Anthony Castonzo
 

Per WIBC, just went on injured res...........errrr, nope. Sorry! :)







I was looking at who was free agents this upcoming off season and ran across a PFF article ranking their top 25 offensive linemen for the 2017 seasons so far. I was pleasantly surprised to find Anthony on the list as their 7th highest graded OT. His writeup:
In an otherwise lost year, it is good to see 'Stanzo playing well. Looking back, I have not often noticed him so that is a great thing for an offensive lineman.

Walk Worthy,

And, since I was trolling PFF, I found this other gem in the ranking of the "Top 10 NFL CBs by lowest passer rating when targeted:"

Another nice development in an otherwise lost season. He has jumped into the "must re-sign" category for Colts free agents, IMO.

Walk Worthy,

Don't know much about PFF and I know they get slammed a lot but just noticed that they have Mike Person in his small sample size rated much higher than Ryan Kelly.

PFF sucks so i wouldn't put too much stock on their rankings


that said. AC has been really good this year. why he is always labeled as a terrible player is beyond me. the colts are lucky to have him and anyone saying different is a moron.


pff is higher than i am on melvin. although i do believe he had a nice season

Melvin has been a pleasant surprise......you wonder what happens if he gets paid.

I bet the correlation between people who say "AC sucks" and the people who say "TY sucks" is quite high.

I liked what Melvin showed last year when filling in for the other dude who was always injured, so I'm not surprised he's graded well this year. He's a starter for sure IMO

I had a chance to hear AC today on his weekly Tuesday segment on Mike and Big Grady (The Fan) and there were a couple of things I liked about his comments (95% of these segments are puff pieces but occasionally some good insight comes through).

1. When Big Joe was giving him strokes for how well he played in the 2nd half of this season and the PFF rankings, etc......without being a dick he refocused the conversation on needing to improve. When Big Joe asked him what / how he needed to improve he got very specific and very technical.....I don't know enough about Oline technique to judge whether his goal is the right goal or not but I do know enough about leadership and accomplishment to know that having a growth mindset where you are constantly challenging yourself to be better impacts not just yourself but the team around you. I was really pleased to hear him express dis-satisfaction with the status quo....it was the first time in these segments that I heard that from him.......Ballard effect, maybe????

2. When queried about Ballard's message to the team (after the firing of Pagano), he shared the message that was previously posted here re: accountability and that a culture of locker room accountability was as important as coach/team accountability. AC went on to say that they really leaned on Andrew in the past for that but acknowledged that other veteran leaders on their side of the ball (including himself) need to take on that role as well and not just let Andrew carry the burden........Again, i see that as the Ballard effect. When Ballard says this team can't just be about the QB I think he's talking about more than just putting everything on his arm....He is giving his team a message that they are all responsible for the success of the club and they all need to step it up.

I was pleased to see that Ballard's messaging seems to be resonating in these guys.....beyond the lack of talent and coaching in this club there has been a serious void in leadership. Perhaps that will be changing soon.

To an extent, Ballard is right. You can't lose leaders like Wayne, Bethea, Redding etc.and not have guys step up and fill that void.

Hilton pointing fingers at the O-Line is more evidence of that.