I certainly hope so. Starting the season with Turnstyle Tevi at LT will in all likelihood be a disaster.

I don't have an issue starting with Tevi, so long as that is in the knowledge that Fisher will be back for midseason. Tevi did start last year for the Chargers, was he great, no, was he playing next to Nelson, no he wasn't, should his play be better purely because of that I would say yes. Tevi is likely to be one of the better back up LT options in the league, he is a former low end starting LT.

Until the season starts and Left tackle proves to be an issue I am not going to worry about it. Ballard/Reich both understand the importance, even more than us, they will address it.

As far as our pass rush, the more I think on it the more I am hopeful that Turay makes a big move this year. He looked good prior to his ankle injury. The first surgery didn't work so total pass on how he looked last year. If the second surgery is successful I believe he will make a big impact. We need to develop our own defensive lineman. Impossible to buy a defensive line. I'm damn excited to watch this line develop in real time. I'm hoping for the same kind of experience I had watching the offensive line develop. You could see that we were on our way to a great offensive line even when we were 1-5. I have to pinch myself sometimes to really realize that the Colts are committed to developing a top defense. I love that we are no longer this friggin' finesse team in any way, shape or form. We are being built to physically dominate the lines. Damn that's good to see.

He was pretty bad. Tevi is extremely athletic for a LT and if he puts it together he might be pretty good. But right now he is not good. He falls down a lot, reaches, and just plays with bad technique. He should be on the bench developing. He is a liability big time. Nelson can’t protect his outside shoulder and teams will attack him. Tevi was ranked near the bottom of all LTs, not just starters. I think he was 74.

https://www.stampedeblue.com/2021/5/...sam-tevis-game

Agree about Tevi. Just want to point out that we pay our coaches to coach and teach. If he has the athletic ability and the correct attitude he could make himself some huge coin and make us all happy. Low probability it definitely not zero.

The Chargers do the same thing. They laughed at the turnstile Tevi comments last year. After one season they dropped him and drafted a rookie this year.

LT has a huge impact. When Castonzo was out it was like a 4 win difference between when he was on the field. Why gamble on such a long shot when you have plenty of money to sign a much better rated vet. You want to develop him, I'm ok with that, do it from the bench.

Ballard goes into every season with these obvious holes. Two years ago it was WR, last year it was pass rush, this year will be LT until they sign someone. I get that he wants to develop through the draft, but it takes time to develop rookies and it seems we are constanly rebuilding some position group. And the whole reason we are here drafting DE's with our top picks is because we struck out on the previous ones.

Glass half empty or glass half full? Many teams would love to go into the post draft process with only one hole to fill.

I’m sure shitty teams do. Think the Steelers, Pats, Chiefs, Saints think that way. Do we model ourselves after shit teams or the best teams in the league?

That has nothing to do with our inability to field the most complete team we can. Especially considering how much we sit under the cap every year. Maybe we would have gone further in the playoffs if we had more help at passrush. I hate to interrupt all the Ballard hero worship here, but we are not doing everything we can. And I hear mixed messages out of the team. We aren’t there yet, the locker room isn’t there yet, then I hear it’s a special team, they have a good feeling about this team. Which is it? People on here act like we have won something, as if we are sitting on top a couple Super Bowl wins. We haven’t won anything. Finally, is WR fixed? Can TY and Cambell stay healthy? If not we are Pittman and a bunch of nobodies again. Is passrush fixed? We drafted two guys, one of whom may not even play this year. We arguably got weaker at dline and oline this year.

It’s almost like Ballard doesn’t want to lose that first round pick next year and wants to make sure Wentz gets under that 75% mark.

Call me crazy but we'd be much better off having a starting LT who has proven he can hold his own and not have to rely on Nelson to bail him out. I suppose if we can land Fisher and he's not ready until a couple of games into the season we can maybe live with Tevi. But if Fisher won't be ready until midseason we should probably sign the Leno.

We have more holes than just LT. That's just the largest, gaping hole we have at possibly the 2nd most important position in football.

CB2 is definitely a hole and at least for the short term, pass rush is as well.

