Colts fire OC Marcus Brady

[Oldcolt]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

This doesn't compute. Your question essentially points out how unexpected and baffling that our O-line, particularly our three stalwarts, have played so poorly this year after having been arguably our biggest team strength since 2018. How do we then turn around and shit on him for paying those three guys when the time came?

He should've known better? That's the real mind-reading shit.

That's like saying the Browns' GM should go ahead and replace Bitonio, Teller, and Conklin this off-season because they're going to suck next year. Yeah, they've been great the past few years, but whatever.

By the way, once again regarding Ballard criticism, crickets when it comes to the defense or how he may have been right about our WR's.

You don’t get my point at all. When someone talks about how he is great at something-finding players with the right mindset-and seems to be saying we didn’t do that in building the roster previously and then brings in guys who only care about the money, to me its on him. He is the one who said he could do it, not me. So yes I am shocked at this regression, a regression Ballard seemed to say would not happen when he was in charge. I’ve been on Ballards side, haven’t criticized him until now. Ballard bragged about his great acumen in choosing players who are self motivated over and over when he took over. Couldn’t even sign a free agent because he had to get ‘his’ locker room first. It’s five years and I’m still waiting for this great locker room to show up. This is not my idea, that you can read mind shit and incorporate it into who you put on this team. It was Ballard alone who said he would do that. Why shouldn’t I hold him responsible for not being able to do what he said he would do? As far as the WR room, it is still below average, they have ability and hopefully will continue to improve-unlike the offensive line. You may be impressed with this defense but I believe you need to be able to get to the QB to be elite in the NFL. We can’t, just look at how much time Washington had on the last play.

[nate505]

So he gets fired but the offensive line coach stays? Makes total sense.

[Spike]

Originally Posted by nate505

So he gets fired but the offensive line coach stays? Makes total sense.

It's become a cluster fuck organization. Let's find a guy we can blame it on who we don't really like and fire his ass. Sick of Reich and Ballard.

[ChaosTheory]

Originally Posted by Oldcolt

You don’t get my point at all. When someone talks about how he is great at something-finding players with the right mindset-and seems to be saying we didn’t do that in building the roster previously and then brings in guys who only care about the money, to me its on him. He is the one who said he could do it, not me.

No, I actually think I followed it. Ultimately you're saying Ballard should have known that our players (Kelly, Smith, and Nelson) are motivated solely by money. Which is why we all had the rug pulled out from under us nobody saw this poor performance coming. But Ballard, claiming he drafts players with character, should've seen through the facade. Essentially he let our vet OL trick him into second contracts.

Well, claiming that Kelly, Smith, and Nelson are solely motivated by money unfounded at best (mind-reading). Something is wrong with a unit that has been our team's strength the past several years and it's thrown us all for a loop. But you're saying that the answer is simply that they're greedy and don't care about winning. That ascribes motive to guys who have never been close to giving off that impression since 2018.

Your characterization of Ballard is that he "kept bragging" about his "great acumen." That is to say that he presents himself in an outwardly arrogant and boastful manner and that it's led to him actually drafting very low-character guys. I've never gotten that impression and it strikes me as no different than Chopped constantly telling us that Frank Reich is "arrogant", "thinks he's so smart", "has to be the smartest guy in the room", etc.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

No, I actually think I followed it. Ultimately you're saying Ballard should have known that our players (Kelly, Smith, and Nelson) are motivated solely by money. Which is why we all had the rug pulled out from under us nobody saw this poor performance coming. But Ballard, claiming he drafts players with character, should've seen through the facade. Essentially he let our vet OL trick him into second contracts.

Well, claiming that Kelly, Smith, and Nelson are solely motivated by money unfounded at best (mind-reading). Something is wrong with a unit that has been our team's strength the past several years and it's thrown us all for a loop. But you're saying that the answer is simply that they're greedy and don't care about winning. That ascribes motive to guys who have never been close to giving off that impression since 2018.

