Originally Posted by rcubed (Post 247723)

I dont believe the 'got paid and coast theory' that some spout.

I think its a combo of lingering injuries and not fully recovering from covid.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory (Post 247705)

Wait a second. This is nothing unique to Frank Reich or the Colts. Bill Belichick is considered the GOAT and he's famous for giving bullshit pressers. They all do.

Beyond the competitive aspect... reporters and fans claim they want honesty but the moment there's an aberration and someone does speak some truth or specifics, about an injury or anything else, people lose their minds. That's why coach-speak is a thing. They don't want to be there, they don't want to talk to these robot reporters.

This is simply the nature of the garbage (sports) media that people ask for. These reporters have been asking the same goddamn questions and getting the same goddamn non-answers forever. If they didn't get special access to practices and stuff like that, they'd be useless.

Every player and coach will tell you the opponent this week is a "great team" and "they do a lot of stuff really well." The coach and GM always makes every single decision "in the best interest of the team." The winning quarterback in the post-game interview is going to tell the lady, "My teammates had my back" and "we believe in each other", and blah, blah, blah.

That's what people eat up.

Originally Posted by rcubed (Post 247723)

I dont believe the 'got paid and coast theory' that some spout.

I think its a combo of lingering injuries and not fully recovering from covid.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247779)

It's more that organizations and people don't want to deal w/ the BS from both the news/sports media and social media if they say something considered out of line. Remember how much was made out of Peyton finally saying "Ok, we had protection problems today" after the media was hounding the shit out of him about it after we were upset by the Steelers in the '05 playoffs? And that was before social media was a thing, so it'd be 50x worse today.

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory (Post 247789)

100% my point, yeah. And it's not just sports, but these journalists will piss and moan about coach-speak and vague, politically correct responses... well how did we get to the point where these 21-year-old kids are working with PR consultants and media coaches before they're even out of college?

It's because these chicken hawks that do the reporting can't wait to pounce, put on their Freud hats, then twist and dissect every syllable. And they do that because that's what the readers want.

Coaches will give you some measurable facts like who's starting this week or something. But as for honest thinking and opinion... this is what you end up with. Canned, robotic, meaningless, PC exchanges.

Originally Posted by JAFF (Post 247737)

So many things have happened during the covid pandemic. Its not just who got sick and who passed. There is collateral damage that cant be measured

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247656)

If Nelson's back is the reason why he sucks now then that is HUGE fuck up by Ballard to give him that big of a contract. The smart thing to have done, again if he is having back issues, would have been to let him play out his 5th year option to see how his back impacted his play before handing him the largest OG contract in league history. Of course Ballard hasn't done many smart things the past couple of years.

Originally Posted by ColtBlue (Post 247818)

I think Ballard i s a idiot anyways for his stupid contract for Nelson. I think he still had a rookie year left before re signing. But yes Nelson Back injury worse than what Colts are saying. If you really want to know dumbest Ballard drafts I can show you. Pretty sure you already know but some keep backing him up.

Originally Posted by ColtBlue (Post 247820)

DE Benjamin Chinomso Banogu
S Hooker
OT Zach Banner
CB Quincy Wilson
Edge Tarrell Basham

DE Gerri Green
OT Jackson Barton

WR Daurice Fountain

C/G Javon Patterson
QB Jacob Eason

DT Robert Windsor

WR Dezmon Patmon

LB Jordan Glasgow
S Shawn Davis

I'm tired do I need to go on?

Originally Posted by ColtBlue (Post 247821)

Ballard isn't prefect and neither is Frank. I trust Frank more cause he at least does pressers when Ballard hides.... LMFAO

Originally Posted by Brylok (Post 247813)

I had the OG COVID in January of 2021 before vaccine was available for us peasants. Ever since then, regardless of season, weather, or anything else, my nose starts running. It's just a trickle and it's usually my right nostril for whatever reason, but it's constant. I blow my nose 50+ times a day, every day. It's really annoying and I go through Kleenex like a mofo, but other people have far worse than that.

Originally Posted by Brylok (Post 247813)

I had the OG COVID in January of 2021 before vaccine was available for us peasants. Ever since then, regardless of season, weather, or anything else, my nose starts running. It's just a trickle and it's usually my right nostril for whatever reason, but it's constant. I blow my nose 50+ times a day, every day. It's really annoying and I go through Kleenex like a mother-fucker, but other people have far worse than that.

