I think the mild "surprise" is coming because none of us really know what to make of Ballard yet. Yes, we've all heard that he's very smart and very well respected, but his retaining of Pagano has probably led to a perception that he's a bit afraid to drop the hammer.
If he goes on a Grigson-like purge of the roster, then I'll certainly take notice.
Grigson wasn't afraid to rid the roster of guys that were no longer useful. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a guy from the 2011 roster that Grigson cut that went on to do great things. We were quite talent deprived then. Unfortunately, Grigson sucked at acquiring talent too, so we're yet again talent deprived and back where we started.
But yes, with Ballard having a reputation for both being smart AND nice and at least his initial hesitancy to dump Pagano and with only one cut to his name thus far, how many guys get cut might be a major hint as to what Ballard's MO will be.
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