Intriguing Retrospective Piece on Elway

Pro Football Weekly republished a piece written about draft prospect John Elway prior to the 1983 draft. In it, they speculate that the Colts will trade out of the #1 pick to avoid drafting Elway, who doesn't want to play for them. The article then evaluates the prospect of Elway opting out of a career in the NFL to play baseball with the Yankees (apparently his mother wanted him to play baseball). Ultimately the Colts drafted Elway and traded him for a QB, OG-OT Chris Hinton, and a first rounder in 2004. The post-article commentary notes that the trade was a "steal" for Denver. In hindsight this is ostensibly the case; however, the article fails to mention that Chris Hinton played 13 years and went to 7 pro bowls. With that first round pick, the Colts drafted career backup OG Ron Solt rather than taking the top QB in the draft, Boomer Esaison. Had they made a better choice on draft day, they could have received better value for the trade.