Yeah he makes sense, but I really hate the thought of JT wasting another season of his career, we all know these RBs have a short lifespan in the NFL!

You're not going to find perfection anywhere, at least on Earth. The point I'm making is that we're either no better off or worse in the 3 most important areas to winning games in the NFL: QB, pass rush, and LT. You have to cut Ballard some slack on QB. Luck fucked us and Ballard has done what he could within reason.

As for pass rush: we had 33 sacks in 16 games in 2016 (last year under that worthless turd Grigs) and 33 sacks in 17 games this year. Clearly a failure on Ballard's part not to have improved there.

As for LT, yeah AC retired, but he had been showing signs that he wasn't going to be around for much longer for several years before he retired. Ballard had plenty of time to come up with a better replacement plan than a 1 year band aid player coming off a torn achilles.

I'm also going to throw receiving threats at WR/TE in there b/c you need receiving weapons to win in today's NFL. Like pass rush we're no better than where we were in 2016 as back then we had TY and a bunch of below average guys. Now we have MPJ and a bunch of below average guys.

Look Ballard's at least a decent GM, which is a hell of a lot better than who we had before. But if he was one of the top GMs in the league like some people claim him to be, then he would have had some of the glaring holes in critical areas fixed by now.

Mitch Trubisky? I read something today about how Buffalo really likes him and thinks he should get another chance. Josh Allen said he'd tear it up if given a chance. I might be interested in that, but there will probably be a bidding war and the Colts don't have the capital. What a mess.

I think this group could look much better with a more accurate QB, or at least a more decisive one that can read defenses better.

IMO he'd be worth bringing in. It certainly couldn't hurt.

True. Still would have liked to have seen Ballard be more proactive about replacing AC since he had plenty of notice ahead of time that AC would be hanging it up soon.

I was only addressing the pass catchers as a group.

I still think they should have signed Leno, already got extension with Washington. :cool:

Trubisky might be worth it. He certainly had shit for a coach and has an NFL arm. Would be another crap shoot but you play enough craps and sooner or later win.

Or become the Cleveland Browns.....:D

Yes he is making a lot of sense. But it doesn't matter. It appears that Irsay does not want him so he is gone.

There is something that happened besides his on the field stuff which in itself was not a reason to move on. He was top 10 in QBR rating and improved in every area that he was terrible in the yr before in Philly. It is attitude or game prep or something. And no it's not the vax otherwise there would be a bunch more on the hot seat.

I tend to agree with you Puck. It doesn’t make me feel good. Irsay making this decision is fucked. His decision’s have sucked in the past and will suck now. Hope he’s like a blind squirrel and finds the right answer by pure luck.

There might be an off field thing. Didn’t they take a plane flight somewhere recently. On field I think it’s the stubbornness. He won’t use the weapons he has. Not throwing outlet passes and not using JT and Hines in the passing game out of the backfield. Use what the team has. Adapt.but he is reportedly stubborn. Actually said mid season he does like the outlet pass bc he doesn’t think it’s aggressive.

Then the my e Janice issue that he has never fixed. Gotta believe Peyton was in Irsay’s ear about Wentz’s play.

Blaine Gabbert is going to replace Brady in Tampa Bay. Hopefully the Colts are above that level of a choice. Yikes.

Yes Feb 10th the plane meeting. And a couple days after that the leak from Mort.

I think they are all 3 out on Wentz. Even Frank. It's a shame too because the kid has talent.

I just think that Irsay wasn't hearing the commitment that he wanted to hear from him.

Who knows, but the bad thing about the leak which is speculated to have come from Irsay hurts the trade value

All JMO

He will keep getting chances because of his talent. But he doesn’t have the temperament. High ceiling really low floor. Honestly after some of the idiocy he pulled this season I wished we had Foles to replace him with.

Means Tampa is gonna hope for a QB next years draft.

I get the feeling that Reich is out on Wentz because he was TOLD he was out on Wentz.