Originally Posted by JAFF (Post 247737)

So many things have happened during the covid pandemic. Its not just who got sick and who passed. There is collateral damage that cant be measured.

Originally Posted by Colts And Orioles (Post 247845)

o


That sounds pretty fucking scary.

I've gotten 5 COVID shots ...... 2 for the full vaccine, and 3 boosters.

I suppose that I am currently one of the more fortunate ones in that specific area.

o

Originally Posted by ColtBlue (Post 247820)

DE Benjamin Chinomso Banogu
S Hooker
OT Zach Banner
CB Quincy Wilson
Edge Tarrell Basham

DE Gerri Green
OT Jackson Barton

WR Daurice Fountain

C/G Javon Patterson
QB Jacob Eason

DT Robert Windsor

WR Dezmon Patmon

LB Jordan Glasgow
S Shawn Davis

I'm tired do I need to go on?

Originally Posted by rm1369 (Post 247590)

Chaka you and I have been having this discussion for 3-4 years. And guess what? We are exactly where I have been saying we would end up - mediocre.

I’m not so sure what is hard to understand. Ballard has never fielded a complete team. Never. Yes every team has some degree of weakness. It’s a matter of magnitude. And Ballard has repeatedly left several major areas extremely weak while waiting on player development or next years draft. LT, WR, and DE primarily. Ballard refuses to “overspend” on average NFL talent. Great, except that means the team has repeatedly put out below average players at critical positions each and every year. Having a few great players that carry the bad players works in the NBA, it doesn’t in the NFL. You get exposed. If you have bottom 5 pass rush it doesn’t matter how great your LBs and secondary are. Oline can’t block? Doesn’t matter much you have the best RB in the league or have maybe finally solved the WR issue. We’ve seen it year after year - an obvious issue the team says is fine, then it costs them games and they spend half the season trying to find a solution.

Where this intersects with Ballard’s approach to the cap is that other teams do mortgage some of the future for today. Instead of filling holes with rookies and vet minimum guys they shoot their shot and shore up areas with over paid average players. It doesn’t always work, but it sure as fuck beats what Ballard does. Do the colts have a brighter future than the rams? Maybe. But the Rams have something to show for prioritizing a window. I guess Ballard’s is yet to come

That doesn’t even touch how he’s been fucking up at QB. I mostly give him a pass there. It’s an unbelievable difficult task, but one he makes more difficult by his “building a dynasty” philosophy.

Let me ask you - how many more years does Ballard need to prove what you and him believe? I said it was at best a 4 year plan before competitiveness using his method. Most on here, especially you, told me I was nuts. So I’ll ask - how much longer until the genius reveals itself?

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247643)

You know damn well that Ballard will use how much he's invested in the OL as an excuse not to invest in FA to fill team needs. He certainly won't invest any more in the OL even thought that's the unit that obviously needs to be fixed. In fact he already did that by letting Glow, Reed, and Fisher walk and going cheap w/ Pryor and Pinter :mad:

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247643)

You don't judge a decision by the outcome it creates? What kind of dumbass thinking is that? And BTW handing over the starting LT position to a journeyman backup who made a whopping 1 start there is not a reasonable and logical decision. This was pretty obvious to a lot of us on the board here. Pinter wasn't as obvious to us fans, but it should have been obvious to Ballard and his staff. They had 2 years worth of practices and workouts to evaluate him, and the fact that they were so far off on his evaluation as well as Pryor's should say something.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 247643)

AC seemed like a really standup guy. Do you think he'd tell the media that he was considering retiring and not talk to Ballard, Reich, etc. about it?

Off the top of my head I would have either signed Leno instead of Fisher and/or drafted Darrisaw instead of Paye. And as I already mentioned re-signing Fisher would have been a much better move than handing the job over to Pryor. But my opinion doesn't really matter as I don't get paid to make the Colts better. Ballard does, and that's something he's failed at big fucking time over the past couple of off seasons. Fucking Matt Broken Down Turnstyle Pryor at LT. What a fucking joke.

