Ya, when they said 3 yr rebuild most of us assumed we was starting year 2.... but they clarified and we are only in the 1st year of rebuilding.

Did you trust Pagano and Grigson evaluating player talent? Hello bowling ball of butcher knives Trent Richardson.

Henry Anderson was cheap talent still playing out his rookie contract and a much better player than the 7th round talent we drafted. Even if he is injury prone we have these rookies to do heavy rotations to keep them all fresh and less likely to get injured.

This draft was a C, maybe C+ at best when we had all those top 75 picks. There were a lot of great players that fell to us in the 2nd rounds where we had 3 picks and we drafted a 3rd round guard instead of a true difference maker.

Ballard doesn't get to claim he drafts talent above team need anymore. Pure and simple. Because there were loads of more talented skilled players than Braden Smith, and in positions of need to boot.

We got a few high risk high reward players, hopefully they pan out or this draft was more of a bust than a boom.

Did I say either player was on Freeney's level? You are arguing against a point nobody made. The point is that these were talented, in-hand players and our staff just gave up on them. They haven't done enough to earn my trust in that kind of move. I think we will regret both moves.

I think we will especially regret the Hankins move. The Anderson move is unfortunate, but not on the same level of regret as the Hankins situation. Not only because Hankins is a superior player that excels in a niche role, but because other key target free agents will prefer signing with another team because the way Ballard structures the team friendly deals.

He could have had success in free agency this year, but I seriously think it gives other free agent players pause when Ballard offers a multi year deal and it turns out to just be a 1 year deal... especially when you played your ass off for the man renigging on his end of the deal.

There was blowback by letting Hankins go just to save a modest 8.5 million when we were close to $80 million under cap. Hankins is well worth that and he is a difference maker, not on the level as Freeney or Mathis, but that is because stopping runs for no gains isnt as gorious as the sack/strip masters.

Ballard is now sounding like Polian when it comes to free agency and building a team through a draft but it is an excuse for being snubbed by the players we ectended offers to. You can't build a team through free agency, but you sure can add a couple complimentary players and you can find guys to be part of the rebuild when some are just 24 yrs old, the same age as some rookies.

Yes I did trust grigson and pagano to choose players to fit their scheme. Why hire them if you don't trust them? Maybe we shouldn't hire a GM and coach at all with that thinking. Just have Irsay do everything like Jerry Jones. A lot of people were wrong about Trent Richardson, he had the same hype as Saquon Barkley when he came out.

Who says Braden Smith is a 3rd round talent? I thought he was a mid second round talent and some people thought he was the third or second best guard in the draft. Opinions vary, and I saw plenty that ranged quite a bit. It was obvious all the teams saw the interior line players in this draft as very good players and some of the best in the draft. 3 of the first 5 picks in the second round were guards.

Seems if they traded Anderson for a 7th rounder, he was in danger of getting cut. If we cut him we get nothing. So the fact we got something I'm ok with. We got nothing for Hankins, who still hasn't been signed.

BPA/need whatever, as long as we get good players. There were so many needs on this team, every position was a need just about. Ballard said he wanted to improve the lines, which makes sense in a rebuild b/c usually lines take the longest to hit their peak.

C+ is fine, we will know in a couple years. I'm ok with the guards and LB, Turay and Lewis threw me a little but I think a lot of injured players drove Lewis up.

Problem with your take on Anderson is, he was arguably our best lineman. And he wasn’t a scheme issue. That is bs

I keep reading comments saying that Anderson was in danger of getting cut, so it's good they got something for him. The problem with that is thinking it was okay to even consider cutting Anderson at all.

Having barely started the offseason program it would seem pretty hasty to be on the verge of cutting him.

If you place developing your “own” guys over comepeting next year then its easy to see him being on the verge of being cut. I disagree with it, but to me it seems obvious Ballard is willing to write off a few seasons to develop the long term roster he wants.

Jesus, by the time the Colts are ready to compete Luck will be ready to retire!!

What other conclusion is there than he wasn't fitting what Eberflus wanted to do? That or they figured they would not resign him and that he would steal snaps from another player they want to develop. We will disagree about his fit. I was saying he would probably be moved once I knew we were going back to a 4-3. I could swear I saw you say the same thing.

If Luck is back to being Luck, we we will compete this year.

We will compete for the division or a wild card, but not for the first prize.

That is all I meant. It will be one more season before we SB contenders.

Here is our current roster. Ballard said they will keep eight d-line. More of these guys will get cut if that is true.