I’m afraid Ballard will always be so focused on the future and his method that the team will never have a “now” year where Ballard really pushes to field a great team. They’ll instead focus on being a good team for a much longer period. Of course it’s too early to say that for sure because they are still rebuilding and the team still isn’t where they want it to be......

Team not finished product yet but is so much better than when Ballard took over. There is nothing that he has done that says he isn’t interested in winning it all. He is trying to build a complete team, defense offense and special teams (Malik Jefferson anyone?). Takes time.

How much time? The Colts need a LT, and his name is not Tevi. If I was Irsay, this shit would have already been done. Teams spend money for great players, Ballard hasn't signed anybody worth a shit. As a Colts fan, I am losing my patience with him.

You really think Ballard has not signed any player worth a shit? Really? You and I agree we need a left tackle. I think that there is a chance I’m wrong about that but even if I am right I didn’t think the season was about to start today. How much time? Dont know the answer to that. Maybe never After all it’s been a long fucking time since this team has won shit We have had several off seasons when we signed ‘shit’, won the off season, made fans happy, then shit the bed during the real season. Give me this any day.

So when do you think they will be done building and start trying to win? I’m curious because in 2018 many on here said we weren’t in a 3-4 yr rebuild. It’s 2021 now and they are still trying to draft a complete team. So do you expect them to really go after it next year? Year after?

I’m not suggesting Ballard doesn’t want to win. I think he’s doing exactly what he thinks will win. But his method reminds me of Polian’s and Ted Thompson’s. Whether or not that is good is a matter of personal preference I guess.

Yeah, well I'm not interested in putting up banners stating that we were runner-ups. If Ballard signs either Fisher or Leno, then it shows me he is interested in winning now.

My own feelings are that until you have the qb position stable you are not going to consistently win. The last guy retiring like he did threw a huge wrench into the time line for me. We reached the playoffs last year with a rental at qb. It’s not an excuse anymore. I would expect more this year. If the defensive line, quarterback doesn’t show real promise this year I’m with you. If there is big deterioration of the offensive line play this year I’m also going to agree Ballard fucked up. I just want to see how it plays out this year

The problem isn't so much that Ballard doesn't want to go all in. The problem is that after investing in a QB in the offseason he's refusing to do any more than bottom feed off of other teams' scrap heaps for the most important position in protecting that QB. And it's not like us not having a LT is a huge surprise since AC was considering retiring after 2019.

Ballard for the most part has done a very good job, but if we don't have at least a decent LT signed by training camp then he has royally fucked this offseason up.

I guess I agree. I look every day at least twice to see if we have signed one of the LTs. I think it is premature to crucify Ballard because it hasn’t happened yet. Ballard obviously values offensive line. These last few years have been the best line play we have had in as far back as I can remember. The Manning era could pass block with the best but we’re nowhere as physical in the run game. It’s not like Grigson is running things. I believe Ballard will put together an offensive line that I’ll be happy with

I don’t like the term “all in”. That makes it sound like it’s this year or nothing, which just isn’t the case. There is a cost in free agency but it is almost never that drastic and never that immediate. They could have signed Trent Williams and it’s not like they would have been cutting guys next year to get under the cap. I’m not advocating Williams by the way - just saying even the extreme wouldn’t have led to a real “all in” situation.

And I get the importance of the LT position, but this has been consistent with Ballard’s MO. He’ll sign someone if he can get them relatively cheap and low risk. Otherwise he’ll be fine rolling into the season with a weakness, preach about the process, and deal with it in the draft next offseason. I don’t think Wentz will be at a huge risk though - Reich will use scheme to help cover the deficiency. The cost probably won’t be Wentz’s health, it will be wins. Same as it was when he did it with WR and DE. But that’s fine because they are still building...

Unfortunately you're probably right :mad:

All of those teams have holes.

The Stillers O-Line is a big ? They also lost their 2nd best pass rusher.

The Pats drove the Brinks truck straight into free agency, but does anyone here seriously think that they are better than the Colts?

The Chiefs O-Line got exposed in the SB, and they really haven't improved it as much as many think. The losses definitely out-weigh the gains.

The Saints lost Brees and still had to let a boat load of guys go to stay under the cap.


