Every team in the league has weak areas. Every team has turnover at positions. It's just the way it goes. You can't fill every position with a great player. They debated LT vs DE last year and went with DE. They still drafted a LT but he is raw. WR has been building for several years. He continually drafts pro-bowl to all-pro players. But in the last three offseasons, they have tried trades and FA to find their QB, not the draft. That will likely change this year, even though I think this class isn't great.

Grigson lucked into a franchise QB and couldn't build a roster around him. Now we have a roster waiting and we can't find a QB. And this roster was built by the current GM and it is a good roster.

Ballard has tried to build around a vet, that is exactly the plan they have been doing. We had one vet, he retired. We tried to trade for a younger franchise guy the coach wanted in Wentz and it bombed. Then we went back to the vet plan till we could get a draft pick. I think Ballard wanted Fields but Frank wanted to trade for Wentz. Ballard has been very open about what the plan is, just fans don't want to listen because they were spoiled by the Manning era and think that is the norm. That's not the norm. The norm is you have a 3 year window if you get a good team then you probably have to rebuild again.

I don't think he is trying to half-ass it, they are trying every year to find a guy. Ryan looked good on paper, and probably would be good if not for a single lineman failing in epic proportions.

How long? When the GM shows that he can't find talent anymore. That is the GM's primary job and Ballard does a good job at that. Because most GM's are not good at it. For every Ozzie Newsome there are about 5-6 GM's that can't find talented guys. The grass isn't always greener. I've seen it over and over, impatient fans think they are entitled to be good because the current guy hasn't done ABC fast enough. They scream for heads, heads roll, new people come in, the pattern repeats and then you are the Browns or the Jets.

Using veteran QBs was working pretty well until about 11 games ago, when the Colts played the Raiders and the bottom fell out for still unknown reasons. And using veteran QBs, rather that untested rookies, made practical sense due to the fact that the Colts roster appeared at the time to have lots of quality players ready to compete.

It's not "being afraid", it's literally that the franchise guy has not existed in an obtainable spot for the Colts. I think if you liked Mac Jones, as I did, it would be fair to criticize Ballard for not doing what it took to get to 14. Hell, if you liked Fields, it might even be fair to criticize him for not outbidding the Bears and getting to 11. The counterpoints to those arguments, of course, would be that Fields and Jones have not lived up to expectations to this point, and may not. Those are the best arguments against Ballard for not chasing a QB. Other than that, there wasn't really a chance for a franchise QB, and to illustrate how much draft capital it takes to trade for a franchise QB, had the Colts been willing to trade down in 2018, they could've gotten the 12th and 22nd picks from the Bills for the 6th pick.

This Jalen Hurts stuff has to stop. He's not a franchise QB. He looks good right now because he's surrounded by great talent. He would be a below average starter were he here. Same thing with Tua, who probably has 2 of the top 5 WRs in the NFL in Hill and Waddle. Before he had that, there was major bust talk about Tua.

Guys all I’ll say is we’ll see. I’ve been saying since we’ve known Ballard’s methods that it would lead to mediocrity, not excellence. 5 years in I don’t see a damn thing that proves me wrong. Ballard is a really good talent evaluator, but that is not at all the same as constructing a team - which is what I believe a GMs job is. If you don’t believe there is a difference between those two things then we will never agree.

I used to have these same conversations with Pacer fans who made excuses for their methodology. The Colts under Ballard are headed down the same path. They are a fucking joke around the league. They are wasting the talent Ballard has acquired because he doesn’t understand positional value and because he is always too focused on the future to win now. Every team has weaknesses, yes. Not every team goes into a season with no DE (in a 4-3) having had double digit sacks total (not single season) for their career. Not every team acquires a 37 year old QB and then trusts the LT spot to a journeyman guard and a 3rd round rookie that has only played T for two years in his life! Go ahead and defend that shit. We’ll talk again in two more years and see if you’ve had enough yet. It doesn’t take 6-8 years to rebuild in the NFL, but that is what you are defending here (best case).

Seems you would be happier if you were a Titans fan. Sign up here: http://gotitans.com/forums/tennessee...nd-nfl-talk.2/

Ahh yes - if you criticize Ballard you aren’t a fan. Good one. That’s been the state of the Colts for 5 years. The man is Teflon.

