The Indianapolis Colts are in a very interesting spot entering the 2026 NFL Draft. They have some glaring holes on their roster that need to be addressed for next season, but they also have multiple positions they need to begin working on to find potential future starters.

One of which could be quarterback, depending on how Daniel Jones looks following his recovery from his torn right Achilles tendon. The current expectation is that the team will find a new home for their 2023 first-round pick, Anthony Richardson. If that trade does come together, taking a quarterback in this year’s draft to replace him and compete with Riley Leonard for the Jones backup role could make a lot of sense.

It seems to be something the Colts are at least considering, with one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s class, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, confirming that he is scheduled to travel to Indianapolis for a pre-draft visit with the team.

"Because I went through what I went through this year, I don't think there is anything that can faze me."#LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier joined The Insiders on @NFLNetwork to discuss his health, his draft rise, and why he's now ready for anything. pic.twitter.com/8aGu4Yct00

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 25, 2026

Colts are bringing in LSU QB Garrett Nussmeier for a top-30 pre-draft visit

Entering the 2025 college football season, there was a lot of hype surrounding Nussmeier. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky even called him the best quarterback in college football ahead of the season. He was coming off a fantastic season in Baton Rouge in 2024, and the hope was that he would build off that success and be in the discussion for the number one overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Things didn’t go according to plan, though; he appeared in only nine games due to injury, and even in those, he played at well below 100%. As a result, he wasn’t able to end his college career the way he wanted to, and scouts wondered whether the version of himself he showed in 2024 was the true him or just an outlier season.

The Colts don’t own a first-round pick, and to be honest, can’t afford to take a quarterback in round two. So if they were to select Nussmeier, it would likely come in the third round or potentially a trade-up from their third-round pick.

Quarterbacks taken in the third round or even later hardly work their way to become a franchise quarterback, but it has happened. The Colts are in a unique spot where they have a quarterback they trust in Jones. Still, they obviously want to see how his injury responds before committing significant time to him, or else they wouldn’t have only given him a two-year contract this offseason.

A look at Garrett Nussmeier as a prospect ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft

Nussmeir has a strong arm and has incredible touch when it comes to accuracy. He completed over 60% of his passes in each of the past four years, and even this past season, when he was playing injured for a large portion of the year, he set a career high, completing 67.4% of his passes.

He is a bit smaller than some teams would like to see for a quarterback, though, at 6-2 and just over 200 lbs. So, being drafted to a spot like the Colts, where he wouldn’t be asked to play much, if at all, as a rookie, would probably be the best-case scenario. He could get into an NFL locker room and start using the resources at the team’s disposal to try to add a bit more healthy weight to his frame to make the team feel more comfortable with the potential of him playing a role later in his career.

? https://t.co/iAoT0qca7V pic.twitter.com/s9MHs5bTEP

— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) August 31, 2025

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