Perhaps Indianapolis Colts team owner Jim Irsay wasn’t bluffing on Friday morning when he asked whether the team should select Will Levis with the fourth pick in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Colts never got that chance, with the Tennessee Titans trading up to the second pick in the second round, or No. 34, just ahead of where the Colts stood at No. 36, to select Levis instead. Once the Colts were back on the clock, they notably traded down, perhaps an indication that Levis was indeed in their plans.
After making Florida’s Anthony Richardson the fourth overall pick, many would assume the Colts would no longer be in the running to select another top QB prospect, but that may not have been the case.
According to Irsay, the Colts likely would have taken Levis at No. 4 overall had Richardson not been available.
In hindsight, it’s easy to be shocked by this statement now that Levis slipped out of the first round, but leading up to the draft, there appeared to be a strong possibility that a team would leap into the third overall pick for a QB, leaving the Colts with one remaining option.
Either way, Richardson or Levis, it sounds like the Colts would have been just fine moving forward with whichever gunslinger was available. Instead they get Richardson, who may have the highest upside of all the QBs in this draft class from a dual-threat perspective.
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