Jim Irsay creates the most obvious smokescreen in head-scratching tweet

Colts owner Jim Irsay is either one step ahead of everybody else in the giant NFL Draft chess game or he’s gone completely mad.

With less than two weeks to go until the 2023 NFL Draft, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay smiled to himself and decided to throw a wild curveball.

Perhaps best known last season for hiring Jeff Saturday off the couch, Irsay decided to one-up himself and directly address the Colts fanbase, being as honest and transparent as possible (or feigning as much honesty and transparency as possible).

Irsay began his carefully crafted tweet with the words, “For the ’23 draft, we have many options.”

At that point, people may have an idea of where he was going. They didn’t know how far he would go, though.

Basically, the Colts can do anything with the No. 4 overall pick, short of just throwing it away. Irsay should win some ESPY award for the longest blurb without saying anything of substance.

The Colts owner also posted four pictures along with the tweet, each of which displayed one of the top quarterback prospects in this year’s class. Florida’s Anthony Richardson is technically the first picture in the top left corner — could this mean the Colts have him at the top of their list?

Then again, Kentucky’s Will Levis is the most zoomed-in picture, so maybe he’s the dark horse candidate to get selected fourth overall.

Who in the world knows?

Colts owner Jim Irsay cackles with demonic glee as he spreads smoke across Twitter

Jim Irsay. Jim Irsay knows, and he’s leaving it to the over-analyzing people of Twitter to try and guess what the Colts will do when Day 1 comes around.

One of the worst kept secrets in the league is that Indy is on the prowl for young quarterback blood in this year’s draft. Amid early rumors that the Colts were going after Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, Irsay recently made his opinions known on fully guaranteed contracts and seemed to suggest the franchise would rather go down the draft-and-develop route.

So…. who will it be? Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Richardson, or Levis?

They’re all on the table and not on the table at the same time, if that makes sense. Picking ahead of the Colts is the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans, two other quarterback-needy teams who may have their own preferred QB-pecking order already written on their secret whiteboards.

The only thing we amateur sportswriting sleuths can take away from Irsay’s intentionally vague statement is that he did say he “likes” his position, referring to the Colts’ No. 4 overall pick. That could mean Indy doesn’t plan on trading up or down, or they are blowing smoke in all our faces and seriously planning on trading up or trading down. And if they trade up, or trade down, or not trade at all, they could take a quarterback. Or not take a quarterback. Hm.

Irsay’s ramblings sure are infectious.