Colts' Grigson willing to think outside box ... or country

Last week, with the NFL draft looming and the ever-present pressure to build a Super Bowl roster intensifying, Indianapolis Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson did a very curious thing:

He held a workout for a 380-pound Australian shot putter. A football workout.

Some teams might consider such a move slightly preposterous.

But for a team that already counts among its numbers four former Canadian Football League players, two college basketball players and a Kenyan rugby player, it's called something else: Tuesday.

The Colts, perhaps more than any NFL team, have made scouring unconventional sources of talent an organizational priority. They will aggressively mine prospects from places near and far, from both familiar and unfamiliar territory.

The players must possess just one common characteristic.

"If you have elite athletic traits, you can do this," Grigson said. "This isn't one of those specialized sports, like golf. If you have a level of toughness and you can move and you have instincts, if you have those at an elite level, you're going to get a chance."

The NFL draft begins Thursday night, and the Colts will have nine selections with which to improve their championship-contending roster. You can rest assured that whomever the Colts select, for instance, in the first round, will be a certified, proven college prospect — a football prospect, to be specific.

But when it comes to filling out the bottom half of the 90-man offseason roster (regular-season rosters are capped at 53), Grigson and his scouting staff are prone to think outside the box.

Or the country.

"Hey, it could be Africa, it could be the South Pacific, it could be Eastern Europe," Grigson said.

The Colts have a growing list of players with backgrounds that hardly scream "NFL prospect."

The Canadian imports are easier projections. The Colts have four such players: restricted free agent linebacker Jerrell Freeman, a three-year starter; linebacker Henoc Muamba, who made the roster last season; and two recent signees, guard Ben Heenan and receiver Duron Carter. Muamba and Heenan played college ball in Canada, which makes theirs a longer learning curve.

But at least those guys have played the game, even if on a different size field and with modified rules.

Consider the case of outside linebacker Daniel Adongo. He is the embodiment of this alternative scouting philosophy, having played rugby at an elite level in Africa before being referred to the Colts as a possible NFL prospect.

He hopped off a 17-hour flight and went straight to training camp, saying at the time, "It's not really chasing a dream. I want to make it a reality."

He's closer than ever to doing just that. A torn biceps derailed his development and left him on injured reserve for all of 2014. But Adongo is expected to challenge for a roster spot this fall after briefly making the roster late in 2013, memorably blowing up a Cincinnati Bengals blocker on kickoff coverage.

Adongo is probably the biggest success story of this kind, given where he came from and what he has a chance to do. And his achievements could pay off later because the Colts now have established relationships in the rugby world and anticipate finding more prospects there.

The globetrotting point man building those key relationships is special projects scout Jon Shaw. He's developed a critical and unique role with the team, taking on responsibility for scouting internationally, the CFL, arena leagues and other semi-pro leagues.

That's how he found defensive end Earl Okine, a recent signee who last played in something called the FXFL. Okine, who played in the four-team professional league for the Brooklyn Bolts, wowed Colts officials during his workout and landed a deal. He's still a long way from making the roster, but he has taken a gigantic step for a player with his background.

Tight end Erik Swoope and offensive tackle Demarco Cox come to the Colts after playing basketball at Miami and Georgia Tech, respectively.

Swoope, now entering his second season, made an impression on the practice squad last season and could challenge for an active roster spot this fall. A former high school coach of Cox's says Alabama coach Nick Saban pegged him for a football player during a recruiting trip to his Mississippi school, saying, "Man, kid, you're losing money."

Perhaps not.

Players like Cox wind up on the Colts roster because Grigson, himself a former scout and CFL player, carries those past experiences with him into the executive suite.

"The one thing you don't want to lose is that your job as a scout is to find players," he said. "F-I-N-D. They're not always just going to fall in your lap. You have to do a lot of work. Sometimes it's watching grainy film. Sometimes it's (going to) some obscure place where the head coach works at a steel mill half the time then he coaches in one of these leagues part time. We've had players like that who have actually contributed."

But while open-mindedness is great, the Colts generally are going to win with proven players. And an assistant coach can't spend every free moment teaching a rugby player the basics of American football, lest he neglect more important tasks.

Grigson admits not every long-shot player is worth the effort. The player's makeup, Grigson said, must be that of a player who can deal with the inevitable challenges and setbacks but persevere.

So the biggest keys are choosing wisely and knowing when to say when.

"You don't want to force anyone down their throats," Grigson said of his coaches. "We're at a point now where we're trying to win it all. You don't want to overload them."

Coach Chuck Pagano's past public statements suggest he's bought into the idea of acquiring these kinds of players. He has expressed admiration for the way Swoope has adapted and he remains high on Adongo.

The flexibility required to employ this philosophy is worth it, Grigson believes. He points to the willingness of the Pittsburgh Steelers in a previous era to scout historically black colleges, an effort that netted them players such as John Stallworth (Alabama A&M) and helped build and sustain their greatness.

"They built that dynasty with a lot of guys who weren't being scouted because of the nature of those times in America," Grigson said. "They broke the barrier and they killed it ... It was such a different approach, but they were actually before their time and they reaped the rewards because of it. They had the guts to do it."

But taking chances means coming up short sometimes.

Shaw's shot-putting prospect ultimately didn't show enough in his workout to earn a contract. It left Shaw "dejected," Grigson said, but there's no time to sulk. There are borders to cross, semi-pro players to find, basketball players to convert.

"This isn't some circus sideshow," Grigson said. "Adongo's not the only one out there. Trust me. We're becoming such a global society and you just have to think globally. You have to cast a wide net.

"There's only so many elite athletes."

Follow Star reporter Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.