 2023 NFL Draft.
What he wasn’t as completely happy about was the rumors that swirled round about varied prospects within the lead-up to the draft.
Ballard took a while at his information convention to debate the Colts’ No. four choice to decry among the “crap” that circulated round among the draft’s high prospects.
“All of the crap that comes out about these youngsters, it’s bulls—,” Ballard advised reporters. “Individuals who leak these damaging tales about these youngsters. I do not agree with it. It is bulls—. These guys work their ass off to get to the place they’re.”
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Ballard did not particularly consult with any prospects in his feedback. That mentioned, it is value noting that one of many high quarterback prospects within the draft, C.J. Stroud, was topic to quite a few stories within the remaining weeks of the pre-draft course of that questioned his intelligence in addition to his dedication to the sport.
These rumors induced Stroud to slip in mock drafts despite the fact that he nonetheless ended up being the No. 2 total choose by the Texans.
As talked about, Ballard did not particularly reference these rumors, however he felt the necessity to defend the prospects who had their ability units questions.
“There are good youngsters that I assumed needed to take a bit of little bit of a beating that they should not have,” Ballard mentioned.
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Ballard has a degree. The NFL Draft rumor mill is a sport of cat-and-mouse between sources and reporters, and sources typically have a hidden agenda in the event that they need a participant to fall into their laps. As such, reporters must watch out to not view every little thing these sources say as gospel.
However on the identical time, it’s the duty of reporters to, nicely, report damaging tales as nicely. So, it may be powerful to steadiness amid the hypothesis that persistently surrounds the NFL Draft.