Why didn’t you send that out to everyone crying about Frank? Maybe because you agreed? Funny how that works. And many of you were talking up Vrabel. I’ve said shit about Tennessee. You can go fuck yourself you sensitive little bitch. Have a nice day 🙂

If this is actually the case then Ballard deserves every bit of criticism for that. If you believe a franchise QB is in the draft and you have a shot to get him, you have to take that shot as a GM no matter what anyone else wants. The package the Bears gave up for Fields was nothing if he actually is a franchise QB, it's similar to the package the Chiefs gave up to get Mahomes. It is the GM's job to put together the best possible roster, and in today's NFL, any roster with a franchise QB on it is upgraded from a roster that does not have a franchise QB.

It does take 6-8 years to find a franchise QB. Teams go decades without finding one. We are not in a rebuild. We are looking for a QB. This team was good enough to compete till the line collapsed. The defense is really fucking good. That says a lot about a roster when you are competitive and you don’t have good QB play. Yeah he made a bad move at LT. It happens. Bet I could go through the league and find bad moves by every GM. What about the talent he has found, or do we only focus on the mistakes? This isn’t a Grigson situation where he makes bad moves AND can’t find talent. If we still had Luck we would be competing for super bowls.

Never quite seen a single lineman get a coach fired, but I think social media exasperates situations like a mob mentality. Right now Twitter is foaming at the mouth over something Ballard didn’t even say. We fire the GM, and we really are going to go into a rebuild.

I think two factors hurt them. He went a lot later than they thought he would. And we didn’t have the draft capital from the Wentz trade. Frank wanted his old Christian buddy and he fought for him and it got him fired. When you make decisions on faith and not logic. Ultimately Ballard is going to get his coach what he wants, if you undermine him and go a different direction it creates a hostile atmosphere especially with something as big as a QB. Rumors were they tried to trade for him this off-season and it almost happened. Maybe it’s those misses that brings everything down.

This isn’t about a bad move, it’s about a bad philosophy. You mentioned in one of your other posts about teams winning in 3 year windows. I agree, although I think it’s slightly closer to 2 years. But show me where Ballard has ever tried to maximize a 2-3 year window. I was fine with the Rivers move but get him some damn help! Quit focusing on the salary cap 4 years from now. Will that cause a dip after the window? Absolutely. And that dip puts you in better position to get that franchise guy or at least other high end talent - like a LT or DE. The same should have applied with Wentz and Ryan. But Ballard has never done that. Not because he made a mistake, but because that’s his philosophy - try to be good for a long time. That’s a losing philosophy.

In general I agree that stability is important. I would have been fine keeping both Ballard and Reich next year IF there was a change in philosophy. Either draft a guy or fully support what you have.

I’m not against using vets, I’m against using 37 years old vets and then treating key areas like it’s a rebuild and saying we’ll get better next year. That’s what Ballard has repeatedly done. Get your QB then try to fucking win now. When you get Rivers and Ryan the window is NOW. Ballard made those moves then continued the slow we’ll eventually get there mentality. That is a losing mentality and the reason they are the shit show they currently are.

o


From everything that I have read and heard, Frank was calling the plays on offense for his entire tenure as the Colts' head coach.

In terms of blame/deflecting, that's not a good strategy because you essentially have no first line of defense. If the OC is calling the plays and your offense is not playing well, the head coach can say that the primary problem is not of his making, but rather that of the OC. But when the head coach is already calling all of the plays himself and the offense is not playing well, firing the offensive coordinator leaves that head coach much more vulnerable because of the fact that since that head coach was already calling the plays in the first place, not much change can be expected when he fires the OC in the second place.

Much more significantly than all of that though is the fact that the Colts' offensive line went from being in the top-3 in the NFL last year to being dead last out of all 32 teams this season ...... when the offensive line is so bad that the defensive linemen and linebackers are in your backfield 1 or 2 seconds after the ball is hiked, it wouldn't matter if you had a clone of Vince Lombardi calling the plays and/or if your quarterback had the mobility of a Michael Vick or a Fran Tarkenton ...... changing offensive coordinators and/or changing your play calls at that point is tantamount to rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic ...... a team simply cannot win games if their offensive line is 32nd out of 32 teams in the league.

An excellent defense can compensate for having an average-to-below-average offense. A very good team on both sides of the ball (offense and defense) can compensate for a lousy special teams unit. Having Dan Marino as your quarterback and putting up 35 to 45 points per game can overcome having a below-average defense. But nothing ...... and I mean nothing ...... can overcome an offensive line that is the worst in the league out of all 32 teams.

o

What specifically is wrong with the building strategy? I hear this all the time from the local media guys and I don't think they know what they are talking about.

