I've certainly been critical of Ballard over the years - some of which was well deserved (the Matt Pryor dumpster fire for example). Obviously happy to eat crow and acknowledge this at least so far has been a great team that Ballard has put together.

I do, however, think we should at least wait until the season's over before anointing Ballard and Steichen into the HOF. I mean we were all pretty happy w/ how 2021 was going until the final 2 games of the year........

I don’t know who’s better both guys get slammed for decisions they’ve made or didn’t make. For me the way I view a GM is similar to the way I view a player and it’s about effort and results. Ballard has built patiently while Grigson was more aggressive. It’s an impossible position to be in unless you draft a Mahomes or Manning, Grigson made moves that I was excited about so im not gonna bash either guy. I was excited about and yes I’ll say it the Trent Richardson trade, Laron Landry, Ahmad Bradshaw, Dqwell Jackson, RIP Arthur Jones, hell even Donald Thomas I was hoping would help secure the Oline.

I’ve been proud of the Colts during both tenures that’s all I know

I saw a graphic today that said Manning was the last overall first pick who led the team that drafted him to a SB win. Given that nearly every first overall pick since him was a QB, your point about luck is valid.

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I was proud of the Colts when they went 2-14 in 2011. I'm a Colts fan. That doesn't mean that I think that they were a good team, and I don't think that Ryan Grigson was a good GM.

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Yet he’s still employed by an NFL team so people inside the NFL circle think otherwise

I don’t think Grigson was a bad GM, he was trying to win immediately with a young QB.

Just like failed head coaches make good OCs/DCs, failed GMs make good scouts and other lower front office roles.

Grigson couldn’t draft and that is the backbone of a team. He was gifted probably the best drafted QB ever and couldn’t build around him. I think his first draft was more Tom Telesco than him. He had outdated philosophies on how to build a team and then didn’t have the eye for talent to back it up. He had to go to FA because his draft picks were failing, so he overspent for veteran players and had about the same success rate as a regular GM has in the draft.

I have my critics me of Ballard, like not fixing obvious holes right away or leaning on draft picks to succeed and fill the gap. Sometimes it works like Nick Cross and Bortolini, sometimes it doesn’t like Juju. I would a lack of urgency was his biggest issue till this year. Although sometimes I wonder how much of it was Jim.

But one traded for Buckner and one traded for Richardson. To me they aren’t even close in strategy, eye for talent and how they run their workplace. Grigson is filling smaller roles around the league but I doubt he ever gets another shot at GM. Ballard would be hired as a GM if we let him go.

There was an article in the Athletic last year that talked about the relationship between Flores and Grigson that opined that he may get a shot at a GM role in the near future. That said, I completely agree with you that Ballard clearly has the superior eye for talent and roster building philosophies.

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Jim Caldwell and Chuck Pagano are also still employed by an NFL team. Caldwell and Pagano were the worst Colts head coaches since the Peyton Manning era began, in 1998. Being employed by another NFL team does not vindicate awful performances of a GM and/or head coach in the past.


Caldwell doubled down on one of the worst decisions in Colts playoff history in a post-game press conference after his inexplicable time-out call against the Jets Colts coach Jim Caldwell said on Sunday that he doesn't regret calling a late timeout that actually might have helped the New York Jets' winning drive in the previous night's AFC wild-card playoff game ...... Colts coach Jim Caldwell said on Sunday that he doesn't regret calling a late timeout that actually might have helped the New York Jets' winning drive in the previous night's AFC wild-card playoff game.

This is the expression on Peyton Manning's face, followed by his helpless hand-gesture immediately after the timeout was called at the 1:55:12 mark of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y48nV0UR1E


Chuck Pagano once called for a fake-punt in a nationally-televised game against the Patriots that was so laughingly absurd that it easily could have qualified for being an article in the satirical newspaper The Onion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i7VKQwDS2s

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Grigson was immediately gifted with a rare, all-world quarterback (Andrew Luck) and almost got him killed. Luck's career nearly ended with his lacerated kidney in 2015, and it did eventually come to a premature end after the 2018 season. Grigson spent very limited draft capital on the offensive line in his Colts tenure, which is easily the worst thing possible that a GM could do in that situation. Between 2012 and 2015, he drafted only three linemen before the seventh round, none of whom developed into quality starters. If he was "trying to win" with the great quarterback that fell into his lap, he had the worst strategy in doing so.

The Colts were a winning, competitive team in Grigson's tenure as the GM largely because of Andrew Luck's greatness, and in spite of Grigson's ineptitude, not because of it.

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Rumors were his name popped up for the Jets. I wish he had so people could judge him without a franchise QB to carry him. Guy was toxic who literally has Dan Dakich staning for him bc he’s the only guy who would feed him info.