Sure I do, but it's not like Ballard is letting go of Antoine Bethea and Freeney, like Grigson did.

Agreed, Simon is somewhat of a head-scratcher, but it is not like after the switch to 4-3 many people did not think his days were numbered. Fountain is a 5th round pick and a PS candidate who was not doing shit in camp and the preseason from what I can gather.

You're missing the point. You can't be both cheap in free agency (hence why Howard WAS a top 10 paid player on roster) and ineffective at drafting (Ballard is until proven otherwise; not exactly difficult for a rookie to make this 53 and yet...)

Ballard keeps making this team worse

Meh, not sure what you expect. Either people go on record and state their concerns / displeasure with moves or you put on the blue hued glasses and say all is well. At least until the wheels fall off. I’d prefer they be stated and people own them.

I reserve judgment until I see a few regular season games. If it is a train wreck then, I will light all of your torches. If not, I will be pleasantly surprised.

Agreed. I desperately want his approach to succeed but I’m struggling to understand the reasoning behind some of his decisions. I suppose I’ll just try to remain hopeful until I see the results on the field.

I don’t really think anyone is calling for Ballard to be fired. This is only year two and regardless if we like his approach or not I think most or us realize you can’t change GMs this soon. That’s some Browns level shit and a guaranteed way to waste Lucks career. That would be alarmist and an overreaction IMO. Not simply pointing out concerns with his approach.

I certainly hope my concerns about his methods and decisions are misplaced. I’d prefer the team be good than for me to be right. My fear is that Luck, as he did with Grigson and Pagano, will mask Ballard’s failures. A fully healthy Luck gives even a shit roster a chance at 6-8 wins. Even in the improved AFC south. And this is a shit roster. But I have a feeling 6-8 wins will have many defending Ballard even if the rest of the roster performs as poorly as it appears constructed. People will point to rookies putting up numbers and how many are starters etc to defend his decisions. Ignoring how much easier it is to put up irrelevant stats and have a lot of draft picks “contribute” when you make sure there is little veteran competition to contend with.

“...and if they win the job, then we’ll move on from the other guy. But you can’t preach competition and not live it.” Great quote from Ballard. Would be even better if he actually meant it.

I'll admit that I'm starting to lose some faith in Ballard, but I'm also going to reserve judgement until I see a few games. I just don't know if an NFL version of the 76ers rebuild plus guys from the scrap pile will be very effective. We're going to find out.

Simon was cut to get Turay and Basham more snaps for their development. The goal is clearly to make this team better by 2019/2020. It’ll be a fun year to evaluate guys and monitor progress. I’m just a little irritated that won’t include Deon Cain.