INDIANAPOLIS -- Chris Ballard knew of Brian Decker, but didn’t know him. When Ballard was the Kansas City Chiefs' director of football operations, he read about Decker in an ESPN The Magazine feature in 2016. Ballard then asked good friend Joe Banner, whom Decker worked for with the Cleveland Browns briefly in 2014, about what made the up-and-comer so special.
"A lot of draft picks are missed on the intangibles," Banner said. "I’m not talking about people getting in trouble, more of how driven are you to be great, what kind of work ethic do you have?