The Indianapolis Colts certainly aren’t done, but they’re already bulking up their future draft picks.
They made two trades on Tuesday that brought back a total of three picks. The Quenton Nelson deal to the Seattle Seahawks returned a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick. And the DeForest Buckner trade with the San Francisco 49ers brought back a fourth-round draft pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
The Colts are looking toward the future, and selections in the draft are a great way to do that.
They’ll likely add even more picks in at least a couple more trades (or more) ahead of the Nov. 10 NFL trade deadline. Players on expiring contracts like Josh Downs, Grover Stewart and Keenan Allen are likely available, and Jonathan Taylor is the wild card who could demand a huge price if he’s dealt.
But after Tuesday’s action, it’s worth refreshing what the Colts’ draft stock actually looks like now.
Colts Draft Picks
The Colts officially possess eight picks at the moment for the 2027 NFL Draft:
- IND 2nd-round
- IND 3rd-round
- SEA 3rd-round
- IND 4th-round
- SF 4th-round
- IND 5th-round
- IND 7th-round
- BUF 7th-round
The Buffalo Bills‘ seventh-round pick came in the Sedrick Van Pran-Granger trade in August.
Of note, Spotrac also projects the Colts to currently land two compensatory picks, one in the fifth round and one in the sixth round, although those usually depend on players leaving in free agency, and if the Colts instead trade players away early, those compensatory picks might just turn into actual picks at some point on the board.
As you’ll notice and likely already know, the Colts do not currently possess a first-round pick.
Why Colts Don’t Have 2027 1st-Round Pick
The Colts traded away their 2027 first-round pick in the Sauce Gardner deal.
When they got the star cornerback from the New York Jets about a year ago, he cost a 2026 first-round pick, a 2027 first-round pick and Adonai Mitchell.
It’s a cost that is still playing itself out, but it looks a bit painful right now that the Colts are probably going to tank into a rebuild and yet don’t even have their highest pick that would benefit from that.
Gardner himself has graded strongly in cornerback metrics, so the Colts got the player they were hoping to get. They simply haven’t had a good enough team elsewhere to take advantage of that.
So the Jets will be watching this Colts season closely. The more players Indy trades away, the better pick New York will end up with from the Sauce trade.
Colts’ Draft Picks for 2027 Missing 1 Thing After Nelson, Buckner Trades