Left Defensive Tackle
Al Woods
Grover Stewart
Joey Mbu
Anthony Johnson

Left Defensive End
John Simon
Margus Hunt
Arthur Miley
Turay - new

Right Defensive Tackle
Hassan Ridgeway
Caraun Reid
Lewis - new

Right Defensive End
Jabaal Sheard
Henry Anderson - traded
Denico Autry - new
Tarell Basham

They have a shot to be in every game and they will certainly win some. But that’s all based on Luck, just as it was under Grigsons first few seasons. A franchise QB of Lucks caliber gives you a chance to compete. Every season. Grigsons attempt to rebuild on the fly didn’t fail because the plan was impossible, it failed because Grigson sucked at talent evaluation (and was an ass in general). To me this feels like overcompensating for Grigsons failure and blaming it on the wrong thing.

Soooo.....what you are saying is a lot of name players fell to us in the 2nd round and because none of us were even close nor were literally any of the pundits the players chosen must suck? And when you mention more talented skilled players than Braden Smith you mean name players who compile stats but being All-American at your position counts for nothing?

No. What I am saying is, Braden Smith was the 7th best interior offensive lineman. Interior offensive linemen is the least important position and we spent 2 of our first 3 picks on them.

There are things you can do to compensate for "average" interior linemen.... like a quicker passing game we are about to implement.

Talented skilled players means these players play positions that can directly effect the outcome of games. Guards simply are not game changers. That is just a fact. Reaching for Nelson is one thing, but reaching twice for a guard with a 2nd high value draft pick? Thats just too much reaching.

We could have traded down with the Bengals and pucked up 2 extra 3rd round picks, nabbed MLB Edmunds, still OLB Darius Leonard AND DE/OLB Harold Landry with the 36th and 37th and Braden Smith would have still been there with our 49th.

Then with those 2 extra 3rd round picks, CB Isiah Oliver with that 56th and DE Sam Hubbard with the 59th picks fron the Bengals trade and then nabbed the services of QB Mason Rudolph with the 67th pick, in which Rudolph would be either A. Insurance for Luck or B. Amazing trade bait for next year's draft.

We had Mewhort for another year, and Slauson in case he got hurt. We didnt beed anothet guard with our 2nd rd pick after taking Nelson with the 6th. Sorry, but this is conventional wisdom. People are just letting it slide because the Ballard bandwagon.

Ballard overall is dling a B+ job, whih is still great and a major upgrade from Grigson.... but after a majorily quite free agency he needed to knock each of these picks out of the park and he only got base hits along with a few doubles.

Dude. Right in the part I quoted you specifically compared this move to the time we dropped Freeney because of scheme fit. My point is that it’s not comparable because Freeney was HoF level impact, Anderson not so much.

I can’t speak for FatDT, but for me it’s the thought process behind the move that is comparable and concerning, not necessarily the level of impact. The coaches placed scheme over production and decided Freeny didn’t fit. They didn’t adjust the scheme to best utilize the talent available and they didn’t even put the guys on the field and let the best player win. If Anderson (or Freeny) was beaten out for their jobs then so be it. That’s not what happened in either case. That’s the similarity.

I don't understand what you don't understand.

According to who was Braden the 7th best interior lineman?

What about being able to run the ball? Colts got real fucking nasty on the O-line.

Not only running the ball but how about real play action. How about being able to score inside the 5 yard line without some fancy misdirection. These guys may not pan out but the idea of being able to wear down a defense and dominate them late in a game would be great with me. And we need to be able to win in cold shitty weather come December and January. I get how people may disagree with the player taken but am baffled as to why you don’t like the philosophy behind it. I love the direction these guys are taking us, mean physical football not the soft shit I’ve had to endure. Oh yeah, speed. Guys may need coaching but that is what we hopefully have. Go Colts and kick some ass!!

I don’t know Old, the Colts had speed on defense during the Dungy years and those were the “ star war” numbers years with only one championship, with one of the best QBs to ever play the game.

That's his point, those teams were pretty soft, finesse teams. They had a good o-line early on (which got much worse later in Manning's years) and the d-line was bad outside of the pass rush for most of the Manning era. Having speed on defense is great as long as you have some guys up front who can allow those speed guys to flow to the ball. Ballard is trying to do it correctly by building up the trenches.

It's not like BP didn't try to get quality DT's, Josh Williams, Trippiett, Simon, Booger, Raegor, Quitcock, Moala

Sure he tried, but he wasn't very successful. When he was, the guy didn't stay for long.

Ballard is trying to make sure the lines get built up, which is the right thing to do.

Gonna guess that Reich might have had some influence in the drafting of the OL:

https://www.profootballfocus.com/new...ne-of-the-year

Everyone keeps calling Smith/Nelson Luck’s personal bodyguards and that’s true to some extent. It’s also true that both of them are run-blockers first. Clearly, Reich is going to try to implement the part of his system where the Colts would have a speedy, explosive run game.

