Too much from you two to quote each point, but I'll try to go in on some of this...

As far as Ballard not building culture here and that preventing guys from coming... That's not the only reason a player wouldn't come here. Like the Allen Robinson example. Hypothetically, if Ballard values him at $40m but is willing to overspend to $45m and the LAR come in a bid the price up to that $45m... then Robinson chooses to go to live in Los Angeles and play for the team that just won the Super Bowl. Is that an indictment on Ballard for the culture not being enough of a draw?

Beyond culture, just money... If you valued a guy at $12m/yr and some other team offers him $15m/yr, what would you do?

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The point of me bringing up re-signing our guys is not to say we shouldn't spend on free agents or that we will re-sign all of our guys. Rookie contracts go along with our QB situation to shows what a knife's edge this cap situation is...

Our league-leading salary cap room doesn't exist if WAS doesn't save us a shitload of money on Wentz. That alone drops us from "salary cap champs" to like bottom-10. Point being that our future (worth a shit) QB will eat up most of this cap that people are itching to spend. Now pay Nelson, Taylor, Kwity (pass-rusher money), etc. and it's not the same picture.

Darius Leonard's cap hit was $8m last year. It's about to be $11m, $20m, $20m, $23m, $20m. Buckner will be similar, Braden Smith will be up there, etc. Money is being spent.

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And who are these teams we're referring to? Which teams are doing it right in free agency?

You're the one who's been saying for months now that it's all Monopoly money and teams work around cap issues all of the time, so who cares if Ballard spends too much of Irsay's money. Now you're ok with Ballard hoarding cap space like it goes straight to his bank account b/c we have a few guys we need to re-sign down the road.

If the only way Ballard is capable of re-signing his own draft picks is by hoarding 10s of millions of dollars in cap space every year, then he needs to bring in someone to help him with long term cap management or replace the people on his staff that are currently supposed to help with this. Everything other decent team in the league is able to sign FAs who aren't in the bargain bin and re-sign their own. Why is it so tough for Ballard to do so, especially when he has the most cap space in the league?

This is one part that annoys me. I see alot of FAs sign 1-3 year contracts. Why is a future contact 4 years away affecting us signing someone for the next two years?

Bengals, Ravens, and Bills off the top of my head are three teams that have apparently done the impossible - be competitive AND try to use free agency to improve. Guess none of them have any good players they need to pay. Apparently don’t plan to draft any either.

Here's a couple more:

LAC - Look at how many FAs they've brought in. Don't they realize that Justin Herbert will be a FA in 3 years? No way they'll be able to re-sign him since they decided to spend cap spaced instead of hoard it this year.

LVR - Signed Chandler Jones, traded for Adams and signed him to a huge deal, and now they're trying to extend Carr? Better call up McDickface and tell him that's going to be impossible.

Shit, even the Jagoffs are bringing in FAs. Don't they know that Trevor Lawrence is going to demand a big contract in 4 years as long as he starts playing well against teams other than us? They're the Jagoffs, so it doesn't surprise me that they're screwing this up.

It’s easy - they don’t plan on drafting anyone else good. Problem solved.

Even if we hadn't been able to trade Wentz we would have been at ~$42M below the cap, which would have been more space than a lot of teams that are being pretty active in FA.

I'm curious too who you think we end up with at QB that will eat up all of our cap space. Since you're thinking they'll have a big cap hit I'm guessing you think it'll be Ryan, Jimmy G, or Mayfield? I would imagine Winston and Mariotta will probably get similar to what Trubisky did. Maybe Winston gets a little more, but not near enough to eat up all of our cap space.

Any QB we'd draft this year or next will be a FA at the earliest in '26, so any FAs picked up this year will probably be off the books before we'd have to pay said QB.

Exactly. It's one thing to say that we need to save some cap space for MPJ and JT, but Kwity and Dayo shouldn't even be in the conversation.

Sign Mayfield and that great big cap space disappears. So before they can even talk to mayfield, they need to find if a deal is possible.

1. What do the Browns want to make a trade.
2. Will Baker renegotiate a reasonable contract now? If they dont get a restructure with years, incentives , ect. What would be the point.
3. Hoe many picks do the Colts give Up

Thats the short list. Gee whiz, why would you want Ballard to just throw a bucket of money and picks for a guy the Browns want to dump?

I’m for spending money on quality players. This isnt brady or Manning. He’s as big a risk as Wentz.

I can be patient as Ballard tries to make the best deal possible

I think you're getting confused again Jaff. This is the thread where some of us are bitching that Ballard never brings in any quality FAs. The Baker Mayfield debate is on another thread.

You do make some good points though.

Thanks. Yeah, I’m on a tablet, Ido better on my computer keeping track of threads

Color me shocked that the Raiders are active in free agency. They'll also probably draft a kid that runs a 4.2. They also just had their second 10-win season in the past 20 years (because there was an extra game). Ballard, don't model us after them. Tell me Carr wouldn't have a better W/L under Ballard/Reich than he's had with the Raiders the past few years.