Not sure what goes into QBR, but I wouldn't trust a system that rates Wentz as having a better year than Joe Burrow. Not even close as to who had the better year, and it definitely wasn't Wentz. Admittingly Wentz had a decent first half of the year, but really regressed and had a really bad 2nd half as I chronicled here:

http://www.coltfreaks.com/forum/show...117823&page=13

I do agree with you on that the leak sucks b/c it certainly does hurt what little trade value Wentz had.

That's a great point. Pretty much made me sick to my stomach watching the Kurt Warner analysis where time after time Wentz's dumbass chose to throw into double and triple coverage instead of to a wide open JT/Hines with all kinds of running room in front of them.

Gotcha. Yeah, they would definitely be better if we had a decent QB, but we really need a legitimate deep threat at WR2 and a good slot receiver.

Well, the scummy Glazers are their owners. It wouldn't surprise me if they intentionally tanked.

TY or Hines in the slot, and pray Campbell can stay healthy, or...Allen Robinson.

Even some of the comments that have been made publicly are counter productive, if you are planning to keep him and you hope to motivate him to work harder, or rework his contract, maybe you say those things, but if you are hoping to trade him, they don't help! Sorry, but in my opinion, the Colts have handled this badly, which is why I believe there is still a good chance Wentz is here next season.

At this point, praying for Campbell to stay healthy has long passed as a viable option. I would let him play out training camp, and if he cant stay healthy for the whole preseason just curb his ass. I have never seen such an injury prone "but had no injury history in college" player. He hasn't even flashed enough for me to think he is worth scheming around, even when healthy.

Hines is not a receiver. He is too small. Wont win any jump balls, and if placed in a strictly receiver role, we would see his limitations there. He is a scat, 3rd down receiving back. Every team should have one, and he is a good one.

TY in the slot is interesting but only if we bring in a WR and TE to start. If not, I do not want TY featured at this point. Too injury prone, and really just too old. Just move on. He was a great Colt, but shouldn't still be a Colt going forward. We could have spent the money on TY in MUCH more impactful ways last year, IMO.

Allen Robinson though? That just might be the 1A to Pittmans 1B that we need. He is still a good age, he is still talented as hell, a veteran who can produce with garbage QB play, and he wont cost Godwin/Adams type money. If we can get him, I think he'd be a great fit. Arob and Pitt on the outside...and if we can get Jarvis Landry for cheap I am all for it. That is a solid starting three, but also aging.

Tampa has another internal candidate for QB - the Bucs spent a 2nd round pick on a QB in last year's draft - Kyle Trask.

Not surprised that Trask wasn't immediately named as starter - Tommy Cheater and Gabbert probably received the majority of the reps in practice this past season and the rookie was relegated to individual workouts with the QB's coach Clyde Christensen.

Cletus. I couldn’t agree with you more that the Colts have shit the bed by the way they have handled this. Not a good look or sign for the future. I’m fearing mediocrity for a long time

o


I wouldn't necessarily be so presumptuous about that. Remember that when Andrew Luck first retired and the Colts had to roll with Jacoby Brissett, the Colts were designated to mediocrity for a grand total of one year ...... they went 7-9 for that one season in 2019, and then after signing a past-his-prime, immobile Philip Rivers at quarterback they went 11-6 the very next season and took the Bills right down to the wire in the playoffs on their home field.

Also, remember how unpredictable the entire 2021 season was for a whole bunch of teams, including the Colts ??? When the 49ers got dominated by the Colts and fell to a record of 2-4 overall, who would have guessed that Jimmy Garoppolo and company wound wind up going to the NFC Championship game and taking the eventual world-champion Rams right down to the wire ??? And after the Colts started the season at 0-3, I'll bet that the vast majority of Colts fans would have been surprised if somebody had told them that they would go 9-3 over their next 12 games and would be be sitting pretty in terms of a playoff berth prior to the final 2 games of the season. Plus, there were tons of individual-game examples, especially in the AFC. When Derrick Henry went down with an injury in the middle of the season, the Titans had the eventual world-champion Rams in their very next game. The Rams had just acquired Von Miller in a trade, and their overall record at that time was 7-1. It was supposed to be a blowout in favor of the Rams. It was indeed a blowout, but it went the other way. The Derrick Henry-less Titans stomped on the Rams that night. The score of the game was 28-10 late in the 4th quarter before the Rams added a cosmetic touchdown with only 24 seconds left to play in the game.