If the defense has to respect and account for that, that’s going to protect Luck more than paying Hall of Famers to pass block.

One thing I like about having Frank Reich as a head coach is that we're finally going to see some creativity in the Colts playcalling and usage of offensive players. Hopefully with a larger infusion of talent, the defense will be able to hold up its end of the bargain in short order.

It was either NFL.com or CBS.
Nelson was the undisputed #1.
Then after Nelson there were several C/Gs ranked higher.... Frank Ragnow, James Daniels and Billy Price.

Then pure guards that were ranked higher....
Isiah Wynn, Will Hernendez and then Braden Smith. But Austin Corbett was ranked around Smith and he was taken in the 1st, so we gotta trust our coaches evaluations.

7th ranked is a fair assestment, even if he could end up beong the 2nd or 3rd best after Nelson.

The ranking doesnt bother me as much as the strategy. We have a mean offensive line now, minus a quality RT. But we could have gotten better players with those 2nd round picks.

Every pick in the 2nd round felt like a reach. Turay could end up being special but the kid has already had 2 shoulder surgeries. Is that what we really need? Another frequently injured player?

Leonard is okay, but we could have probably gotten him with one of the later 2nd rd picks.

I am picking up on lip service by Ballard. He was high on having players compete. He was high on Matt Jones just recently. Yet he cut Matt Jones today. Why, because we drafted Hines? What happened to that competition motto?

Ballard is signing free agents he falls in love with, gets bored of them after playing with them for 1 year and then cuts them and gives excuses like "didnt fit the new system".

This is going to have even more blowback in free agency. We were quite in free agency bc no player wants to sign with a whimsical GM. Ballard didnt turn into Polian over night after a quite free agency.... he got snubbed by all the good ones we went after. Thats my opinon and im sticking to it.

eh, we are talking about matt jones here, not some real high level talent. He had something like 5 carries last year. We drafted 2 RBs and have several others on the roster, there is plenty of room for competition there. I doubt a high level FA will point to matt jones and say thats the reason why he didnt come. With FAs it mostly comes down to 2 things, #1 is money, #2 is if they are older and have made their money they may go to where they have the best chance to win.

Wow the hate for Ballard is amazing to me. Give it some time. It’s great to be a fan and have opinions but you better hope you’re wrong (as I often am). Otherwise it’s gonna suck rooting for this team. And I think you are dead wrong about Ballard. I think he is knowledgeable and a strait shooter. He did Anderson a favor by putting him in a situation where he can succeed. GMs that do unpopular things knowing they will be unpopular have balls. Love that about Ballard. Now we see if he can evaluate players better than us. My money is on him

I am not seeing "hate". Just disagreement and concerns.

OK.

Yeah I know I in no way “hate” Ballard. I like his demeanor in general and I like a decent amount of what he’s done. And I love that he’s not Grigson. But there are certainly things I disagree with too. I probably have more to say about things I disagree with than those I do and that may give the impression I’m always against him. That’s not the case at all. I simply don’t feel it’s fair to use hindsight to criticize someone’s moves way after the fact. So I go on record and comment now on things I disagree with or that concern me.

I don't see any "hate" for Ballard, just quibbling over preferences. I understand what he did, Day 2 made Day 1 make a lot more sense, and I hope he picked the right guys. Positives from this draft for me are that the offensive line should be solidified for the next 2-3 years, the front 7 got some athletes, and so did the skill positions. Negatives to me are that the defense still requires a star and a captain, and I think Edmunds could've become that guy and the Colts could've traded down and leveraged even more picks out of what was by all accounts a loaded draft class to fill more holes, and Ballard picked a long, trait filled DE to be the pass rusher in Turay and a bigger, also long and trait filled DE to play the power end position in Lewis, and I think Lorenzo Carter and Rasheem Green would've filled those roles better, respectively. Time will tell on that last part, but obviously I hope Ballard got it right. I also don't know that the Colts will get another chance at an Urlacher type like Edmunds, but I'm certainly hoping they're looking at pass rush and MLB as top priorities moving forward, though I can't see how they wouldn't.

Just curious, but your post got me thinking about who might be coming out next draft that may be the guy you say we need to get. We have an extra 2nd rounder and they say the draft class is projected to be stellar.

I haven't really looked that far ahead, but I've read a little bit about it and there seems to be a lot of talented front 7 players in next year's draft, including a lot of guys that would fit the mold of what the Colts seem to be trying to do on defense.

I didn’t mean people hated Ballard. That’s why I said ‘the hate’. It was for me an euphemism for disagreeing. Nothing personal I’ll be more careful with my language from now on. Sorry freaks

That is cool, but your usage of hate is kind of weird, but no worries.

Perfect. I’m kinda weird