Kiper says Colts and Dolphins are working on 1st round trade

[HoosierinFL]

Signing free agents works in New England because there's already an established culture there. So when 2-3 new FAs come in each year, they assimilate into that culture.
But there's no established culture here. The only culture of winning football we had disappeared in 2011. Almost all of the veterans were released, as well as the coaches and most of the front office, and lots of FAs came in with a mercenary attitude and there was nothing here for them to assimilate into. It became a me-first culture full of mercenaries and losers.
Ballard knows he needs to home grow his own guys and create the right culture before bringing in too many FAs.

[VeveJones007]

Originally Posted by FatDT

This is recency bias. Barkley will probably be great. But Edge was one of the best RBs of all time pre-ACL injury. I don't care about return ability. No NFL team is going to have Barkley return anything. Edge was a complete back. Vision, agility, wiggle, power, toughness, blocking, receiving, speed, instant quickness. If anything I'd say pre-ACL Edge is Barkley's ceiling. I see them as relatively similar in that Barkley is pretty complete. But I don't see him being as powerful a runner despite being heavier.

The comp for Barkley is Faulk. We all know that both Edge and Faulk were great, HOF caliber players, but they were very different styles of RBs.

[FatDT]

Originally Posted by VeveJones007

The comp for Barkley is Faulk. We all know that both Edge and Faulk were great, HOF caliber players, but they were very different styles of RBs.

I'll agree that Barkley is a closer comparison to Faulk or Tomlinson. Edge had more power to his game. But whenever he needed to do something different, it was there. It's still painful to think what could have been if he hadn't gotten hurt.

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by FatDT

I'll agree that Barkley is a closer comparison to Faulk or Tomlinson. Edge had more power to his game. But whenever he needed to do something different, it was there. It's still painful to think what could have been if he hadn't gotten hurt.

My comp for Barkley is Walter Payton precisely because he does have the power to run between the tackles when he needs to. I'd give him a Barry Sanders comp otherwise, because he has Barry Sanders big play syndrome, where he costs himself yardage trying to do too much.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by HoosierinFL

Signing free agents works in New England because there's already an established culture there. So when 2-3 new FAs come in each year, they assimilate into that culture.
But there's no established culture here. The only culture of winning football we had disappeared in 2011. Almost all of the veterans were released, as well as the coaches and most of the front office, and lots of FAs came in with a mercenary attitude and there was nothing here for them to assimilate into. It became a me-first culture full of mercenaries and losers.
Ballard knows he needs to home grow his own guys and create the right culture before bringing in too many FAs.

I typed out a bunch and realized it doesn’t really matter. Those that are hopeful see what they want and subscribe their thoughts and reasons to Ballard’s actions. Those that are skeptical (mainly me) fear the worst about what his actions means. As usual the truth is probably in the middle. I’ve personally not heard Ballard say anything similar to your explanation. I’ve heard winning teams build thru the draft and that’s what we will do. And then seen his actions largely follow those words. Time will tell.

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by FatDT

I'll agree that Barkley is a closer comparison to Faulk or Tomlinson. Edge had more power to his game. But whenever he needed to do something different, it was there. It's still painful to think what could have been if he hadn't gotten hurt.

Edge was never a goal line leaper though. That is a strength of Barkley.

[Dam8610]

Where does the perception that Barkley doesn't have great vision come from? Prospect fatigue? Watch him against Iowa, there's a play where the design is to run off tackle right which gets shut down entirely. He sees this, sees the RE for Iowa crashes down hard, jump cuts to his left across the line, and creates 10 yards on a play where he should've gotten 0-1 yards by the design and OL execution. That takes both his ridiculous athleticism and incredible vision to recognize the newly created running lane.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by rm1369

I’m fine with Ballard’s first draft and I’m hopeful about his talent evaluation. And if I had to guess, I’d say that he will ultimately improve the roster significantly and the Colts will play meaningful football games again with him as GM. They will be a relatively consistent playoff team. Of course that probably says more about my belief in Luck than Ballard, but it’s safe to say I think he will be a significant upgrade over Grigson. Not really high praise, I know.

My concern is that while you may see his approach as unique I simply see it as ultra conservative. It brings to mind Polian and Ted Thompson. Successfull GMs sure (especially Polish), but I belief both have cost their teams titles by their conservative approaches. Manning and Rodgers should have more than a title each (with Colts for Manning). Their complete reliance on the draft and their “do what we do” attitude helps maintain consistency, but doesn’t push their teams over the top quite enough. I’d rather have a few more valleys to have a few more higher peaks.

So when I see Ballard cut a 26 yr old performing Hankins because the players in this D need to be drafted into it �� I hear “do what we do” and think back to all those vanilla and ultimately underperforming Colts teams coming up short - year after year. The best teams scheme around their talent - not the other way around. “Do what we do” and ignoring free agency brought this team one title forarguably the GOAT, but without a doubt one of the top 3 QBs to ever play. That doesn’t make me optimistic for Ballard since early Polian was largely money in the draft. Ballard better but a damn drafting genius.

Now, I said there wasn’t a track record for me to have faith in Ballard he also doesn’t have a track record for me to KNOW that this is the same path Ballard will take. So I try to remain caustiously optimistic. But I tend to believ what’s someone says until I have a reason not to and all of Ballard’s words, quite a few of his actions, and the Colts available cap space and mediocre signings say he is absolutely on the the Polian and Thompson level for conservative team building.

Itis highly likely that Ballard is like Polian, except for the stubbornness to add free agents once a team is assembled. I seem to recall Ballard making a statement that high-priced free agents were added when a team needs to get over the hump in order to win it all and not when building a roster that can compete.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

Itis highly likely that Ballard is like Polian, except for the stubbornness to add free agents once a team is assembled. I seem to recall Ballard making a statement that high-priced free agents were added when a team needs to get over the hump in order to win it all and not when building a roster that can compete.

If you have a link to that quote I’d love to see it. I’m not disputing he said it, just that I’ve never heard him say it. I’d disagree with it to an extent. Seems financially and competitively now would be a good time to add talent to the roster. All these holes can’t be filled in a draft. Which is why I say he is ok with a 3 yr rebuild. Posters seem to dispute that but Irsay doesn’t. Regardless, if he did say that it would at least give me hope he’ll eventually not limit himself to the draft to correct issues.

[Indiana V2]

I can't believe this thread that was initially about Mel Kiper and which apparently wasn't true has made it to this many pages. Lol.