Also, Ballard isn't done yet. He's got an owner in his ear that wants to win now.

Wentz needs a good LT. You can't just scheme it away. Wentz went through hell in Philly, don't want to see a repeat of that in Indy. QB and LT are two of the most important offensive positions in the NFL. Look at what KC went through when both of their tackles weren't in the game, even Mahomes couldn't do crap.

I’m not at all advocating for it. I’ve been complaining about this aspect of Ballard’s method for awhile. But at this point it seems pretty consistent. However, I also think the Colts will field a better overall line next year than KC had in SB even if Ballard does nothing else. It will cost wins though - on that we agree.

The Steelers OL is a question mark at LT, but solid beyond that. They'll probably sign one of the FAs to plug the hole, just like the Colts. As for pass rush, They'll turn Quincy Roche into something, they have a history of it.

The Cheats got their franchise QB and I'm trying not to think about it. But the league will never learn not to let them have nice things.

I disagree with your assessment of the Chiefs OL. Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith will start for them this year. They traded for Orlando Brown to cover LT, and they have the strongest interior OL group in the NFL at this point after also signing Joe Thuney, Kyle Long, and Austin Blythe. Do they move Thuney or Long outside to RT?

The Saints will compete with some combination of Winston and Hill. They've still got a good team, and they had a sneaky good draft. They got good players in Turner, Werner, and Adebo, and that's going to improve what was already a solid defense.

The Colts could be one of the most complete teams in the league once they sign a competent LT. That would require some of these drafted pass rushers to pan out. The Colts now have 5 top 60 picks invested in the position in the last 4 drafts. Those picks need to start paying dividends on the field.

The Steelers have had one of the best oline over the past two decades. They know the importance of it and will fix it. They also have a number one pass rusher already. Something we have yet to find despite significant investment. Oh and they consistently kick our ass every year.

The pats try to fix their mistakes. The drafted two TEs then signed two TEs this year. They signed a bunch of FAs and they have some really good players coming back from a covid hiatus. Finally they drafted a QB that fits their system perfectly and could potentially be set at the position again after one year of needing a QB.

The Chiefs lost their two starting tackles, of course they got exposed. No one in the league has depth at tackle. What did they do? They completely overhauled their line. Signed a good right tackle, traded for a new left tackle, drafted the best center in the draft, then at the end of the draft they took a really good mailer of a guard who should have gone much higher. They did a great fucking job.

The Saints need to find a QB now, but they have been consistently good in personnel decisions. You act like they did something wrong and had to let people go, the only reason they had to dump people is because of a global pandemic which no one saw coming. They will rebound next year, and mostly they just pushed money around to make it work because that’s what good teams do.

If there wasn’t a pandemic we would be what? 40-60 million more under? Next year we will be at the top again. The difference is those teams make changes and try to fix their issues. Castonzo hinted at retirement last year and they kinda talked him out of it. They should have been looking right then and there for a replacement. I had a feeling he would be gone after this season and now this is where we are. It’s like we have no sense of urgency. Oh well I guess we could have been better this season, but maybe next year we will. I feel like we wasted an opportunity with Luck’s last year, then again last year with Rivers we were almost good enough to go farther. Could a speed rusher have made a difference? Guess we will never know. We seem to embrace good but not good enough.

At least I hope we might have fixed passrush. I want to see what Paye can do when all he has to do is shoot the gap. But still it’s gonna take time for these rookies to develop.

You think the Chiefs are playing Thuney at RT? That was my thought.

I think you underestimate the desire of the front office to win the SB. Other than that, you make some good points.

It’s looking that way, but won’t know for sure till camp.

Moot point now. with the Fisher signing.

To an extent, but I'd like to know from the "gotta have a rookie deal at LT" crowd: Fisher at $9.4 million with franchise rights and Paye or Brown at $3 million with franchise rights?

I am not of that crowd, but a pass rusher who is good on a rookie contract is probably more valuable than a LT on a rookie contract. It is highly likely that we will have both on a rookie contract in three years anyway.

Guess I was right.

It would have been nice. But it looks like we just shifted the weight from the oline to the dline. We still don’t have a franchise pass rusher on our cap. Do looks like we are just spreading that money over several positions.