Colts Re-Sign Blackmon

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by rm1369

It was Dorsey in KC who traded up for Mahomes. Also the man who hired Ballard in KC. He was Ballard’s superior not subordinate. He was fired that season. Maybe that’s what Ballard often referred to when cautioning against trading up for a QB, telling the media how he’d be gone if the guy didn’t work out. Apparently we have different views on what aggressive is because Ballard’s QB search to me was very cautious. In no move did he trade the resources KC gave up to get Mahomes. Coincidentally he passed on Stafford who was traded for a similar package as to what KC traded for Mahomes. A more known quality at the time than Mahomes was coming out of the draft and also known as a safer option than Wentz when they were traded. But sure, let’s overlook that Ballard never traded up for a QB, has never traded multiple firsts for anyone, his passing on Stafford because of price, his pushing back on the media’s questions on the need to trade up and say he would have done it because he once worked for the man who did it. Don’t look at Dorsey’s history in Cleveland though, because it looks nothing like Ballard’s either. Perhaps Ballard has saw his mentor be canned in two jobs while be aggressive? Maybe that’s what he was referring to when telling the media why he DIDN’T trade up for a QB?

Skip all of that though and at least we can agree that Ballard has not yet made moves similar to KC since Mahomes was drafted and his mentor fired. Now again because he worked there you think it’s obvious he will do it once he has his franchise QB. This is getting to why I ask the question. Ballard fans constantly move the goal posts, so I try to pin them down. We agree that he hasn’t done it yet, we disagree that he will start doing it. At least now I have an expected timeline in place for your expectations- when he knows he has his franchise QB. We’ll see.

According to everything I found online, it was Brett Veach who traded up for Mahomes, not John Dorsey. Ballard was director of football operations in KC in 2015-2016 while Veach was co-director of player personnel.

GMs that are cautious don't trade first round picks for players, Ballard has done that twice in 7 drafts. It definitely worked with Buckner, and didn't work as hoped with Wentz, but you could see the logic. And there are definitely things Ballard has done in my opinion wrong or I wish he had done differently, like letting Wentz reach the snap threshold to lose the 1 or not drafting Montez Sweat at 26 when he fell to him, but the second one netted the Colts Pittman. Bottom line is he's pulled 3+ starters and many more contributors out of every draft class, that's production even Polian didn't have. If he stops doing that, the team will get worse and it will make sense to replace him. You don't replace that level of production at GM, however, unless you know the replacement will be as good or better at finding talent. I certainly wouldn't replace Ballard to end up with another Ryan Grigson.