Originally Posted by Oldcolt (Post 247724)

The nature of the lying by Belecheat is way different. First and foremost, he wins Super Bowls. When he says he has it covered, he actually does. He isn’t up there pretending to be your pastor, somehow occupying the moral high ground, and throwing people under the bus.

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 247932)

Correct. I don't judge a person's decisionmaking simply by the simple bottomline result. This kind of "dumbass thinking" might be beyond you, but think of it like how a poker player makes decisions - a good poker player plays the odds, and makes decisions accordingly. The outcome of those decisions is not always consistent with what the odds would suggest, but the player can rest assured that if you keep making smart decisions, they will prevail in the end.

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 247931)

Well, we certainly disagree but I doubt I ever said you were crazy. Look, the Colts have been competitive since Ballard got here, with the exception of the Luck retirement year (and the 2017 season when Ballard was just hired, and Luck was unavailable).

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 247931)

Ballard's strategy is predicated on the homegrown players maintaining their level of performance. That's been a problem this year, for some weird reason that nobody has figured out. Except where injuries played a role, the weak spots on the roster are Ballard's responsibility in large part (though I'm certain he also receives input from coaches, scouts etc. on players like Pryor before deciding to give him the starting spot), and in most cases he's got a young, high draft pick in place for the future.

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 247931)

And the simple reality is that the elite teams tend to have elite QBs, and the Colts haven't had that despite their best efforts to the contrary. I'm glad you're willing to give Ballard a pass on the QB issue, because I think it's warranted. No matter how much people hate him now, Wentz was a worthwhile gamble. The other, more veteran QBs were also probably the right move for a team that, by all accounts, otherwise seemed ready to compete.

Originally Posted by Chaka (Post 247931)

I've never said Ballard is perfect, but I'm convinced that Ballard's strategy is solid. If he's run out of Indy with pitchforks, he'll just succeed elsewhere.

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish (Post 247953)

It took BP, what 8/9 years to bring the Colts a championship. Getting rid of Mora was a key, just like I believe getting rid of Reich will be a key.

Originally Posted by IndyNorm (Post 248459)

Year in and year out Ballard sacrifices team needs in the name of future cap flexibility. You know damn if left unchecked he'll continue to do so, and since he's already invested so much of the cap space in the OL he'll continue to find cheap band aid like replacements for the open positions rather than do the right thing and actually fix the problem.



After watching the god awful OL play this year it's obvious that Glow wasn't the weak link of the OL. If re-signed he'd be our best OG currently on the roster, and since Nelson's play has gone to complete shit the same can probably be said for Reed as well. Even though he's out of football if we had re-signed Fisher he would have currently been our best LT, and certainly a hell of a lot better than Pryor is. Hell, even if Fisher had sat on the couch since January he'd still be better than Pryor.




No, what you're saying isn't beyond me, and nothing you've ever posted on here is beyond me or anyone else on the board. And yes, it's a dumbass line of thinking. For starters Ballard's role is nothing like being a professional gambler and running a football team is nothing like running a casino where the odds are always in your favor.

Ballard is essentially a VP of talent acquisition at a midsized company. Imagine if he was in the business world and decided due to potential future budget constraints to let ~half of the company's experienced talent in their top division leave rather than pay them a manageable salary increase. Then he backfills them w/ substandard talent who's completely incapable of performing at the required level, and as soon as this turnover happens the division begins to grossly underperform so much so that it drags the entire company down from being in the black to the heavy red. Do you think wise investors would say "That's ok. You gambled and lost, but I'm sure you'll get it right next time." No, they would (rightfully so) be calling for his head.

On top of that even if Ballard's job was exactly like a professional gambler, Pryor and Pinter were two of the worst horses in the history of the league to wager the season on, and Ballard should have known that.



Do you honestly think Castonzo told the entire world that he was seriously considering retiring and then told Ballard that he'd stick around for the foreseeable future? If so then I have a great bridge investment opportunity I'd like to tell you about. And even if AC did say he'd stick around the fact that he was considering retiring at the end of the '19 season shouldn't have surprised Ballard when he did retire after '20. But the fact that Matt Fucking Pryor was our starting LT this season seems to speak otherwise.

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish (Post 248463)

No Glow did god damn job, which is all you can expect of any player.