I'm not saying that your fear of the Colts falling into a state of mediocrity for a long period of time won't come to fruition, because it might ....... I'm only saying that I have seen far too much unexpected shit go down over the last few years to presume anything for almost any team, including the Colts.

o

I love your confidence, and it may very well be correct. I won’t be sharing it if it turns out that this was Irsay’s decision. I agree Wentz was crappy this year but have seen way to many professional athletes turn it around. I agree it is a long shot but it is a shot. The idea that a full off-season with Reich intrigues me personally. The dude has the physical characteristics you want, the way Reich loves to go for it on fourth down makes his size a plus. I’m not saying I like this idea, I just like it better than rolling with any of the alternatives

o


I'm not necessarily confident that the Colts will rebound, like they did with Philip Rivers in 2020 ...... I'm just not at the other extreme either, and necessarily presuming that mediocrity is what the Colts are destined for for years to come.

o

eh. it shouldn't take a whole offseason to get your QB to hit a checkdown. if he isnt doing that with any consistency (when appropriate) then there are fundamental problems.

if it took me years for me to catch on to something I was consistently missing at work, I would not be employed......hence......

TY is done. Makes me sad, but he will struggle to make the team

He can still get open, but just doesn't have the burners. He would be good in the slot only.

He has not been able to stay healthy. His legs are gone. I hate saying that, I love his game.

Well said all around. Ballard needs to go into this offseason with the mindset that Campbell is gone and needs to be replaced. If he manages to stay healthy through camp and makes any contributions on the field then it'll be a pleasant surprise, but we sure shouldn't be counting on anything out of him.

We could have some plays designed to use Hines as a slot receiver, but for the most part let him do what he does best which is catch the ball out of the backfield. It's not his fault Wentz is too stupid to throw him the ball.

Maybe TY could be good in the slot, but he has lost a step(s) and gets hurt a lot anymore. Plus it sounded like he was seriously considering hanging it up at the end of the year.

Agree that both ARob and Landry would be good pickups. Landry's still under contract but would be a big cap savings for the Brownies if they cut him.

I guess the only thing is that once Ballard started offering Wentz for trade that word would get around and what little trade value he had would drop anyway. But leaking that we're going to trade or release him doesn't help that's for sure.

If one GM takes to another about borrowing 2 gator aid jugs the whole league knows

Not that there wouldn't be a potential bidding war, but Trubisky only made $2.5M last year with the Bills and is a FA. We're $35M under the cap and (if I'm understanding it correctly) would be $63M under the cap if we can trade Wentz. I would think we could bring in Trubisky.

It's a huge gamble but, gun to my head, that's what I would do. He's been on a good team that thinks highly of him. Hopefully he's learned a lot from being in Buffalo. Frank is allegedly "the QB whisperer". Let's see it.
Rodgers isn't realistic and honestly we don't need any more headaches than we already have. Wilson isn't realistic and I seriously doubt Ciara wants to live in Indy.
Out of who's available, I don't see much upside. Garoppolo actually might happen, but he is what he is and has no future development left. He's still better than Wentz. So, yeah, I'd look at Trubisky. And while they're at it, let him compete and actually try to earn a captaincy. Don't just gift it to him like Wentz.

I would be ok with Trubisky or Winston. Both gambles but with analytics trending in the right direction. Not any more a gamble than Wentz for another year. And if it doesn’t work, hopefully have a high draft pick in a QB draft next year.