I come to praise Chris Ballard, not to bury him.

[Hoopsdoc]

I think yesterday showed us that there is plenty of talent on this roster. We just desperately need a quarterback.

Whether Jones can be that quarterback remains to be seen but he’s off to a good start.

[Kray007]

Originally Posted by rm1369

That’s a cop out. For one, there’s been one season for Ballard that fits that description. And Ballard owns the QB situation on this team. His philosophy has been part of the issue. Two, the team building aspect goes way beyond the QB. If you haven’t seen the holes that he has left at various positions over the years then we just aren’t going to see things the same. If you’ve seen them and excuse them that’s fine, but then the issues extend a lot further than the simplistic excuse you are trying to make for him. I get that he’s teflon for a certain section of the fanbase though.

For the most part, the Colts performance, under Ballard, has been pretty much a reflection of their Quarterback play.

In 2017, Andrew Luck went down, Jacoby Brissett played, and it was 4-12
2018, Luck was back, so were the Colts…10-6
2019, back to Brissett and back to 7-9
In 2020, went for a vet in Rivers and went to the playoffs at 11-5
2021, the Wentz expriment fell apart after week 13, just missed the playoffs at 9-8
2022, Ryan convinced them of the futility of trying to milk an aging vet for whatever glimmer of magic remained in his arm…4-12
2023-2025, the Richardson/Minshew/Flacco experience.

Taken individually, none of those moves at Quarterback were unreasonable. The signing of Wentz and the drafting of Richardson were met with enthusiasm. Rivers worked. The inking of Ryan was probably the worst decision, but Ballard succumbed to the siren song of his Quarterback whisperer’s assurance that there was nothing wrong with the aging veteran that couldn’t be fixed once Reich got him under his wing. Richardson was a gamble on greatness.

[YDFL Commish]

To this point it looks like Ballard made the absolute right call on letting Kelly and Fries walk and riding with Bortolini and Goncalves.

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

OK, I want to ask this question ...... what result from this season will get the Ballard haters off of his ass ???

Will 10-7, and 1 win in the playoffs do it ???

Will a division title do it ???

Will winning the opener, beating the Jaguars in Jacksonville, but missing the playoffs at 9-8 do it ???

What are you're measurements of success that will convince you that Ballard is the man for the job ???

o


Daniel Jones is looking good early in the season ...... so does the team overall.

o

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


Daniel Jones is looking good early in the season ...... so does the team overall.

o

o


I've been saying for years that Chris Ballard was not just giving us lip-service when he said that he wanted to put together a complete-team when he first took over the job, not just a team that was overly-dependent on an all-world QB such as Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck ...... I believe that he has been doing that prior to this season, which is why the Colts had multiple mediocre seasons (instead of bad seasons.)

Since the retirement of Andrew Luck, the Colts have had one good season (2020), one bad season (2022), and 4 mediocre seasons ...... and I believe that a big part of that is because Ballard was doing what he told us that he was going to try to do, not just putting all of his efforts and resources into looking for that Hall-of-Fame caliber QB.

o

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


I've been saying for years that Chris Ballard was not just giving us lip-service when he said that he wanted to put together a complete-team when he first took over the job, not just a team that was overly-dependent on an all-world QB such as Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck ...... I believe that he has been doing that prior to this season, which is why the Colts had multiple mediocre seasons (instead of bad seasons.)

Since the retirement of Andrew Luck, the Colts have had one good season (2020), one bad season (2022), and 4 mediocre seasons ...... and I believe that a big part of that is because Ballard was doing what he told us that he was going to try to do, not just putting all of his efforts and resources into looking for that Hall-of-Fame caliber QB.

o

Well, I would say that we have a complete team, and the Ballard nay sayers are due healthy dose of crow!

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

Well, I would say that we have a complete team, and the Ballard nay sayers are due healthy dose of crow !!!

o


And as I said in my post, I don't think that it's just this season ...... those mediocre Colts teams were nearly complete teams, sans a very solid quarterback. If they weren't, they would not have been mediocre, they would have been flat-out bad.

o

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


And as I said in my post, I don't think that it's just this season ...... those mediocre Colts teams were nearly complete teams, sans a very solid quarterback. If they weren't, they would not have been mediocre, they would have been flat-out bad.

o

Agreed, but the 2022 team was flat out bad, due to Ballard mismanaging the O-Line and Reich's incompetence. I forgot that Bradley had something to do with that as well.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


I've been saying for years that Chris Ballard was not just giving us lip-service when he said that he wanted to put together a complete-team when he first took over the job, not just a team that was overly-dependent on an all-world QB such as Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck ...... I believe that he has been doing that prior to this season, which is why the Colts had multiple mediocre seasons (instead of bad seasons.)

Since the retirement of Andrew Luck, the Colts have had one good season (2020), one bad season (2022), and 4 mediocre seasons ...... and I believe that a big part of that is because Ballard was doing what he told us that he was going to try to do, not just putting all of his efforts and resources into looking for that Hall-of-Fame caliber QB.

o

Everyone misunderstood what he meant, and now they see it. Glad we got to see the results before the pitchfork crew got their wish.

[CletusPyle]

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles

o


I've been saying for years that Chris Ballard was not just giving us lip-service when he said that he wanted to put together a complete-team when he first took over the job, not just a team that was overly-dependent on an all-world QB such as Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck ...... I believe that he has been doing that prior to this season, which is why the Colts had multiple mediocre seasons (instead of bad seasons.)

Since the retirement of Andrew Luck, the Colts have had one good season (2020), one bad season (2022), and 4 mediocre seasons ...... and I believe that a big part of that is because Ballard was doing what he told us that he was going to try to do, not just putting all of his efforts and resources into looking for that Hall-of-Fame caliber QB.

o

I believe that Ballard has always intended on building a solid team and I do not consider myself a Ballard hater, but I also believe there are not many GMs that could have survived the Carson Wentz followed by Matt Ryan debacles without being fired!