He did it against Atlanta.

Unfortunately when we had the #4 pick, there was only one really good choice. Hindsight is 2020 but letting the Texans get the second pick ahead of us and also grab Will Anderson and sticking us with AR has put us where we are today. Now we have to go with Jones for at least 2 more seasons unless we take a chance on a second round QB and get lucky. Texans got the better coach too, they have basically been making better decisions at the top and getting better outcomes as a result!

We weren’t taking Will Anderson anyway so the Texans jumping in front of us had no bearing on what we did.

Ballard was always gonna take AR there. He said as much. How relieved he was that it was Houston who traded up. He was afraid someone was gonna jump up and take AR.

That wasn't my point....my point was that Houston already had one pick ahead of us, and by letting them have 2 picks ahead they got the best QB and the best Defensive player in the draft. I'll take their GM over ours any day! If their GM had taken AR and left us Stroud everyone would be calling him an idiot!

Ballard is brilliant in evaluating a ton of positions. Unfortunately for us, QB and pass rusher don't happen to be two of them

How was Ballard supposed to stop Houston from trading up? Are you saying he should have traded up?

Even if he did, he was still gonna take AR.

I guess I don’t understand what you’re saying.

Yes he should have traded up and taken Stroud. I don't care what he says nobody would have been stupid enough to take AR over Stroud if they had the choice. I'm not sure when he said that he would take AR no matter what, if it was before the draft maybe he was hoping Houston would be influenced by it, if after the draft what do you expect him to say, "they got the guy we wanted so we settled for Richardson"?

Reich was a true idiot taking Bryce Young over Stroud but that is at least turning out to be a decent draft pick. Why do you guys keep making excuses for Ballard, now he has traded our future away on an another player that can't stay healthy....I don't get it, Houston out maneuvered him in the draft and in coaches and we will be paying for it for years to come.

Always a C&O lover. I was only pointing to the many threads which we may read.

Ahh, yeah, in a vacuum, taking Stroud over AR was a no brainer.

However, Houston had the 2nd pick. There was no way they were gonna pass on taking what they believed was a franchise quarterback by trading that pick to a division rival. That was never gonna happen, and if it did, it would have cost so much that it wouldn’t have been worth it.

Especially since, as it turns out, Stroud isn’t really a franchise quarterback. He’ll, they played just as well with Davis Mills.

I’ve seen this argument before, that Ballard should have given whatever it took to get Stroud. But this isn’t Madden. Houston was never gonna trade that pick. And neither was Carolina gonna trade the first pick, considering they traded into that spot.

Also, I won in 06 !!!!!