Your characterization of Ballard is that he "kept bragging" about his "great acumen." That is to say that he presents himself in an outwardly arrogant and boastful manner and that it's led to him actually drafting very low-character guys. I've never gotten that impression and it strikes me as no different than Chopped constantly telling us that Frank Reich is "arrogant", "thinks he's so smart", "has to be the smartest guy in the room", etc.

I won't go as far as Oldcolt and say that Ballard should have known these guys would turn into turds as soon as they were paid (to be fair Kelly played well for 2 seasons after being paid, so I think his problem(s) is elsewhere), but I think we can all agree in hindsight that Ballard has sunk a shit ton of money into guys he shouldn't have. So much so that it's actually set the franchise back several years.

He also completely destabilized the OL by handing the starting LT job over to Pryor and letting Glow walk for Pinter.

And then there's the fact that it took him 3 off seasons to draft a replacement for AC. Of course we have no idea if Raimann is any good since he doesn't play b/c the coaches/FO have such a hard on for Pryor, but I guess that's another story.

I do agree with Oldcolt that on our WRs and D. WRs have talent but are currently around league average. And our D isn't as good a lot of people on here think it is. They're better than last year and mostly keep us in the game. But they always start slow and haven't been able to make a stop with the game on the line. Even against bad offenses like Wash.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

I won't go as far as Oldcolt and say that Ballard should have known these guys would turn into turds as soon as they were paid (to be fair Kelly played well for 2 seasons after being paid, so I think his problem(s) is elsewhere), but I think we can all agree in hindsight that Ballard has sunk a shit ton of money into guys he shouldn't have. So much so that it's actually set the franchise back several years.

I'm really not trying to be a Ballard apologist here, but I need to disagree. The Colts continue to have financial flexibility despite these deals. They have not engaged in type of financial engineering which other teams have, which ends up painting those teams into a corner and setting them back for years. Even where Colts pay these guys tons of money, they usually have an out after a couple years in the event things don't work out.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

He also completely destabilized the OL by handing the starting LT job over to Pryor and letting Glow walk for Pinter.

Certainly there's room for criticism here, though both Pryor and Pinter played much better last year. Teams have to make tough decisions all the time and can't pay everyone, so they took a calculated gamble with Pryor and Pinter which hasn't worked out so far. But this is on Ballard to a large degree, no doubt.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm

And then there's the fact that it took him 3 off seasons to draft a replacement for AC. Of course we have no idea if Raimann is any good since he doesn't play b/c the coaches/FO have such a hard on for Pryor, but I guess that's another story.

AC retired 1.5 years ago (the 2021 offseason), with a year remaining on his contract. The Colts brought in a 30-year old former Pro Bowl LT (Eric Fisher) coming off an injury to replace him, and drafted Paye in the 1st round to address a different area of weakness. Fisher didn't work out as well as hoped. Ballard drafted Raimann this off season. He could have done more I suppose, but its not as though he ignored the issue and didn't devote significant resources to it.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Chaka

I'm really not trying to be a Ballard apologist here, but I need to disagree. The Colts continue to have financial flexibility despite these deals. They have not engaged in type of financial engineering which other teams have, which ends up painting those teams into a corner and setting them back for years. Even where Colts pay these guys tons of money, they usually have an out after a couple years in the event things don't work out.

Managing the cap for future years has been, and will continue to be, the primary success of the Ballard era. It will not result in anything meaningful though. Ballard apologists will point to the salary cap as the barrier to effectively fill holes on the roster, while praising Ballard for his super conservative cap use. Teams don’t consistently win today while only planning for tomorrow. The single biggest issue with the team.

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by rm1369

Managing the cap for future years has been, and will continue to be, the primary success of the Ballard era. It will not result in anything meaningful though. Ballard apologists will point to the salary cap as the barrier to effectively fill holes on the roster, while praising Ballard for his super conservative cap use. Teams don’t consistently win today while only planning for tomorrow. The single biggest issue with the team.

