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https://x.com/barstoolindy/status/1876275928839700817 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372q4b-2QoQ |
I wish everyone would boycott at least the first game and all preseason games.
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Obviously, Irsay has a higher regard for Ballard and Steichen than do a lot of fans. Ultimately, I think he didn’t have much choice. You don’t want to hire a new GM and stick him with a QB and head coach he didn’t pick.
Next year is a make or break season. A repeat performance will cause heads to roll. If that happens, the new GM simply has to be sure that Jim Irsay is willing to open his wallet and do more than nibble at the scraps of free agency. |
Apparently we have the highest paid D-Line in the league. All we had to show for that is 36 sacks.
Here is the draft capital that Ballard has used on 1'st or 2nd round EDGE guys; Pick 1-15, 2024: Latu Pick 1-21, 2022: Paye Pick 2-54, 2022: Odeyingbo Pick 2-49, 2019: Banogu Pick 2-52, 2018: Turay Pick 2-64, 2018: Lewis Now, wouldn't you think with that much capital invested in EDGE, we would have a good pass rush? The jury is still out on Latu. I'm okay with Paye as a edge setting run defender who gets 8 sacks a season, but not as a 1st rd pick. The rest are either JAGS or busts. |
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Read an article that Flat Bill Fucko has been after Patridge for years. So did we shit can Ollie so FBF could bring in a buddy to hang out and do nothing with? |
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(9 1/2 MONTHS LATER) After reading through this thread, I'm really glad that we're not the ones making decisions about this franchise. o |
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Daniel Jones Was the Colts' Missing Piece, and Now They’re the NFL’s Best Team (By Eric Williams) https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nf...nfls-best-team o |
Funny thread back then. Hilarious thread now.
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You know, I've noticed ChoppedWood doesn't post anymore. You would think he'd be all over posting about how good things are now that the Colts are winning.
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He still posts, he just doesn't bitch any longer. CW is like the rest of us in his love of the Colts, he just has a tough time controlling his emotions. He's less patient for the good times to come about and will blame management, coaches and players instantly. My guess is, if he were a Jets fan, he would have slit his wrists by now. ;) |
I was one of those who felt it was time for Ballard to go. I am not 100% behind the guy quite yet. My issue was 8 years of believing he could do everything thru the draft, not finding a QB (Honestly we have finally found what appears to be a quality QB but I feel like a blind squirrel finds a nut eventually. We got lucky in my mind and I am thrilled we did. If this guy could really evaluate QBs it wouldn't have taken 8 years) and refusing to go all in. We have a few weeks before the trade deadline. This team is close, very close. There are no super teams this year. Will Ballard pull the trigger for a pass rusher or cb and go all in this year or will he just love them draft picks to much? He showed he was able to change ways and signed us some nice dbs this past off season. I would love to see us finally go all in. I hope new ownership pushes him in that direction.
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Jim was a lot different than his father ...... I hope that Carlie IS NOT a lot different than Jim. As for your blind squirrel analogy, that is far from the truth. Prior to 2025 and after the retirement of Andrew Luck in 2019, Ballard's Colts had one good season (the 2020 Philip Rivers season), 1 bad season (the 2022 4-12-1 season), and 4 mediocre/middling seasons. Those mediocre/middling teams would have been bad teams if Ballard had not done what he said that he intended to ...... build a complete team that WAS NOT overly-dependent on an all-world quarterback, such as Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck. The Colts have essentially done the opposite of what the New York Giants did ...... the Giants got a solid quarterback in Daniel Jones and expected him to carry an otherwise incomplete team. The Colts, on the other hand, built complete teams that were a solid quarterback away from being bona-fide contenders (as is evidenced by the 2020 Philip Rivers season and this 2025 Daniel Jones season.) Jim was a good owner, right up until the end. Ballard was a good GM all long, just like I have been saying for years in dozens of my posts here on ColtFreaks. o |
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is almost exclusively them picks. Jones is the only non-homegrown starter, and Abdullah may be the only other non-homegrown contributor on offense (off the top of my head). I say keep loving them picks too much. Anarumo emphasizes the DBs in his scheme, so Ballard went after Ward and Bynum, drafted an Anarumo-style Walley. Eberflus, on the other hand, calls the 3-tech the engine to his defense... so Ballard traded his 1st-rounder to get Buckner. |
The way they’re playing now, and if they continue to play that way, have completely absolved Ballard in my opinion. He really has built a complete team, at least on offense.
