The 2026 Panini Senior Bowl game will be played on Saturday. This event has shown to be an important part of the pre-draft process for the Indianapolis Colts and GM Chris Ballard.
The Senior Bowl is an invite-only, All-Star college football showcase for the top draft-eligible prospects.
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The event is held in Mobile, Alabama, and consists of a week of highly competitive practices, where one-on-ones and team periods are emphasized, and concludes with an All-Star game on Saturday.
General managers and scouts from all 32 NFL teams flock to Mobile for this event. For many, it’s the first opportunity to see these prospects live, and the Senior Bowl also allows for NFL teams to meet with the prospects as well.
Since 2017, when Ballard first took over as the Colts‘ GM, he has made 84 selections in the NFL draft during that span. Of those picks, 33 of them have participated in the Senior Bowl — or nearly 40% of those prospects.
Included in this group are Laiatu Latu, Alec Pierce, JuJu Brents, Bernhard Raimann, Will Mallory, Shaq Leonard, Blake Freeland, Michael Pittman, Bobby Okereke, and others.
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So as Saturday’s All-Star game unfolds, keep tabs on who is standing out at practice and in Saturday’s game because, as recent history tells us, there are future Colts players in this event.
Here you can find some of the Senior Bowl standouts from the week of practices that could interest the Colts.
This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Senior Bowl plays important role in NFL draft process for Colts