Exactly. In Ballard's head having future cap flexibility is more important than actually winning games. Just like a draft pick's RAS score is more important than if they can actually fit onto your team and produce.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by rm1369

Managing the cap for future years has been, and will continue to be, the primary success of the Ballard era. It will not result in anything meaningful though. Ballard apologists will point to the salary cap as the barrier to effectively fill holes on the roster, while praising Ballard for his super conservative cap use. Teams don’t consistently win today while only planning for tomorrow. The single biggest issue with the team.

Why won't it result in anything significant? Just because the Colts have hit some rough territory doesn't mean that the underlying strategy is wrong. What's wrong with a plan to use your funds to invest in the guys you know best - your own players - and to be skeptical of guys coming from other teams whose own teams won't pay them what you think Ballard should pay them? If you can identify talent - and Ballard can do that - it seems like a perfectly logical and solid plan to me.

It's nice to say in the abstract that the Colts should spend more money in free agency, but on who?

You can say that he's overpaid his own players, and that may be true in some cases, but nothing he's done has hampered the Colts financially in any meaningful way. The bottom line is the lack of a QB is the real issue. Criticize the Colts all you want for going the veteran route instead of trying to draft a guy, but my guess is that the batting average is far better on veteran QBs than mid-1st round QBs or later. I don't buy all the claims that the Colts could have traded up higher into the first round to get someone like Herbert - why would the Chargers do that? And further, the Colts were ready to compete and a veteran QB makes more sense in that context than an rookie.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Chaka

Why won't it result in anything significant? Just because the Colts have hit some rough territory doesn't mean that the underlying strategy is wrong. What's wrong with a plan to use your funds to invest in the guys you know best - your own players - and to be skeptical of guys coming from other teams whose own teams won't pay them what you think Ballard should pay them? If you can identify talent - and Ballard can do that - it seems like a perfectly logical and solid plan to me.

It's nice to say in the abstract that the Colts should spend more money in free agency, but on who?

You can say that he's overpaid his own players, and that may be true in some cases, but nothing he's done has hampered the Colts financially in any meaningful way. The bottom line is the lack of a QB is the real issue. Criticize the Colts all you want for going the veteran route instead of trying to draft a guy, but my guess is that the batting average is far better on veteran QBs than mid-1st round QBs or later. I don't buy all the claims that the Colts could have traded up higher into the first round to get someone like Herbert - why would the Chargers do that? And further, the Colts were ready to compete and a veteran QB makes more sense in that context than an rookie.

Chaka you and I have been having this discussion for 3-4 years. And guess what? We are exactly where I have been saying we would end up - mediocre.

I’m not so sure what is hard to understand. Ballard has never fielded a complete team. Never. Yes every team has some degree of weakness. It’s a matter of magnitude. And Ballard has repeatedly left several major areas extremely weak while waiting on player development or next years draft. LT, WR, and DE primarily. Ballard refuses to “overspend” on average NFL talent. Great, except that means the team has repeatedly put out below average players at critical positions each and every year. Having a few great players that carry the bad players works in the NBA, it doesn’t in the NFL. You get exposed. If you have bottom 5 pass rush it doesn’t matter how great your LBs and secondary are. Oline can’t block? Doesn’t matter much you have the best RB in the league or have maybe finally solved the WR issue. We’ve seen it year after year - an obvious issue the team says is fine, then it costs them games and they spend half the season trying to find a solution.

Where this intersects with Ballard’s approach to the cap is that other teams do mortgage some of the future for today. Instead of filling holes with rookies and vet minimum guys they shoot their shot and shore up areas with over paid average players. It doesn’t always work, but it sure as fuck beats what Ballard does. Do the colts have a brighter future than the rams? Maybe. But the Rams have something to show for prioritizing a window. I guess Ballard’s is yet to come

That doesn’t even touch how he’s been fucking up at QB. I mostly give him a pass there. It’s an unbelievable difficult task, but one he makes more difficult by his “building a dynasty” philosophy.

Let me ask you - how many more years does Ballard need to prove what you and him believe? I said it was at best a 4 year plan before competitiveness using his method. Most on here, especially you, told me I was nuts. So I’ll ask - how much longer until the genius reveals itself?