The only thing he hasn’t had, outside of 1 year of Luck and 1 year of Rivers, is a competent quarterback. Thats the only thing that’s held us back. I think even Reich would have been successful with a good quarterback. That really makes it a bitter pill to swallow that Luck retired when he did. He endured guys like Samson Satele and Winston Justice thanks to that moron Grigson but Ballard was well on the way to fixing that. Look at the line we have now. I don’t blame Luck for retiring, the timing just really sucked. I firmly believe we’d have been perrenial contenders had he stuck around. As for finding a quarterback, I find it hard to really fault Ballard for that. It’s REALLY REALLY hard to find a franchise quarterback. Teams spend DECADES looking for one. |
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ESPN's Bill Barnwell rates Chris Ballard and the Colts as the #1 team out of 32 in the NFL for the 2025 off-season. Best, Worst 2025 NFL Offseasons: Tiers for All 32 Teams (By Bill Barnwell) https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...draft-barnwell ********************************** The NFL’s Best Offseason Indianapolis Colts Highlights: l Signing QB Daniel Jones (1-Year, $14 Million) and Safety Cam Bynum (4 Years, $60 Million), hiring DC Lou Anarumo, drafting 1st-round TE Tyler Warren Disappointments: l The draft picks after Tyler Warren. I'm not sure how any other team could receive more glowing reviews. The Colts signed Jones away from the Vikings with an opportunity to beat out Anthony Richardson Sr. for the starting job, and what he has done with that chance has exceeded any possible expectation. Jones leads the NFL in QBR (80.2) while also posting the league's highest success rate and its lowest sack rate. He has been a legitimate MVP candidate while making less than just about every other veteran starting QB in the league. If he keeps this up, Jones will be one of the best one-year acquisitions in league history. Meanwhile, Anarumo has helped turn around a defense that couldn't tackle or cover last season with his exotic pressures and variety of defensive looks, creating turnover opportunities for the Colts on a weekly basis. Bynum has played a huge role in locking down the back end for Indianapolis, while fellow veteran defensive back Charvarius Ward was off to a solid start before suffering a concussion during pre-game warm-ups, and hitting injured reserve. Warren was my pick for Offensive Rookie of the Year after four weeks, and he continues to impress in one of the league's most entertaining and unique roles. He's 14th among all receivers in yards-per-route run. The rest of the draft class hasn't made much of an impact. 2nd-rounder J.T. Tuimoloau was a healthy scratch to start the season, and has played just 62 defensive snaps. 3rd-round cornerback Justin Walley is out for the year after tearing an ACL in training camp. o |
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One of the things that ColtFreaks posters were very critical of Chris Ballard for was the fact his Colts teams had only made the playoffs one time after the retirement of Andrew Luck. Ryan Grigson's Colts teams, on the other hand, made the playoffs 3 times in 5 seasons between 2012 and 2016 with Andrew Luck at quarterback. So, who do most Colts fans believe was the better Colts GM ??? Ryan Grigson, whose Colts teams made the playoffs 3 times in 5 seasons with Andrew Luck at QB, or Chris Ballard, whose Colts teams only made the playoffs 1 time in 6 seasons after the retirement of Andrew Luck ??? My answer is that Chris Ballard was (and still is) a considerably better GM for the Colts than was Ryan Grigson. o |
I've certainly been critical of Ballard over the years - some of which was well deserved (the Matt Pryor dumpster fire for example). Obviously happy to eat crow and acknowledge this at least so far has been a great team that Ballard has put together.
