Chris Ballard and free agency

[Kray007]

Not sure I appreciate or like his approach. I know the importance of building a team through the draft, and I understand that Bill Polian ignored free agency with a certain degree of "success."

But, when you compare Polian's record with another Coach/GM who took a slightly different approach...Bill Belichick, the shortcomings of Polian's approach become starkly obvious.

For the last half dozen years of Polian's tenure in Indy, the Colts didn't have much more success in the draft than Ryan Grigson. His teams were perennial playoff contenders, but that was only because of the presence of a handful of players who Polian inherited from Bill Tobin or managed to draft early in his years in Indy. When his drafts began to turn south, his refusal to consider free agency left the team with little more than Peyton and a core group of 5 or 6 aging veterans. When Peyton went down, the team's lack of success in adding talent through the draft was exposed.

While Belichick was adding talent like Randy Moss, Polian waited for second tier, talent deprived free agents like Mike Seidman and Norman LeJeune to slip through the cracks.

I'm not suggesting that Ballard rip Jim Irsay's checkbook from his fingers and spread money around the league like manna. But, when you have $72 Million in cap space, and a desperate need at positions like OL and WR, it seems to me as if you have to make more of a run at someone like Norwell.

Hardly a year goes by when the Patriots roster doesn't include 4 or 5 high quality players that they acquired from other teams. Hardly a year goes by when the Colts have 4 or 5 nondescript players acquired in a similar manner.

It is the reason, I fear, that the Patriots are perennial Super Bowl contenders and the Colts failure to win a 2nd ring for Peyton.