Culture problems started with Joe Flacco
 

One of the things that Anthony Richardson needed most desperately was someone to take him aside and teach him how to operate as a professional. That someone turned out to be Sam Ehlinger of all people. I get it, Flacco is a 20 year vet, and he wasn’t brought in to hold Richardson’s hand. He didn’t do it in Philadelphia, didn’t do it with the Jets, the Broncos, or Cleveland.

But, you can’t be a turd floating in the toilet bowl and complain that the bathroom isn’t clean. He is the personification of an I’m in this for myself attitude that cuts against the grain of team building. He has a zero sum mentality in which there are only winners and losers, and everything he does to help a young Quarterback hurts his own chances of his seeing the field.

Ultimately, he might be right, the Colts might have a culture problem; but, ironically enough, the start of the solution might begin with eliminating him from the equation.

They knew this when they signed him.

They could’ve brought in anyone to be a mentor, they brought in someone to give him competition and it turned out to bite them in the ass.

I hated the Flacco signing from day 1, but atleast he seemed to unleash Alec Pierces potential

What a dumb post.
It's not Joe's fault AR sucks.

I get where you are coming from, but there were signs before then that the culture needed a boost in the right direction.

Culture problems start, and continue, with Chris Flat Bill Fucko Ballard.

These are his players, this is his reward mediocrity, encourage personal promotion, culture.

FUCK CHRIS BALLARD!

If you’re talking about this quote from after the Jags game-

“When you're 8-9, there's probably a ton of spots where you could look and convince yourself that we were almost there," Flacco said. "I don't necessarily think that's the right mindset. I don't think we should be trying to trick ourselves into thinking that we're almost there. I think we should acknowledge, 'Yeah, we are almost there, but we're not there.' I think when you acknowledge that, you free yourself up to get better and take that next step."

I had no problem with that quote. He’s absolutely right.

It’s really bizarre to point a finger at Flacco as part of this team’s culture problem. If anything, he’s the guy these young guys should model themselves after. It’s not his fault AR sucks.

There are probably 40 guys on that team I would blame before I’d blame Joe Flacco.

Yeah, this is a weird thread. Very very odd to single out Joe Flacco as someone to blame.

So, maybe, in the wee hours of the morning, after listening to the broadcast/podcast/whatevercast of a prominent Indy sports commentator in which he launches into a rant about culture problems and brings up Flacco to support his position, I shouldn’t react so harshly.

Maybe I shouldn’t let guys like Kevin Bowen and Pat McAfee and whoever else get to me. Maybe I should recognize that their job is to drive clicks and generate traffic, and that if peddling garbage does that, then they’ll damn well peddle garbage.

Maybe I should have complained about the messenger, the guy who guy who ticked me off, rather than fixating on the details of the message.

look, I don’t know that a culture problem exists. I don’t know that Jonathan Taylor’s dropping the ball before he reaches the goal line or a silly chest thumping podcast by a couple of Linebackers represents some kind of moral rot that has to be excised.

I apologize to Joe Flacco.

Flacco was never going to be the right guy to mentor AR, and neither was Minshew...but for different reasons.

Flacco definitely does not add to the culture, because he's a me 1st guy. There's nothing wrong with that if your the best player on the team and at least lead by example.

Minshew had the perfect personality to mentor AR, but his gunslinger style of play cannot be something that rubs off on AR.

I don't know who the perfect backup/competition should be. Any ideas?

Ballard doesn’t believe in players mentoring players. He doesn’t believe in veterans helping set the culture in the locker room. He believes that should all be from the coaches. He told us this when he first started cutting vets, pitching a slow rebuild while Luck was still on the roster. It was one of the very first things that soured me on Ballard. If Flacco wasn’t mentoring AR that’s not something you can blame him for, it’s almost guaranteed he wasn’t brought in to do that. Which to me just further highlights how fucking stupid Ballard’s philosophy is and how much he has fucked AR and this team in general.

Of course Chris Ballard started cutting vets. He inherited a team that, apart from Andrew Luck and a few others, was talent poor.

Looking at the roster

The Good:

TY Hilton
Anthony Castonzo
Ryan Kelly
Andrew Luck
Jack Doyle who was a 2nd stringer under Pagano

The Old:

Frank Gore was 34
Mike Adams was 36
Vontae Davis was only 29, but he’d only play 6 more games in his career
D’Qwell Jackson was 34
Robert Mathis was 35
Joe Reitz was 31

The Ugly

Donte Moncrief
Jonothan Harrison
Hugh Thornton
Dwayne Allen
Chase Coffman
Kendall Langford
David Parry
Zack Kerr
Erik Walden
Sio Moore
Patrick Robinson
TJ Green

Flacco has been honest about this from the start. I’m not a fan of his attitude though. He’s the anti hasselbeck and won’t be back. But he was brought in competent backup that could win games. He sucked at that.

