The Indianapolis Colts fired longtime general manager Chris Ballard last week. On Tuesday, after their latest loss dropped them to 2-5, they dealt eight-time Pro Bowl guard Quenton Nelson to the Seattle Seahawks.
So whom might Indianapolis trade next?
It could be veteran defensive lineman DeForest Buckner, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who also reported on “The Pat McAfee Show” that, at this moment, the Colts aren’t planning on shipping off star running back Jonathan Taylor.
“They don’t want to trade Jonathan Taylor, which doesn’t mean that they won’t trade him, but I don’t think they want to. And today I would say they don’t,” Schefter said. “But there are other players that I believe will wind up being on the move here. And I think the players you look at would be DeForest Buckner, Josh Downs, Grover Stewart on the defense line, they’ll get calls on him.”
Schefter continued: “Now, again, what winds up happening and who winds up getting traded? I would say this, the name that we’re watching next would be DeForest Buckner because he’s also in a very similar situation to Quenton Nelson. On an expiring deal, he’s a veteran. And here’s the thing that you have to keep in mind on DeForest Buckner. As a 10-year veteran … the most that the Colts could get back, the highest compensatory draft pick that the Colts would get back if he signed elsewhere after the season would be a fifth-round pick. So that, to me, frames the compensation that the Colts will wind up getting back for DeForest Buckner. It won’t be as good, I don’t think, as Quenton Nelson, who is a little younger and who would’ve gone for more compensatory draft pick compensation if he had left.”