Originally Posted by rm1369 (Post 122238)

I assume this is directed at me. I hate NE as any NFL fan should. Especially a Colts fan. And I definitely believe their legacy is tainted. However, I don’t agree that all of their success is driven by cheating. They excel at two things that I believe are worthy of some degree of emulation - flexibility and focus. Flexibility in both scheme and roster building and focus on winning it all each season. Those two things let them strike the best balance in the league between planning for the future and winning it all now, IMO. They don’t mortgage the future to win now, but they also don’t let planning for their 3rd title stop them from winning one this year. We can agree to disagree on whether or not that is a “model” worth following.

Originally Posted by Dam8610 (Post 122244)

It wasn't, but since you replied, the "flexibility" in their schemes is a direct result of their cheating. Knowing the opponent's playcall can make your scheme look very flexible. Regarding roster building, I don't see how anyone could not look at what Ballard is doing as a very good balance between winning now and winning in the future. If he wasn't trying to win now, Justin Houston would not be a Colt. If he wasn't trying to win in the future by sustaining a talented roster, he'd have gone on a spending spree the day free agency opened.

Originally Posted by rm1369 (Post 122259)

Sitting on $55m in cap space as an expected solid playoff team is not a good balance to me. This thread in particular is about McCoy who it doesn’t appear the Colts were even really in the running for. And if I remember correctly you have been big on Suh. Would Suh (also not in the running for) or McCoy not have helped this D? Both of those guys signed one year contracts so let’s not pretend the only options available to Ballard is what he has done or completely mortgaging the future on ridiculous contracts like those given to Flowers and Collins. If you are happy with Ballard’s balance then great. But it’s certainly not crazy to believe he’s putting to much into the future at the expense of today.

Originally Posted by Dam8610 (Post 122269)

I honestly believe Ballard is as big on culture, locker room, and making sure a player is a good fit with the team as he says he is. Some GMs pay lip service to those concepts as they go out and blow huge chunks of cap on mercenaries that have the opposite effect. Ballard seems to evaluate each player on the basis of how he'll fit the team both on and off the field. I don't necessarily always agree with his decisions, and I do think McCoy could have potentially helped the team on a 1 year deal, but I can also see the argument against it from a football perspective (he's 31 and his numbers have been on the decline), I have no idea how his off the field fit factored into the decision, and it's possible that Eberflus is telling Ballard that he doesn't want any 300+ pound DL and he feels his scheme works best without them. I also think Montez Sweat would've been a better use of the 26th overall pick than trading down 20 spots and only getting a 2019 2 for the trouble, but Ballard has made enough smart moves thus far to get the benefit of the doubt from me.

Originally Posted by Racehorse (Post 122203)

All fair points. I am not sure when our window opens and what adding one more player would do to the window. I think we are close, but not close enough to beat the top three or four teams in the league in January. The fan in me wants to think this is a SB contender, but until I see them lace them up on Sundays, I really have no idea. I mean, I keep thinking Brady is going to drop off a cliff, but somehow they keep doing what they do. Now I think a lot of it is the offensive game plan that people don't seem to be able to stop (i.e. edeldick on third and long every drive in the fourth quarter), but he will eventually not be able to sustain even that simple formula for much longer (surely???). Well, that and the cheating. I still think they are doing things with communication headsets that are skirting the rules, but no proof is there.

Then you have NO, LA Rams and KC. I think we close the gap on KC simply because they lost a lot of talent on offense and their defense is nothing to write home about. I also think Brees will retire soon and NO will be garbage. I hope I am wrong and that our window is this year, even without McCoy.

Originally Posted by Chromeburn (Post 122285)

https://youtu.be/76-I8AizMgA

I think our window opened last season. I think we are there and I am not the only one who thinks this. A lot of media is on board, placing the Colts regularly in the top five. But that is just fluff, more importantly I think the Colts think they are there. The link above is a good listen, around the 7 min mark they start getting into expectations. No one with the Colts will say anything on the record about it, but there is a buzz around the team and they think they are contenders this year.

Before the draft I offered the question, what position drafted would start for this team. I think I got SAM LB the most which isn't really a starting position now since Nickle is the base package, not the 4-3. This is a deep team. They don't necessarily have star power at certain positions, but they do have a lot speed and redundancy that helps negate the lack of some star power.

I know everybody is kinda riding a high from last season because they exceeded expectations. But you have to move on from that if you keep the majority of the team together and you make the divisional round.