Stop making excuses. Castonzo has been teasing retirement for years. They had ample amounts of cap before this. The line also falls apart every time the LT is out. He’s had plenty of time to find a serviceable player. You think that money is gone? We have to sign Nelson next year. Will also sign other players as well. The cap will go up. If they want to do it they will find the money.

Some of you bend over backwards to defend Ballard. We have no shut down corner, no number one pass rusher, no number one receiver, a LT coming off a achilles, and a QB with a reputation for being injury prone. The guy isn’t perfect, it’s ok to criticize him.

Not making excuses, a GM wont be right 100% of the time. Guys get hurt. Not every draft pick will be an all pro. Ballard cant call Miss Cleo to find out who's next to get hurt.

And you are right about Nelsons next contract. So Ballard cant go on a spending binge like a drunken sailor. A big chunk of next years cap will go to one guy.

If they can get over the injury bug, they have a chance. The Tits are having their issues as well, the south conference isnt very good right now, and its a long season.

I agree. He's been good for the Colts, but not great. I still think his biggest mistake was Carson Wentz. He should have gone all out for Darnold. He's younger, more durable and in the end, (IMO) will have a much more productive career.

The cap constraints are largely a product of Ballard’s preferred contract structure. He uses a straight forward, conservative approach but there are alternatives. Many other teams use them and have won doing so. They admittedly have tradeoffs though. Regardless, it is Ballard’s choice so I’m not sure you can use salary cap as an excuse for all the issues. This is Ballard’s team at this point - both good and bad. I’ve always had a concern with his prioritization of the long term over the short term. I again see a roster that confirms those concerns. The collection of talent is good, but major holes in the roster continue to “wait their turn” before being addressed. To me it’s a similar method of team building that Polian and Ted Thompson used to limit Manning and Rodgers to one ring during their tenures.

Our local high school coach could draw up plays more dynamic the the Colts coaches.

I watch other games and see play action on first down the the guys are 10 yards wide open and walk in.

That play calling is just plain lazy.

Somethings never change.

I’m not asking him to be right 100% of the time, but you and others act like he is. A 50% success rate is highly successful when it comes to the draft. The average is probably closer to 35%. I’m tired of you and the apologists. He doesn’t get a feee pass. We are in year 5, three years removed from Luck. They can’t use it as an excuse anymore.

Simple question, have we gone into the previous four years with a surplus in the cap? Don’t exaggerate and distort or dismiss what I’m saying. Have we been under the cap by a lot or not?

However we’ve gone into each year with obvious flaws that are not properly addressed. If people on this board can see them, the Colts can as well. Understaffed at WR, understaffed at pass rusher, understaffed at oline. It’s maddening. It’s like he is holding back for some reason. If you build your offense around the oline then you better make sure you have some insurance. They want to mitigate the QB responsibilities with a good line, then it cannot be allowed to fall apart if they are missing a tackle.

And they thought originally Fisher was going to miss more time. So that means they were willing to move forward for even longer.

I will say the jury’s still out on this. We have played two playoff teams and Carolina hasn’t played anyone. But right now, no, it doesn’t look good. I put this in Reich’s camp though. He tells Ballard who he wants. Ballard might have an opinion but ultimately it’s who the coach wants at the position.

But I think about those options. Colt fans on Twitter have been griping that the Buckner trade pick could have been used to get Herbert. But a lot of teams passed on Herbert, there were some concerns over him.

I do know they liked Justin Fields and expected him to go higher. Could they have moved in front of the bears and gotten him? I know myself and others liked Mac Jones. Could they have gotten him? Guess we will never know.

Ultimately, it comes down to Reich and his relationship with Wentz and their Christian relationship. They believe Wentz is meant to play here. Maybe that’s enough to instill confidence.

I think making comparisons to Darnold and Wentz after two games with their new teams is ridiculous. I'm not on the Wentz bandwagon but shit it is early to throw him under the bus. The offensive line was developed by Ballard and has been one of the best in the league the last few years. Injuries have fucked us this year and it appears to me we have been on a slow downward spiral there since we fired Guge for not being nice enough. I get that we don't have a good backup offensive tackle-that is on Ballard. He knew it was a problem, tried to fix it on the cheap and it hasn't worked out. I really criticize him for our defensive ends-we have spent a fortune and still can't rush the friggin passer. Guy isn't perfect-he likes to grab great athletes and let the coaches develop them. Problem is most of them are not developing into anything worth a shit. That, to me, is on Ballard since this is his philosophy and he hired everyone to make it work.

Darnold has played well, there’s no denying that. How much of that is due to Rhule and whether he’d be doing so well anywhere else is a matter of opinion.

Agreed that if Darnold keeps this up over the rest of his career and Wentz continues on the path of being injured, we made a bad decision. If Wentz is able to help us pull out a win tomorrow this will start to right itself, if not could be a long year.