Clark Wade/IndyStar
ANDERSON — Thirteen years ago the Houston Texans passed on Robert Mathis so they could take a defensive back named Glenn Earl a year later.
The benefits of hindsight do them no favors: That draft day trade in 2003 might’ve been Bill Polian’s shrewdest move in his 14-year tenure with the Indianapolis Colts. Polian wanted Mathis, wanted him badly, and didn’t want to wait. So he swapped the Colts’ fourth-round pick in the following year’s draft to Houston in exchange for the Texans’ fifth-round selection that year.