I'm not crucifying Ballard for mediocrity when this league is so goddamn skewed towards the QB and he's had Brissett (backup), Luck (double-digit wins), Brissett (backup), Rivers (double-digit wins), and Wentz.

We saw the team that a free agent head GM put around Luck. I don't need to see LaRon Landry, Trent Richardson, Hakeem Nicks, Trent Cole, Todd Herremans, etc. get signed to feel like my GM knows what he's doing.

You guys are acting like A.) Ballard never goes out and gets players, and B.) All of the holes on this team need to be filled by free agents right now, and C.) Some of these guys who signed with other teams would've been signed by the Colts if you were GM.

Anyway, it feels silly arguing about this before it's even done. If you wake up Monday morning and Armstead and Ryan are Colts, all of this is moot.

We can't afford to sign Armstead and take on Ryan's contract. We only have ~$40M in cap space left and need to make sure there's enough left 5 years from now to re-sign Paye and Dayo in case they become good players along with anyone we draft this year that pans out.

Damn, dude. Why strawman? I thought for a minute we were having an honest discussion and disagreeing. Knock yourself out if you want to go this route.

The Tennessee Titans have acquired Robert Woods in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

The Rams will receive a 2023 sixth-round pick in exchange for the receiver, per ESPN's Adam Schefter.

I don't want Ryan, he's to fuckin old, and Armstead will be a Dolphin by Monday!

Just an example. I tend to think we don't get either of them. I've never been a Ryan fan, but it's a pretty unfortunate group to choose from.

I don't know what the holdup is with Armstead signing somewhere unless it's injuries.

Would've been a great move for us if we had a QB to throw to him :cool:

Of those available I'd be less pissed at Ryan. Think he could be ok short term and could be a mentor to a new QB. We are screwed this year anyway you look at it. Please, please no Mayfield.

What the fuck is wrong with Mayfield?

He could very easily be the answer we’ve been searching for at qb for the next 5 years easily

This revolving door QB has got to stop

He is not a very good QB. He is on a loaded Cleveland team and has had 1 winning season.

He is always at odds with someone.

He is going to cost us draft picks and then have to re negotiate his contract next yr. He will either want paid big or will sign with someone else.

He is not worth anything more than a 3rd rd pick IMO and we will still need to draft a QB either this yr or next. He has a big arm, but is always hurt

Does't seem like it's a race between teams to trade for him. Otherwise he would already be gone. Cleveland has already traded for Brissett to be the backup.

If you want the revolving door at QB to stop then you should not want Baker

I’d rather have Baker than Matt Ryan. Ryan will be 37 years old in May. He’s Philip Rivers 2.0.

At least with Mayfield you’re getting a guy who could get better.

Then just draft a QB.

I’m not opposed to it, but it’s what they should have done 2 years ago. Do you see someone realistic in this draft or are you wanting to tank this season and draft a rookie next year?

Sorry. I was trying to point out how ridiculous it is to include players who might need to be re-signed in 3 and 4 years as a factor in why we can't spend current cap dollars, and my smartassness kicked in a bit much.

All joking aside here are my responses to your post:

A.) Ballard never goes out and gets players

Relatively speaking he doesn't. Here is the list of FAs of note that Ballard has brought in since 2018 (excluding the bargain basement depth signings that is standard for every team and minimal cap impact):

Denico Autry (2018) - 3 yrs/$18M
Eric Ebron (2018) - 2 yrs/$13M
Ryan Grant (2018) - 1 yr/$5M
Devin Funchess (2019) - 1 yr/$10M
Justin Houston (2019) - 2 yrs/$23M
Philip Rivers (2020) - 1 yr/$25M
Xavier Rhodes (2020) - 1 yr/$3M
Trey Burton (2020) - 1 yr/$.9M
Eric Fisher (2020) - 1 yr/$8.4M
Brandon Facyson - 1 yr/$3.8M

So basically in 5 years running now Ballard has brought in 2 FAs that weren't lower cost value signings or 1 year band aids (and technically Rivers was a 1 year band aid)

B.) All of the holes on this team need to be filled by free agents right now

While this is true, Ballard has shown a distinct trend to either ignore the teams needs or rely on the upcoming draft and/or band aid signings to fill those needs.

Take for instance pass rush. It was clear that we needed an upgrade at pass rush coming out of '20 even before the guys who were 2nd and 3rd on the team in sacks were allowed to walk (Houston and Autry). Now letting them walk in and of itself wasn't horrible (although turns out letting Autry go was a mistake), but the need to add pass rush became even more of a priority after that. So what does Ballard do to address it? He adds a bargain basement depth guy (Rochell) and drafts 2 projects. Turns out, at least in the short term, that didn't work out at all as our pass rush was pretty much non-existent throughout '21.

