I took the time to form my own informed opinions, I'm not just going to give them up for the sake of groupthink or some notion that my opinion must be wrong because Ballard has a different opinion. Time will tell on all of this. But I don’t think Ballard or the Colts organization are above criticism as it seems almost everyone except Chromeburn here does. I think they made a bad decision, and I think it has the potential to be Bjoren Werner level bad or Phillip Dorsett over Landon Collins level bad, or both because they took a traited up DE over a guy who I think will be a 10 year starter at LT in the NFL. The potential negative outcomes here massively outweigh the potential positive outcomes, that's what I don't like. Also, this is nothing personal against Paye. After hearing his story, I'm 1000% on board with him becoming the next great Colts pass rusher, and I'd love to see it happen, but he has a long road to get there, and the realist in me looks at his film and it screams bust. Hopefully that desire and will to succeed that he oozes will prevail in the end, but this pick is going to look really bad if Paye busts out and Jenkins is a 10+ year fixture at LT for a Bears team that is a perennial contender with Fields at the helm.

I'm going to keep my mouth shut as best I can, but I still can't believe that Tevi is the answer at LT. I expect something to be done about it other than "scheme". You can't hide a bad LT for 17 games. Hell, all I want to do is win the division. It's been years since we have.

At the end of last season, the Colts appeared to have 3 big needs for the coming season, as well as many smaller wants.

1. QB - with Rivers being done, the Colts went and got Wentz. Let's hope we get the good Wentz and not the bad one

2. DE - improve the pass rush with a force at DE. I'm optimistic that Paye fits the bill

3. LT - to me, a very important need. We have what appears to be a great running game, I'd hate to see it fail due to a glaring weakness on the left side of the line.


2 out of 3 major needs have been addressed. Hold on to your hats, it's gonna be a bumpy ride, but it will be fun, and in the end, that's good enough for me.

And with 4 quality veteran left tackles out there on the market whom are all in the same ballpark as Castonzo in terms of quality and performance, there is little doubt in my mind that we will fill the 3rd big hole on our roster as well.

Most rookie draft classes (7 picks) are going to cost around $6m in cap space for 2021. Spots 52 and 53 on the active in-season roster are going to cost around $2m. The 10 person practice squad is going to cost $2m for the season. In season churn space will be around $2-4m.

In total, teams need to have around $10-12m in free cap space just to sign their rookies, fill their roster, pay their practice squad and operate for the season.

Currently, 16 teams (half the league) have less than $10m in free cap space.
Another 4 teams have less than $15m of free cap space.

Ergo:

A) The market of teams with sufficient free cap space that can pay for a veteran left OT in free agency is not big. It is a bit of a waiting game to sign one IF you value all the tackles roughly equally because every day that passes probably lowers that hoped for compensation by agents and players.

B) Veteran cuts are not done yet.

The proof of whether this was a successful off-season will be measured by our week 1 roster and our week 18 record, not what is happening in March, April, May, June or July.

IF Tevi or Davenport are our starting week 1 left OT, I will LEAD the mob with pitchfork raised high when storming the Colts complex searching for Ballard's head.

Be patient, Freaks.

Ahh without seeing the schedule I’m saying 14-3

Or it could be the other way around

I get it you don't like the picks. But you have to live with it. Nothing you can do about it. RELAX!!! Ballard and Co still know more than any of us and I am 100% positive he has a plan

You’re forgetting injuries happen also which cause teams to quickly sign a veteran. Also teams with that new rookie tackle may realize he is not ready for the task. And Villanueva is off the board now.

Oh there's definitely still opportunity for Ballard to address the LT spot and make the roster very complete going into the 2021 season, but there were several here that were insistent that a rookie deal was needed at LT, so I'm a bit surprised at the lack of criticism of Ballard passing/getting outplayed entirely on the deepest OT class in recent memory. If they sign a veteran LT and Paye and Odeyingbo pan out, bravo Ballard, but he's betting a lot on the potential of Paye over the production of Jenkins.

Rumor going around we are interested in Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher

The problem with this is neither have played an NFL game so you can't compare production yet.