Hear me, Diamond Jim

[Brylok]

You are the biggest, most loyal Colts fan on the planet. That is great, and you do many great things for the fans and for the Indianapolis community. You are a great owner, and you act to protect the shield always. However, sir, you desperately need to find another President of Football Operations or whatever, and hire that man/woman. Let football people run the football operations. You've done what you think is right, but you need help. We've been torpedoed and have still kept on going even while taking on more and more water and sinking. That has reached its end now. We're sunk. Fix it! Start anew. Build a new ship. You have the power, and you still have the fans. There aren't many Colts message boards around on the internet, and this is an old one...I know official Colts people read it. Find another Bill Polian type and get things fixed. It can be done if you want it to be done.
Best regards,
A desperate plea from a now middle-aged Colts fan.

[YDFL Commish]

I endorse this post.

[Dam8610]

Polian was basically a GM. Ballard can do that role, all Jim has to do is get out of the way. If Jim doesn't like Ballard, he can hire someone else, but Ballard has consistently delivered strong draft classes. I'd be hesitant to let someone with his track record go. At least give him a single crack at a draft and develop QB before doing so.

[Brylok]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

Polian was basically a GM. Ballard can do that role, all Jim has to do is get out of the way. If Jim doesn't like Ballard, he can hire someone else, but Ballard has consistently delivered strong draft classes. I'd be hesitant to let someone with his track record go. At least give him a single crack at a draft and develop QB before doing so.

As more time goes by, I'm more and more convinced that Bill Polian ran that entire show on West 56th Street. Jim Irsay just paid the bills and signed the paychecks. How much success have we had since Bill (not Chris) Polian was fired? Not very much... at all. And whatever success we did have after that was almost entirely due to Andrew Luck. Then he smartened up and saw the writing on the wall and quit/retired. Looking at the dumpster fire of a mess this organization is nowadays, from top to bottom, I have very, very little faith left in any of it. We're years away from competing for a Super Bowl. We can't even win the worst division in the NFL anymore. It's been almost a decade since we last did.

So, no, Bill Polian was not "basically a GM". He was wayyy more than that. Look at us today for comparison.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

Polian was basically a GM. Ballard can do that role, all Jim has to do is get out of the way. If Jim doesn't like Ballard, he can hire someone else, but Ballard has consistently delivered strong draft classes. I'd be hesitant to let someone with his track record go. At least give him a single crack at a draft and develop QB before doing so.

No, Ballard can't do that role, Ballard should be relegated to the level of a Sr. Scout, and nothing more. His concept of building a team is circa 1996. His arrogance is that of a multi-SB winning head cheese who has trophy cases and banners to point to- he has nothing of the sort. His concept of storing cash under the mattress for safe keeping, is abominable. His belief / dedication to numerous players, notably at the QB position is sickening, the refusal of addressing the WR position unless absolutely FORCED TO, was nauseating and putting Matt Pryor at LT, is comical at best and as I have stated, is a termination level offense all to itself. He should have been shit canned along with Frank. Both of them think way too highly of their own belief system to be flexible enough to succeed in today's NFL. I will be delighted when he is no longer part of this organization.

[albany ed]

I don't know, but I'm not Anti Ballard. I think he found some gems in the draft and started to build a solid team. He got put behind the eight ball early when his extremely elite QB suddenly retired and left a huge hole in team and he actually had no time to fix it. Sure, he's made some mistakes, but are there any GMs that haven't?

[apballin]

I’m not ready to fire Ballard they let Reich hand pick the QB the last 3 years. We all know he wanted Jordan Love, but Irsay tried to overcompensate the whole GM-coach -owner in harmony after the Grigson-pagano situation so here we are. He should’ve fired Reich for vouching for Wentz or gave them 1 more year because after Irsay called for his bible buddies head he was never the same

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by albany ed

I don't know, but I'm not Anti Ballard. I think he found some gems in the draft and started to build a solid team. He got put behind the 8-ball early when his extremely=elite QB suddenly abruptly retired, and left a huge hole in team, a hole in which he had no time to fix. Sure, he's made some mistakes, but are there any GMs that haven't ???

o


When Peyton Manning went down in 2011, the Colts went 2-14 without him.

When Andrew Luck suddenly and unexpectedly retired in 2019, the Colts went 7-9 with an average-at-best Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, and 6 out of those 9 losses were by 7 points or less.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2019-ind


The very next year the Colts went out and got the least mobile quarterback in the NFL (a 39 year-old Philip Rivers), went 11-6 in the regular season, and took the Buffalo Bills right down to the wire in a playoff game on their homefield.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/pro/r...Teams/2020-ind


And in that playoff game the statuesque, 39 year-old Rivers was literally untouched by the Bills' defense, let alone sacked.


https://www.jt-sw.com/football/boxes...ost-wc-ind-buf




Subsequently, in my rat's ass of an opinion, Ballard wasn't just us giving lip-service when he proclaimed that he was determined to build a complete team that was not extremely-reliant on an elite quarterback when he was first brought here in January of 2017.

o