Ballard has specifically said we are not going all out till we get the QB in place. He also thinks teams that skirt and manipulate the cap like the Saints are crazy and it will come around to get them. Saints are about to face that. League may also start to close those loop holes bc they want parity. Ballard thinks the team was ready to win now, that is why they were going the vet route. He is right, the team can win now with solid QB play.

I have been criticizing Ballard for years on here for some of his flaws. But I do think the positives outweigh those flaws. He did botch the LT situation. Not saying he didn't. But he has also done a lot of good things as well. This defense is good. I think the oline will get better with a LT in place. The weapons are young and explosive. He continually knocks it out of the park in the draft. A GM's primary job is to find talent and he does that well. That is not easy to find. We have had two good GM's at it in 38 years.

It doesn't matter. Ballard looked pissed yesterday, he may resign, and he will get another job immediately. Meanwhile, we will have trouble finding a good candidate because of this shitshow.

Ballards a dead man walking. He’s gone after the season, if not before.

I’ve heard a theory that Saturday will slide over to GM after the season and hire the new coach.

Jim is calling every shot now.

There is no way that Ballard is gone unless he finds a way to piss off Irsay.

Ballard has this roster filled with talent and Irsay knows that. Irsay just needs to convince him that it's okay to over spend if it makes the team a contender for Super Bowls.

Ballard fucked up at LT and RG, there's no disputing that. Hell bringing Fischer back would've been a better alternative to what has been done so far.

I’ve heard this from several of the beat reporters. We will see in a couple months. All I got to say is careful what you wish for bc yeah it can be worse. This fanbase was trying to figure out if Grigson was any good and I knew after year three. Hell Dakich still tries to sell Grigson as good.

So why in the world do you even acquire Rivers or Ryan? Both had very short windows. Are you really suggesting you have no problem wasting one of those years making sure they were an acceptable answer? That makes absolutely no sense. Or is it that they won’t do it until they have a young QB in place? If that’s the case why get those guys anyway? At best, without full roster support, they make you playoff competitive and lower your draft position- making it harder to acquire the guy you do identify. It makes no fucking sense. It’s the same thing the Pacers did - they tried to ride the middle of the league, keep the fan based inline and strike gold somehow. They failed. Ballard is doing the same thing and I don’t know how in the world you can say it is anything but a failure. You are either pushing to win or rebuilding. He’s trying to ride a line between those two. It has and will fail.

This is a big issue I have. He is always going to have a hard time winning titles without accepting the up and down process that even you have mentioned. Teams that manipulate the cap CAN have an advantage in a given year. Yes it’s dangerous, but always worrying about your cap situation 3-4 years from now also comes at a cost. And the down year helps you reload talent.


He didn’t think they were good enough to go all in. Or he’s never going all in. Either answer is damning IMO.


I understand it can get worse. I want to like Ballard. He does acquire talent. Where I disagree with you is that I believe a GMs primary job is to construct a team, not acquire talent. Acquiring talent is certainly part of that, but the NFL is the ultimate league where you can be more or less than the sum of your parts. Ballard’s teams will always be less until he prioritizes certain positions and, most importantly, understands that huge weaknesses will be exploited and diminish the strengths he built. He has to understand that average isn’t a dirty word in this league.

Didn't mean to hurt your feelings.

Mike Chappell of FOX59 had a conversation with Reich - almost a quasi-exit interview.

Below are a few excerpts along with the link and full interview / story.


https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...87909293453312

https://twitter.com/mchappell51/stat...88999485706240

https://fox59.com/sports/colts/frank...ul-to-the-job/

The problem with it is that he's splitting strategies which don't align across the team. His QB strategy since Luck retired has been short term, win now while his strategy at nearly every other position is long term win later.

He also seems to really undervalue positions that are extremely criticial to a teams success like LT and WR.

If the measurement is adding talent then I think you have to say we had 3 good GMS and add Tobin to the mix. Tobin actually kind of reminds me of Ballard as he made some damn good draft picks, but he made too many stupid ass decisions and was fired for it. We'll see if that happens to Ballard.

You have to feel for the guy. If he had only let his OC do his job, and had done his own job of managing the team, he might have survived it all.

The guy is a class act and a good coach. He’ll get another chance and if he doesn’t get skull fucked at qb again, he will be successful.

Dude, Ballard isn’t even calling the shots anymore. Jim is. Ballard is not going to be Irsays pigeon, I’d bet on that.

He won’t be the GM next season, I’d bet a war pension on it. If for no other reason than Jim is gonna need a scapegoat for how disastrous the rest of this season is going to be.