I actually don’t think there is a culture problem. I think there are a lot of strong good voices on this team. I think there is a QB problem. AR is 22 and the youngest QB in the league for the second year in a row. I don’t think anyone has sat him down and taught him how to be a pro and a QB. Not in college certainly. That Florida program is crap. But I do like AR’s response to his benching. And he did improve after the benching. I want to see how he does after a full offseason. I dont think ppl get just how young he is. I still want to try and develop him because the AFC is ridiculously tough. You are not going to get through it with average. Right now AR is the best shot at a star QB.

Even if he did cut all of the vets because the existing ones sucked, that didn’t stop him from adding some via FA to set a culture. He didn’t. And he specifically said he wasn’t worried about veteran presence in the locker room because he expected his coaches to set the culture. He employed a supposed specialist in getting “good character” players in place. I get it, you are a constant Ballard defender. But Ballard wasn’t forced to do things the way he has. This is his team completely. The losing culture and lack of leadership on this team is a result of Ballard’s methods.

This isn’t a matter of a losing culture. It’s a talented offense held back by a QB with serious shortcomings. If Richardson, somehow, morphs into a solid pro, the Colts are a serious playoff contender. If he doesn’t, Ballard is on the outside, looking for a job.

The Colts were held back as much or more by their defense than the were by their offense.

No argument here. They need a sea change in defensive philosophy. If the players can’t handle a more complicated, sophisticated scheme, it’s time to find new players.

When Flacco is on the sidelines he seems totally uninterested in what is going on on the field, in fact, once I thought I read his lips and he asked one of the training staff if they had some Grey Poupon!

He's a dick!

Some of you have lost your minds. Seek help.

I'm not defending them, they had a bad year and the eyeball test doesn't mitigate the numbers like it did to an extent the previous couple of years.

That said, when your QB is throwing 47%, only like a dozen completions per game, moonshots or short hops easy throws so we can't extend drives, blah blah... It's just a non-starter. It effects both sides of the ball.

The rest of the offense was fine. OL was elite when healthy, had an ugly stretch when 3 starters were out. JT was good, Pitt/Pierce/Downs can play if you can get them the ball, and TEs were underwhelming.

Buckner wouldn't have said what he said if there weren't some locker room cancers that fucked things up this year. I'm guessing it was mostly the podcast brothers he was talking about. Maybe Blackmon too.

I agree on AR.

I just think they could have been successful with AR and JT and a run heavy offense if they had had a strong defense.

If e had tried that approach all year long, we would know for sure. Shane did not go run heavy until it was too late for this season.

Which makes me think this tear was a wash from the start, because the only goal was to develop AR as a passer. Then they switched QBs midstream to try to win now, and it backfired.

It’s because the team lacks a plan and a vision. I’ve been saying it for years. Ballard has never shown a cohesive plan to win. From Luck, to Rivers, to Wentz, to Ryan he has never supported the QB with the rest of the roster. It’s a hodgepodge of shit. Sign a QB on the verge of retirement but treat the rest of the roster (especially WR) like a multi year rebuild. Trade for an old immobile QB, depend on a journeyman guard and a rookie 3rd round pick who has only played the position for two years to protect him at LT. is it really a surprise that AR had no real vet mentor, a RB that is horrible is pass pro, TEs that can’t catch, and a mediocre D? Not to anyone that has watched Ballard operate. The one thing I can guarantee you is that Ballard wasn’t trying to win by benching AR. He has never been playoffs or bust. Never.

Warren for Penn State is projected to go 15-17, the Colts could fix their TE problem with one pick!

WAS projected...

I said it in another thread, I'm pretty sure I jinxed us by mentioning him a month ago. Dude is just steadily climbing up the draft boards. I hope it happens for us.

Stuard spoke out about going to Detroit, and this was a takeaway: In Detroit, Stuard he believes he's joining a like-minded defense and linebacker room, something he felt up close in the Lions' 24-6 win over the Colts last November.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/n...e/82404923007/

In other words, his LB teammates were a bunch of pussies and his coaches reluctant do anything about it?

Grant Stuard’s role in the Lion’s Linebacker room will be fetching doughnuts and making sure the coffee pot is full. Not saying he’s a bad player, but he’s a Joe. You need those in case disaster strikes, but he’s like a FEMA trailer. You’re glad to have one after the tornado wipes out the homestead, but you wouldn’t want to make it your permanent home.

Al true, but it does not negate the fact that he saw players with more talent on the field, but not working as hard as they should. We need guys who work and play hard as Stuard did for us. Maybe that is why Ballard let Speed walk.

sounds right