Funchess out for rest of season
 

Per Ian Rappaport about an hour ago........Ugh. The hits keep coming.

So maybe there is a little fire to the smoke that things are sort of in "shut down" mode. Just listening to Bowen and JMV- the guy practices a few times, and BAM now it isn't healing- has a lot of similarities to Ebron having a really great game, 3 days later his ankles are so bad he can't play anymore...

Now JMV / Bowen are wondering if this is a situation of guys shutting themselves down vs potentially taking bigger injury hits over the final few games leading into FA. Speculating about the lack of passing yards and not wanting to have that impact other teams evaluation of their abilities...

Certainly interesting developments- none of them positive, for the shoe...

They are still in playoff contention. Zero chance they are just shutting it down

This team isn't making noise in the playoffs even if they are in "contention" for now. I'm ok with guys making business decisions if they don't see this as their team next year. Get them out of the locker room.

If we had a kicker we'd be 8-2 at worst. If we didn't have so many wrs down we could win the AFC.

NE isn't NE this year.

What was Brissett before the injuries? 19/2?

You or JMV / Bowen have it backwards.

There were reports that the bone was healing slower than expected.

Then Funchess starts practicing on his own in limited drills - I would assume it was mainly conditioning type work.

Funchess never practiced with the team - his activities were so limited he didn't even get listed on the Colts daily injury / practice reports.

What a waste. Overpaid him in the first place and then get nothing out of him. Maybe next time Ballard will actually bring someone in that actually has been productive and deserves the payday.

I said Funches wasn't going to play again this season in the Ebron to IR thread. I read a tweet that said Luck and Funches got paid $35 million this year for three quarters of football. Just take this old season out behind the barn and shoot it.

Such weird takes here. The guy had a season ending injury and is getting bashed for it.

Fuck that he got paid, and since when is a collarbone season ending? And if it is why not IR the pussy when it happened

Kevin White misses the 2017 season with a broken collarbone.

That said, your take is that he’s just a pussy who is milking the injury for financial gain?

What's it matter? Whether Ballard sat on 50 million or 85 million in cap space he isnt going after anyone it seems. He has sat on large cap each year when we need better DLine. WRs. Dont get me wrong I like what he has done with the draft but seems clueless how to add needed pieces through free agency while teams like the Patriots, Packers, Chiefs and several other teams etc are doing both well.

Fans are morons.

You compared him to a bum WR that never did shit but get paid, you answer your own question

And you’re a fan

Idgaf, if Lucks still on the roster and he’s tossing TDS left and right that mf would’ve been out there week 10. This was a business decision fuck him

He was paid to play. If he could, he would be out there. Sitting all year doesn’t exactly help him in free agency

I'm not bashing Funchess. I'm bashing Ballard for wasting that money when we could have signed someone better.

And Ballard didn't use his psychic powers to see into the future that Funchess would get hurt?

It isn't about the injury. It's about Ballard paying to bring in someone who hasn't done much on the field on a consistent basis.

I'm tired of us striking out when trying to find a second starting WR. We need to get someone who has actually consistently produced on the field and pay them or draft someone who can be and isn't a gadget developmental project player.

Experiments like Ryan Grant, Devin Funchess, etc are getting old and are biting this team in the ass. You can't keep doing this and then having to rely on TY so heavily because these guys don't work out.

Funchess may have been the right guy, but we may never know. He was far less of an experiment than Ryan Grant, et. al.

Not much less of an experiment. He had one decent year and the other years were pretty pedestrian to say "yeah, that's clearly a guy that should be our #2 WR"

It's time to end the experiments of bringing in those types of guys with one good season at best and hoping they work out for us. Either draft someone that can fill that role or bring in someone who has actually produced consistently. Ballard needs to quit trying to be the smartest guy in the league and spend some money. We don't have Luck anymore. Brissett clearly needs more help than someone like Luck might.