And it’s gonna be a dumpster fire of epic proportions.

They were looking for their Alex Smith. A vet who could hold the positions for a few years till they found a young QB to develop. Also feasibly the vet allows you to win games if you have a solid roster around him like a Tom Brady situation. I think they would have spent more if they thought one of those vets would get them to the superbowl. NBA and NFL are very different, stop comparing the two. You only need a few guys in the NBA and the pacers can't lure top free agents because indy isn't a destination town. The pacers finally figured out they have no stars and no one even knew who was on the roster. Thats not the case with the Colts.

Its not a binary situation. Look around the league and the records. This is a parity league. Most games are decided by the kicker at the end. The line between winning and losing is razor-thin. It's not terribly complicated what they are trying to do, don't understand why you are having difficulty with it.

Saints are about to go into cap hell. He doesn't want to run his cap like that, thinks its nuts. Just the way it is. It is really a separate conversation. You want the team to run that way, fine, I don't. Neither one of us has a say. It seems subjective to me, and short-term gain you get will eventually hurt you in the future.


If we had two years of QB play, yeah maybe he would have in that second year. But we never got one to find out.


This is a bunch of gibberish. Talent wins games, he is good at getting it. He prioritizes the same positions everyone else does just places more emphasis on the lines. The Eagles and 49ers prioritize the same strengths and they are doing well. The difference is they have consistency at QB and some of those positions are already filled. We had a LT and a QB when he got here. He needed a better oline, a DE, and a defense. I think we found the DE if Paye continues to improve, we have a defense. Now we need to find the LT and the QB again. And I think this oline gets back to what it was with a good LT in place.

And to compare here is the Raiders picks from 2019-2021
2021 Alex Leatherwood - Cut
2020 Henry Ruggs III - Cut
2020 Damon Arnette - Cut
2019 Jonathon Abram - Cut
2019 Josh Jacobs - 5th year declined
2019 Clelin Ferrell - 5th year declined

It can be so much worse.

I thought about Tobin. Faulk, Harrison, Glenn, Meadows, Dilger contrasted by Trev Alberts and Ellis Johnson. In the draft. That's really good.

Led by Harbaugh and they got goose in the middle. The rest of his drafts were filler though and he was a bit of a hot head. The team peaked there for a little bit. But it was a pretty short time.

Ellis Johnson was actually pretty good: 10 years in the league, 51 sacks and 41 TFL. Not HOF, but pretty good for a DT.

https://www.pro-football-reference.c...J/JohnEl20.htm

Tobin was only here for 4 years and yeah he didn't get a lot from the later rounds. But for the most part he hit it out of the park w/ his 1st and 2nd rounders and left a pretty good foundation for when BP took over and added Peyton.

I don’t understand the logic of acquiring Rivers or Ryan unless they were pushing for a SB over the next two years. That’s just me. But at least we seem to agree that in Ballard’s time in Indy he has never once went into a season actively trying to win a SB. You are OK with that, I’m not. I only wish people would quit saying how great the roster is then. If the GM doesn’t even think it’s worth pushing for a SB.

For the life of me I don’t understand how you can preach to me how small the margins are while not understanding that’s the whole damn point. If Ballard does just a little more at WR with Rivers they beat Buffalo. Shore up a couple areas and maybe they do make a SB run. Do a little more at DE with Wentz and they make the playoffs - even with things falling apart at the end. Do a little more on the line and maybe this is a playoff team. But he, and apparently you, are fine letting seasons slip away while looking for the guy to hold the spot until they can find the guy they can eventually win with.

There is plenty room between the Saints and the Colts methods for there to be a middle ground. But honestly, so what the saints are going in to cap hell. What’s the worse that can happen? After 5 years of rebuilding they are sitting at 3-5-1 with an interim coach, players asking to be traded, and are a laughingstock? Sounds horrible.

But in all seriousness, if you understand how thin the margins are I don’t get how you can’t understand my point on cap use. In any given year there are teams rolling more dollars into that year in an attempt to win. That gives them a slight advantage in those years. With the margins as small as they are Ballard’s teams will have a harder time peaking in a window than other teams. What’s so complicated to understand? At various points you’ve indicated that when the time is right then you think Ballard will push more. If that’s true great! Then we don’t disagree on how it should work (I’m not necessarily advocating Saints level cap manipulation). Where we disagree is on when that push should come. You think it’s reasonable he’s never done it. I don’t think it is.

