When the Colts drafted Phillip Dorsett in the first round last week, the initial reaction was confusion. Dorsett is often compared to T.Y. Hilton as a game-changing deep threat, and Indianapolis already has one of those. One of the wild stories concocted was that the Colts were worried it would be difficult to sign Hilton beyond his rookie contract.
That theory doesn't sound so quite so far-fetched when you see Hilton's reaction to the pick. Asked by the Indianapolis Star if he was surprised by the pick, Hilton said "Nothing in this league should surprise anybody." "(It was) a pick that they thought we needed, so I guess that's what we needed to help this team."
Hilton is in the final year of his rookie contract. His size and speed are quite similar to that of Dorsett. Should Hilton not be signed beyond this season, Dorsett would likely step right into his spot.
So it's reasonable to be a little more interested in Dorsett in keeper type formats than it seemed when the pick was first announced. He'll definitely be behind 2-3 other wideouts in Indianapolis this season, but in 2016? Who knows.
Maybe it's all much ado about nothing, and the Colts view Hilton and Dorsett running routes alongside each other a year from now, when Andre Johnson is a year older and Donte Moncrief has disappointed. But it seems just as likely that Dorsett's future with the team will really take off at a point that Hilton's tenure has come to an end.
--Andy Richardson