Overall I agree that Ballard needs to spend money and I didn’t particularly like the Funchess signing because it was only for one year. However, I’m actually hoping Funchess is back next year. Whatever the team saw in him hasn’t went away because of a broken collarbone. They still need to add more talent via the draft (preferably) or free agency, but ideally that’s in addition to Funchess returning, a healthy TY, and a healthy Paris Campbell. I could see Funchess bailing though. He signed thinking Luck was the QB and he wanted to maximize his future earnings. Not sure the current QB situation has the same potential for him.

I'm fine with him returning if they want to bring him back, as long as they aren't relying on him to be the #2 WR

Two words as to why he had just one good season: Cam Newton

Not necessarily true at all. You're assuming that to be the case. Steve Smith had back to back 1,100+ yard receiving years with Cam. Now if your argument is a TD argument, then you probably have a more valid point, because Cam leaches TD's at the goal line, but he throws for over 3,500 yards average per year outside of this injury year.

Jacoby certainly is no better than Cam anyway, so the QB argument is moot here.

Looks like the Klotz are kicking the tired on Dontrelle Inmann. He played well enough his last time here. May be a good bandaid for the rest of this putrid season.

Ballard is making noises about bringing Funchess back.
He must be drinking that "stupid juice" again.

It's fine if he brings Funchess back, as long as he still does something to address the 2nd WR position.

Why would it be stupid to bring Funchess back? Obviously Ballard saw something in him, and nothing about that should have changed. It's not like his collarbone injury is career threatening or anything. I'd be thrilled if we resigned him, though I think it's fair to debate how much he should be paid.

Incidentally, if anyone is curious, below is the Ballard quote from a couple days ago that you're characterizing as "making noises" about resigning Funchess:

Ballard: “That was a tough break for not only Devin, but for the team. We had big expectations for Devin, especially after Training Camp, seeing what his big frame and skillset was going to do for our offense, and then playing well in that first game vs. the Chargers. And I give Devin a lot of credit, he really bought in to everything we were doing here. He’s a good teammate. He works. It’s a shame that it’s worked out the way that is has. You never know what the future is going to hold, but we were very pleased with who he was as a person and teammate here over the last few months.”

Blah blah blah, he said the same shit about Cain, we get it Ballard the Indianapolis Choirboys

If Funchess works hard and is a good teammate then there is absolutely no reason the team shouldn’t try to bring him back next year. He had a fluke injury, that’s it. They obviously saw something in him that they liked and that hasn’t changed. What they need to do is add another quality option to TY, Funchess, Campbell, and Pascal. Either through the draft or free agency. I’m not sure how getting rid of Funchess makes the WR group better. He got hurt, he didn’t fail.

Cain is actually playing in the league still, and has caught every pass thrown to him as a Steeler.

I would like to see the Colts keep Funchess. Injuries happen, no matter how tough you are. I don't think anyone would call Gronkowski a pussy, but he only played 2 out of 9 full seasons, the rest of them he missed games with injuries.

I would like to see him back for another year, and if he misses significant time due to injuries again; ciao.

I think Cain will have a decent career in the league. He’s had a tough go with the Colts. ACL takes a year to get fully back.

So give up on the guy you drafted and praised but re-sign this dude which nobody knows what he’s gonna do while overpaying for him in the meantime . Why not keep Cain, let him develop?

Gotta double down on your one year investment.

The Colts didn't give up on Cain and kick him to the curb....they tried to keep him on the practice squad. Pittsburgh poached Cain off the Colts practice squad.

Cain won't be at full speed until next year due to his injury and recovery. He made the team out of training camp as a WR5-ish type developmental player. Unfortunately the Colts had injuries at WR1, WR2 and WR3 that pushed Cain up the depth chart. Compounding the problem is that the Colts were carrying several of these injured WR's on the active roster which resulted in a bit of a roster crunch.

Ol' apballin only shows up when the team is struggling. Don't take him too seriously

Mr. Obtuse, the team didn't give up on him. They had him on the practice squad, but someone else snatched him. It happens in this league.