Insider: How Chris Ballard is approaching his first draft

• NFL Draft: Round 1, April 27; Rounds 2-3, April 28; Rounds 4-7, April 29

INDIANAPOLIS – He’s been on the job 80 days now, and the first real test arrives in a week. Chris Ballard’s been working, working, working. His days start at 8 a.m. and don’t usually end until after 9 p.m.; they’re full of meetings, film sessions, interviews, debates and countless what-ifs.

“The cement’s not dry until draft day,” the Indianapolis Colts first-year general manager said Wednesday. “We’re still gathering information. We’re still watching tape.”

There’s still work to be done. There's still something to learn about a player who could very soon become an Indianapolis Colt.

Draft Day arrives April 27; Ballard’s Colts own the 15th overall choice in the first round and, all told, seven in the first five rounds. Even after 11 outside signings in free agency, there are needs scattered across the defense. They need help at cornerback. They need help rushing the passer. Another interior linebacker wouldn’t hurt, either.

In his predraft news conference Wednesday, Ballard hit on a number of topics, offering a lens into his team-building philosophy and what’s on his mind eight days before he pulls the trigger on his first pick as an NFL general manager.

Here’s what stood out:

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1. Talent trumps need

Ballard stressed this credo more than once: He refuses to be pigeon-holed by the current needs of his roster. It doesn’t mean he won’t try and address the Colts’ wish list (see: edge rusher, cornerback). It does mean he won’t pass on a player he has rated significantly higher in his mind.

He cited an example from his time in Kansas City: The Chiefs, already boasting an elite linebacking unit with Justin Houston and Tamba Hali, drafted another linebacker, Dee Ford, in the first round in 2014. Ford’s coming off a 10-sack season.

“Look, one thing we will not do: If there’s a player around (that we like), even if we’re loaded at the position, we’ll still take the player,” Ballard said.

This means the Colts could look to bolster the offensive line in the first round or, potentially, the defensive line. Ballard’s way of thinking is simple: It’s more important you draft the right player rather than the right position.

“I don’t ever want to pass up on a really good player that I think has a long career in this league (ahead of him) that fits our criteria of what we want,” he said. “If there’s a player in a round that we identify that this is a guy that will be a good Colt, fits our criteria, we won’t pass that guy up.”

Then he added this: “Now, if it’s even, we’ll go with the need.”

2. Earn your spot

Ballard’s favorite word thus far in his tenure — competition — came up quite a few times again Wednesday. The man sees his 53-man roster as an ever-evolving organism, constantly in flux. “Player acquisition is 365 days a year,” he said.

With his arrival comes a fresh start for the players, many of whom Ballard wants to earn their starting jobs all over again. No one is excused. (Aside from, perhaps, the quarterback and the kicker. Andrew Luck and Adam Vinatieri aren’t coming off the bench.) To Ballard, it doesn’t matter what the player has done in the past, or where they were drafted or what their contract stipulates. Starting jobs are up for grabs.

“They have to earn it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, and how we build it, and from first round pick to undrafted free agent to street free agent, a guy that was cut at the 53 to a future signing — go back and look at examples through the history of this league. It doesn’t matter where you come from.

“That’s when you know you got it right,” he continued. “The good teams hold each other accountable. I can get up here and talk (about) competition and earning it, our staff can talk about it, but at the end of the day, the great teams in this league, they hold each other accountable. And that’s what we want to get to.”

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3. On injuries, character issues

A worrisome injury won’t prevent Ballard from rolling the dice on a prospect if he believes the injury will heal and the long-term payoff is there. UCLA’s Takkarist McKinley — a talented defensive end who had shoulder surgery in March — was broached as an example.

What if the rookie won’t be ready for training camp? Or the first few weeks of his rookie season?

“I’ve been debating that in my mind a bunch,” Ballard said, speaking generally and not about McKinley specifically. “You got to think long term. What are the long-term implications of the injury? How does this impact him long term? Can he have a long-term career? And if we say he can have a long-term career, and we think the upside of the player is what we want, then we’ll take a shot on the player.

“It will be difficult for us the first few months as we take the daggers for doing it. You’ve got to have a long-term vision. You can’t just be short-sided, one-month thinking. You can’t do that. That gets you into trouble. That’s like taking a need over the best player.”

Ballard likewise did not shoot down the prospect of drafting a player with a questionable background — like, say, Oklahoma’s Joe Mixon — so as long as the Colts have done their homework on the player, exhaustively weighing the upside against the risk. He owns a considerable amount of experience in this area from his days in Kansas City.

“Look,” he said, “guys make mistakes. Tune out the noise. I don’t care what everybody else thinks and their opinions are. (We want to) make our opinions internally, do our work internally ... it’s a case-by-case basis, and when we take a guy with issues, we have to have a plan for him to work. We have to have a plan for him to develop in-house, a plan for him to develop as a man.

“These are young guys. They make mistakes. Are we comfortable with it? Is the organization comfortable with it? Are we comfortable with how he’s going to be in the community? Those are all questions that we ask with every guy, case-by-case.”

Lions heading to Colts camp 

The Colts will welcome a training camp partner to Indianapolis for the second time in three years. The Detroit Lions will head south in early August for a pair of practices before the teams meet in their preseason opener Aug. 13. The practices will likely take place on the Thursday and Friday of that week heading into the game.

"I think it's great," Ballard said. "It's a great way to create competition. Camp gets hard. It can start to get a little old practicing against each other. They'll be able to look at us, we'll look at theirs. I think it's good."

The Colts hosted the Bears for a pair of practices before a preseason game in 2015.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.

NFL Draft: Round 1, April 27; Rounds 2-3, April 28; Rounds 4-7, April 29