I don’t understand how you think it’s reasonable to acquire Rivers and Ryan and then wait a year before actually pushing to win. They both had maybe two years of adequate play left and since it was age related the first year was probably the best. Yet you want to waste that year as a prove it year before actually trying? I’m sorry man, that’s fucking retarded. Especially because you keep saying they have a good roster.

Shouldn’t the team be more successful then? Seems pretty simple.

Kind of ironic that both those teams QBs were available to Ballard and he passed. Also ironic that he supposedly prioritizes line play but hasn’t prioritized LT. Especially considering the OL is the reason this season is trashed.

Only a QB and LT away? Damn I bet they are the envy of the league. They’ve set the standard for rebuilds. 5 years in and all they need are 2 or the top 3 most important positions filled!

I was going to make a smart ass comment about them likely losing to the disaster of a team you chose to use as an example of the horrors of a bad GM. Then I remembered that the Raiders are coached by Ballard’s first choice as a coach and decided to hold back. Colts could honestly win this one thanks to Ballard’s first choice.

Three words that prove this statement wrong: Matt Fucking Pryor.

Couple of inaccuracies in the article but definitely agree with the overall statement.

I think that all these writers are full of shit. I love the fact that they think that Irsay has lost his mind with Saturday. They all loved Reich/Ballard when that was initially happening, now not so much. Nobody, I mean nobody, has the faintest idea of how Saturday will do, if you are betting you would bet he would fail because almost all coaches fail. Rare one that is a winner, it is a crap shoot. I am starting to enjoy this, us against the NFL world. Much better than spinning our collective wheels in mediocrity.

Almost all coaches fail, thats true. But they all also have the advantage of actually coaching in the nfl previously. Not to mention the fact that he’s being thrown into the mix halfway through the season.

There’s no realistic way he’s going to succeed in my opinion. I think it’s gonna be embarrassing, actually.

I hope I’m wrong but I doubt it.

As for Irsay, he’s firmly on the road to being Al Davis, who was the laughingstock of the league.

Nothing about this is good for the Colts or their fans.

You mean that short term answer he used while drafting a tackle intended to be the long term answer?

Ellis had some moments, but I remember him disappearing for long stretches as well. For a first rounder not as consistent as you would want. Dilger was the best pick of that draft. Tarik and Marvin were his best. Too bad he stunk in other areas. Polian was better at filling out the roster.

I mean thinking he could get by with a complete garbage player who shouldn't even be in the league at the most important position on the OL. Clearly shows he either doesn't prioritize the OL, or he doesn't really value the LT position for some reason.

And actually if you look at the overall lack of investment he's put into bringing in new OL since the '18 draft he's clearly de-prioritized the group.

No doubt BP was head and shoulders better than Tobin, and that's fair on Ellis. You just had him lumped in w/ Trev Alberts so wanted to show that he was at least decent and not pretty much a waste of a pick like Alberts ended up being.

Agree on Glenn and Marvin, although I'd lump Marshall Faulk in there as well. Not Tobin's fault that BP decided to trade Faulk and got minimal return for him.

Anyway, if you draft 2 HOFers, a multi-time pro bowler and ROH member, and several other long lasting productive players in just 4 years then you're doing pretty well at that part of the job IMHO.

I happen to agree about this not being good news. You talk as if there was a ‘good news’ choice. Plus 95% of ‘good news’ choices don’t work out anyway, so if this doesn’t I don’t see how that is so much different. You don’t think it can realistically work out? Not trying to be an asshole but who cares? You know as much about the future as me, meaning nothing. Of course it probably won’t work out, Parcells didn’t do shit for the Jets and I bet you and everyone else thought that was a slam dunk winner. All I am saying is nobody knows, me you sports writers or GM types. Let’s see how it plays out. Irsay has found his team mired in a shit show, climbing out won’t be easy and won’t look pretty. At least it is interesting, something poor Frank no longer was.

Yes, the bargain basement Guard that had just a couple starts at LT he trusted to protect his 37 yr old immobile QB while the 3rd round rookie who has been playing LT for all of two years gets up to speed to take over protecting the 37 yr old QB. Come on man, are you seriously suggesting this was a logical move? Or one that prioritizes line play?

The logical choice was to finish the season with Frank and go from there, which Jim basically said would have happened if Saturday said no.

And of course no one knows with 100 percent certainty what will happen, but if Jeff Saturday ends up being successful, whether it’s this season or in the future, he’ll be one of the greatest coaches of all time.

He’s in an impossible situation with a deeply flawed team facing a tough schedule and he’s never done any of this before.