Former Indianapolis Colts general manager Bill Polian has always told some amazing stories, but this one takes the cake. Polian claims he and his scouts gave Tom Brady a first-round grade back in 2000, despite the former Michigan quarterback falling all the way to the sixth round.
During an interview with Doug Farrar of SI.com, Polian says the Colts had Brady on their board, despite having drafted Peyton Manning two years prior.
“Well, (Ben) Roethlisberger later on (in 2004) — we were really high on him. Aaron Rodgers the year after,” Polian said. “That’s the only name that comes to mind right away. And I don’t think there was a guy in between, but Tom Brady would have been a guy, and we were very high on him. Our guys really loved him, but we weren’t in the quarterback market, obviously. Those would be the guys I remember us giving solid, first-round, can-lead-you-to-a-championship grades.”
The ESPN NFL analyst doesn’t remember exactly where he had Brady ranked, but noted it “was a very high grade.”
So we are to believe that the Colts had an idea that Tom Brady would turn out to be a good NFL quarterback, but didn’t consider selecting him between rounds 2-6 based on potential alone.
By Glenn Erby
