Free agency success

[HoosierinFL]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I don’t think anyone will disagree you need a franchise QB. From there you have to fill holes and maximize your chances in your window. QB is the most important part, but the rest of the roster does matter.

If you are defending Ballard by saying he hasn’t had the QB so the rest doesn’t matter, then I disagree. There was no reason to acquire Rivers or Ryan unless you think they are good enough to be on the list. And if you think they are then you have to recognize the window is 1-2 years max. Ballard did shit with the rest of the roster. I don’t believe Ballard will ever operate in a way that maximizes the teams chances even if he has a franchise QB. The window with AR and this version of the team (Buckner, Grover, Kelly, likely Taylor, etc) starts this season. So far it appears it will be treated like every other season under Ballard.

Not really trying to defend any specific thing about Ballard, but at no point since Luck's retirement have we had any type of great QB play (Rivers was good not great).

I could criticize Ballard for not fixing the QB position sooner than he did - he probably should not have prolonged the suffering with all the free agent QBs and instead allowed the team to tank so he could draft one high.

Without that, there's really just no sense in trying to bring in big money big name free agents to fill the gaps, it would be a waste, because those guys aren't winning you the superbowl if you don't have the QB.

The question remains - is AR going to be that guy? There's kinda no point in an overly aggressive FA approach until we can see him on the field for a whole season and see what we've got, and in turn, what we don't got.

Main point: you can use FA market to get the right parts to "win now" or "win within a short window in the next few years" but only AFTER you know you have the QB to get you there.