C.) Some of these guys who signed with other teams would've been signed by the Colts if you were GM

This is a good point. I get that in our current situation we would have to way overspend to bring in a guy like Robinson over the LAR. But that always hasn't been the case, and Ballard could still bring in guys to fill team needs.

Here's a great example of someone Ballard should have brought in last year: Trey Hendrickson. We were in dire need of pass rush, had cap space going into FA, and Hendrickson was coming off a year where he had 13.5 sacks, 12 TFL, and 25 QB hits. The Bungles signed him for 4 yrs/$60M with $16M guaranteed. At the time the Colts were a more attractive landing spot since we had come off an 11 win season and it looked like we had adequately backfilled Rivers at QB. The Bungles on the other hand were coming off back to back terrible seasons (2 and 4 wins) and while they had Joe Burrow at QB he was a big question mark at least for '21 as his knee had been pretty much blown up in Nov. '20. One would think if we had offered a similar deal Hendrickson would have signed here.

Hendrickson rewarded the Bungles with 14 sacks/12 TFL/27 QB hits in the regular season and had 3.5 sacks in the playoffs. If we had added that type of production to our shit show pass rush then we're certainly in the playoffs and quite possibly win the division.

That's the type of signing Ballard needs to be making.

One other thing I'd like to add. Our complete lack of activity in FA is pointing to that the FO has decided that '22 could very well be a throw away year. It doesn't necessarily mean that yet, but as each day ticks by it's looking more and more likely. This is one reason why some of us are so pissed and shouldn't be happening in a GM's 6th year.

It's a shitty situation with no great choice.

I hear the Ryan skepticism. Like I said, I've never been a big Ryan fan. And the age is a concern. But there's something about these high draft pick guys getting bailed on that I just don't like. Winston, Mariota, Goff, Mayfield, Wentz... we saw first-hand what a reclamation project feels like. Especially if there's a mental/attitude/maturity issue which is what I keep reading.

Glass half-full on Ryan is... He'll be 37. That's two years older than Stafford was last year. But it's two years younger than Rivers when he was here. Rivers' noodle arm got us to 11-5 (I don't know if Ryan's arm is shot, somebody here said it was). If he's not broken and wants to play two or three more years, next year's draft is supposed to be pretty deep at QB.

But you could make a case going the other way, too.

The odds of drafting one who is even as good as Mayfield are astronomically low, especially in this draft when they don’t have a first rounder.

That’s not improving the position, that’s throwing a dart at the board from 100 feet away.

Everyone calm the fuck down, there’s still plenty of good free agents available this season is not a total loss and no fuckin way they’re considering that

I still believe we’ll get a couple more impact guys and this team will be in the playoffs again

We’re fine we got rid of Wentz and picked up Ngakwe, address LT which I believe they will and QB ofcourse

Ballard will get this shit right I still believe in him

They're just sitting there doing nothing. Why should any of us care anymore?

I think that either Pickett or Ridder would be worth a pick. Roll with them this r and if it doesn't work out draft another in 23 when we have a 1st round pick to be able to move up.

Then let one of those two replace Sam as backup if they are better

I'd take Mariota or Winston over Baker for many many reasons but mostly because we don't have to trade any picks

Sometimes the best reaction is no reaction

They rushed out and traded for Wentz how’d that workout?

Rushed out and hired McDaniel how’s that workout?

I’m genuinely curious how many more mediocre seasons before Ballard sees genuine pressure from the Indy fan base. One of his best decisions was following Grigson.

I hitched to this wagon a while ago. Pick your best FA QB or roll with sam. I was for picking next QB next year, including trading up as high as possible. But i like your idea of picking QBs back to back years if needed.


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If we are rolling with Sam, for fucks sake sign Armstead. If the O-line plays remotely to its 2020 level with Armstead added Sam will have all day to throw the ball. If that is how we are going make him look better than he is.

He wants $23.9m Per Year, Ballard's calc says he is only worth $23.87, so sorry, hard pass.

In Ballard WE ARE FUCKED!

Armstead was waiting to find out if Watson was going to the Saints. He most likely would have returned to them if they landed Watson.

There are reasons for players still being available. They are looking at the total landscape of the NFL. Plus he is always hurt it seems. I'm not sure Ballard wants to try another injured LT.

I assume he will make a decision this week. Looks like it may be the bears though.

La'el Collins is also still available

Collins plays RT? Is he capable of the move and still perform at a high level? No matter who we have throwing the ball protecting his blindside is a must, especially a young guy back there sling'n it.

lmao!!!

I've been saying this for awhile now. While for the most part Ballard isn't bad, a lot of people think that he's a lot better than he is b/c his predecessor was so incompetent (same goes for Reich).

Oh please. Look at the all pros on the roster and Ballard either traded for them or drafted them