{"id":756161,"date":"2026-02-16T15:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756161\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T15:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:04:15","slug":"indianapolis-colts-3-round-2026-nfl-mock-draft-a-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/756161\/","title":{"rendered":"Indianapolis Colts 3-round 2026 NFL mock draft: A quarterback?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a three-round NFL mock draft from Gordon McGuiness of Pro Football Focus<\/a>, the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> address a key need right away and then make a more head-scratching selection.<\/p>\n

Without a first-round pick, the Colts<\/a>‘ first selection won’t come until Day 2 at pick No. 47 overall. With that pick, McGuiness had Indianapolis taking Cincinnati linebacker Jake Golday.<\/p>\n

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Listed at 6-4 – 240 pounds, Golday has played over 2,000 career defensive snaps at the college level. He’s been effective as a blitzer, and in 2025, he was one of\u00a0PFF’s highest graded<\/a>\u00a0run defenders at the linebacker position.<\/p>\n

In coverage, he held opponents to under 9.0 yards per catch, while forcing three pass breakups.<\/p>\n

Depth at linebacker is needed for the Colts, along with an added coverage presence next to Zaire Franklin. But of note, and this is just one evaluation, NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein<\/a> wrote in his pre-draft report that Golday is “average” in coverage and has made a greater impact near the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n

The Colts pick a quarterback?<\/p>\n

Then, with the Colts’ third-round pick, McGuiness has Indianapolis taking Penn State quarterback Drew Allar.<\/p>\n

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On paper, at the moment, the quarterback position doesn’t look great for the Colts. However, it seems quite clear at this point<\/a> that Daniel Jones will return, and could do so on a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

In addition to that, Anthony Richardson is still on the roster as of now, while Riley Leonard performed very well in his Week 18 start against Houston.<\/p>\n

So, given all of that, taking a quarterback in Round 3 isn’t a selection that I would expect Chris Ballard to make.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Colts Wire: Colts make head-scratching pick in latest 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a three-round NFL mock draft from Gordon McGuiness of Pro Football Focus, the Indianapolis Colts address a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[2005,2772,2543,7,108194,221,2004,392,2381,5641,108195,6,410,747,4995],"class_list":{"0":"post-756161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-colts","9":"tag-daniel-jones","10":"tag-drew","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-gordon-mcguiness","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-indianapolis","15":"tag-indianapolis-colts","16":"tag-indianapoliscolts","17":"tag-linebacker-position","18":"tag-mcguiness","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-pro-football-focus","21":"tag-riley-leonard","22":"tag-zaire-franklin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116080925989315569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}