I do, however, think we should at least wait until the season's over before anointing Ballard and Steichen into the HOF. I mean we were all pretty happy w/ how 2021 was going until the final 2 games of the year........ |
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I’ve been proud of the Colts during both tenures that’s all I know |
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I was proud of the Colts when they went 2-14 in 2011. I'm a Colts fan. That doesn't mean that I think that they were a good team, and I don't think that Ryan Grigson was a good GM. o |
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I don’t think Grigson was a bad GM, he was trying to win immediately with a young QB. |
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I have my critics me of Ballard, like not fixing obvious holes right away or leaning on draft picks to succeed and fill the gap. Sometimes it works like Nick Cross and Bortolini, sometimes it doesn’t like Juju. I would a lack of urgency was his biggest issue till this year. Although sometimes I wonder how much of it was Jim. But one traded for Buckner and one traded for Richardson. To me they aren’t even close in strategy, eye for talent and how they run their workplace. Grigson is filling smaller roles around the league but I doubt he ever gets another shot at GM. Ballard would be hired as a GM if we let him go. |
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Jim Caldwell and Chuck Pagano are also still employed by an NFL team. Caldwell and Pagano were the worst Colts head coaches since the Peyton Manning era began, in 1998. Being employed by another NFL team does not vindicate awful performances of a GM and/or head coach in the past. Caldwell doubled down on one of the worst decisions in Colts playoff history in a post-game press conference after his inexplicable time-out call against the Jets Colts coach Jim Caldwell said on Sunday that he doesn't regret calling a late timeout that actually might have helped the New York Jets' winning drive in the previous night's AFC wild-card playoff game ...... Colts coach Jim Caldwell said on Sunday that he doesn't regret calling a late timeout that actually might have helped the New York Jets' winning drive in the previous night's AFC wild-card playoff game. This is the expression on Peyton Manning's face, followed by his helpless hand-gesture immediately after the timeout was called at the 1:55:12 mark of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y48nV0UR1E Chuck Pagano once called for a fake-punt in a nationally-televised game against the Patriots that was so laughingly absurd that it easily could have qualified for being an article in the satirical newspaper The Onion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i7VKQwDS2s o Quote:
Grigson was immediately gifted with a rare, all-world quarterback (Andrew Luck) and almost got him killed. Luck's career nearly ended with his lacerated kidney in 2015, and it did eventually come to a premature end after the 2018 season. Grigson spent very limited draft capital on the offensive line in his Colts tenure, which is easily the worst thing possible that a GM could do in that situation. Between 2012 and 2015, he drafted only three linemen before the seventh round, none of whom developed into quality starters. If he was "trying to win" with the great quarterback that fell into his lap, he had the worst strategy in doing so. The Colts were a winning, competitive team in Grigson's tenure as the GM largely because of Andrew Luck's greatness, and in spite of Grigson's ineptitude, not because of it. o |
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All I’m saying is it was a different approach with Grigson, aggressive spending and win now. |
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Luck lacerated Kidney came from refusing to slide |
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You just stated a major reason why Ballard is a much better GM than Grigson was. The free-agent route didn't work out for Grigson's Colts, it's not working out for the current Texans, and Ballard's 2025 Colts are arguably the most complete team in the AFC. Good post, even though you inadvertently further exhibited why Grigson was a bad GM for the Colts. o |
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I was not in that consensus |
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Thank you. The general consensus of the ColtFreaks board is dead-wrong at times, including their assessment of Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen prior to this 2025 season ...... I don't think that it is wrong in their overall assessment of Ryan Grigson's tenure as Colts GM. The overwhelming majority believe that Grigson was not a good GM, and I don't think that they are wrong for the reasons that they (and I) have asserted. o |
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That's not what we are debating. We're debating your defense of Grigson' Colts tenure, and your assertion that he was not a bad GM. My post pointed out why the board-at-large is sometimes right and is sometimes dead-wrong, not whether or not you were a poster that was calling for the heads of Ballard and Steichen. The board is sometimes correct, and sometimes wrong. You are wrong in your defense of Grigson. You're not wrong in your praise of Ballard, and your (correct) refusal to condemn him prior to the 2025 season. o |
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Luck was the 3rd most hit QB in the league in 2016 and Brisset was first in 2017. He had arguably the worst oline in the league for years, and that’s with a franchise LT already in place. His kidney wasn’t the only injury he had. |
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How their drafted players pan out? Win loss record? Grigson won the division and went to the playoffs nearly every year. Year 3 AFC Championship is still impressive Hard to draft great players when you’re in the back half of the draft every year. |
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Thanks again, but he is locked-in ...... he's not wrong, no matter how much evidence you exhibit to the contrary. Let him have the last word, as ridiculous as his defense of Grigson is. o |
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