It's mostly not Franklin's run defense that are the issue. I this atrocious pass defense. He's often not in the same zip code of receivers crossing into his zone. No spatial awareness or speed.

Zack Hicks makes the case that Ballard should be fired. He isn't predicting it, nobody knows how Carlie is going to make decisions, but he believes it is time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhHtLwqLwsw

I tend to agree with Hicks on this and would like the opinion of our resident Ballard backers as to why his argument is incorrect. To be clear, I am not saying he needs to be fired, I trust Carlie on this, but I think it is a pretty convincing argument that Hicks throws out.

He's always been a liability in this regard. He's good to get toasted multiple times in a year and he'll make a small handful of plays like he did this year, within the context of pass defense.

I'd love to see him in a backup role (I've always felt that was his best role anyway) as a special teams contributor and someone that comes in to help defend the run or blitz.

I think it was Belichik who had the philosophy to put a player in a position to succeed. Franklin should never be on the field during obvious passing situations. It's not his fault he sucks at pass defense, he certainly makes the effort. He just sucks at it. Keeping him on the field during obvious passing situations is not on him, it's on the coaching.

I will have to watch it later, as I am about to leave for a while, but I will say you could make a good argument either way. It depends on what one wants to hear.

It’s a pretty compelling case that he makes. On one hand I can talk myself into believing we can find success next year but it would require me to ignore the cumulative results of Ballard’s tenure. Having lost so much draft capital while facing some serious holes yet to fill it’s beginning to feel like next year will be another sub-par season, maybe just for different reasons. Teams go from last in their division to first and I won’t rule it out. After all even a blind squirrel…
But should we be putting all our eggs in that basket? Now I could see Carlie keeping him for another potentially lost season while she takes on greater control of the draft. It would allow her to see if Jones and other players return to form and produce. It would also give her a bit of time to consider a new coach and GM. But like you, I have to trust Carlie. What other choice do I have?

This is true. To the point that I've often wondered why the Colts keep two backers on the field in obvious 3rd and long situations. Eberflus did it, Bradley did it, and now Anarumo is doing it. It wasn't a burden when Eberflus did it, because Leonard and Okereke were excellent coverage backers.

Well articulated with data to back up his position. The guy is not a good GM, he just isn't. His final parting shot of looking around at the turn around's for some of Indy's other franchises and then looking at the Colts with this prolonged period of just "meh"... YOU HAVE TO FIRE HIM!

No doubt he makes some great points. His 3rd point (ignoring position groups in the offseason) has always been one of Ballard's weaknesses, and we all know the QB story all too well. What's scary though is his 2nd point as Ballard appears to have lost his edge in the draft. Take 2023 for example - we drafted a whopping 12 players and in year 3 of that draft class only 2 players have made any sort of impact on the season (Downs and Ade Ade) with one of them being a rotational guy.

Like you I'm torn. Seems like our best chance to have success next year is to roll it back and hope Jones can stay healthy and that he and Steichen can figure out how to beat the defensive blue print Pitt put in place. But long term wise it's probably better to move on. If you're the owner of a company and under your current COO you've finished in the red for 5 straight years and 7/9 since the COO has been put in place then you'd be crazy to not replace him.

This is exactly how I feel. Not an easy decision and probably no right or wrong one. It will be interesting to see how Carley handles this.