I think Mack lost a lot with the injury. Perhaps he is now fully recovered and regains his form. Although, the fact that he lasted so long in free agency probably tells us something.

This is a rehash from me, but what the hell...

Quenton Nelson is not just a left guard. He is arguably the best offensive lineman in football. I understand left tackle is important, but Aaron Donald doesn't give a shit if he kills your QB from the edge or the interior. If I remember correctly, I think a hurt Nelson got beat on one rep against Donald (the best the league can offer) last season.

As it stands, we seem to lack depth. But our starting interior is Nelson-Kelly-Pinter as opposed to Reed-Kelly-Glowinski in this scenario. I like Glowinski and Reed, but they had careers before and not much to note. Nelson changed our line, our offense, and our team. Trading him for a 1st, when Ballard thought enough of him to draft him #6 overall, doesn't seem to work out logistically.

That's how I see it. Of course I'm biased... Nelson is my favorite football player in the NFL right now.

I dont understand why anyone would trade the best player on the team for a draft pick that is not a sure thing.

The Patriots have not had an elite LT while dominating the last 20 years.

https://www.pro-football-reference.c...e/all-pros.htm

The did have John Hannah, a guard.

The reason Ballard does not trade the best of offense of lineman on the team is that he doesn’t want to get fired

Glo and Reed were both picked up of the trash pile, those 'shitty' free agent signing Ballard is always making (I know Glow was a waiver claim-still bottom of the barrel). You can find a decent guard in late free agency or on
the third day of the draft. They are cheap. Nelson changed this entire offensive line when he joined us. Not only his play but his fucking attitude. He is the best player on the team, by far. He ain't goin anywhere but the HOF. On tip of all of that, he provides the absolute best blocking highlights I have ever seen. Do not want to give that up

That game winning run against the pats, Q formed that wall and was blocking two people. Now imagine if we had an actual threat in the passing game last year and not a turd that throws for 50 yards.

Well that's fucking great. Now we have a huge question mark at LT and absolutely no depth along the OL. Great job Ballard!

Anyone heard anything new on Bradberry? Seems like it would be a great pickup if we can get him for a 3rd day pick.

Campbell can get as pissed off as he wants to, but that's not going to prevent him from being back on the IR as soon as he steps on the field. There's a better chance of me hitting the Powerball of which I play ~twice a year than Campbell staying healthy.

Also, despite what we seem to recall on here, when Campbell has managed to play he hasn't been all that productive. In his 15 games played he has 39 catches for 360 yards and 2 tds, which equates to 39/408/2 over a 17 game season.

IndyNorm I'd be willing to place a friendly bet that Campbell stays health and plays at least 15 games. Not at all worried about our offensive line. If Ballard is good at anything it is scouting offensive linemen. Our line will be fine in the end.

See I was pissed he was even re signed, let alone taking carries from Taylor early in the season

Again emotions led to a fucked up decision, Mack shouldn’t have been re signed Taylor was clear for takeoff

Why would you do that? At any rate name your terms, and I'm sure I'll be more than happy to accept.

Just for fun. Gives me something else to root for during the year. I think he is due some good luck. He wasn't injury prone in college. Lets just make it a bet (unless you have terms you would prefer) and you can give me shit when he breaks his ankle on a curb walking to practice

Fair enough. I hope you win, but I'm pretty sure I'll be giving you shit by early October at the latest :cool:

My guess is they were hoping to trade him and just couldn't find the right deal? I agree that using him early to split time with JT was stupid, JT is just too good to limit that much! But I would have liked to have seen him used more toward the end of the season instead of being placed on the healthy scratch list week after week!

A left guard is not going to win you a SB. Let the bullets fly

You're just say a left guard, like Nelson is a JAG. And no a LG will not win you a SB, but neither will any position in the NFL other than QB.

Football is the ultimate team sport. The Colts have a talented team. Unfortunately they are not as talented as needed at the most critical spots.

QB: Ryan can win a SB
LT: We don't have one
Pass Rush: Hopeful that Ngakoue, Paye and Dayo improve that
Pass catching playmakers: Pittman and nothing else

Those arr the most important positions on the field.

Well said. A great LG is a luxury, not a cornerstone like Ballard and a lot of posters on here think it is. Polian knew that, which is why he never heavily invested in OG.

And to make matters worse, having a great LG doesn't mean shit if you don't have a good LT. Maybe Pryor will be a good LT, and maybe he won't. But since we have realistically 2, maybe 3 years to win it all with Ryan Ballard shouldn't be experimenting with a career backup at the most important spot on the OL. He needs to be putting all chips in and trying to win now, not 4 or 5 years from now b/c our current QB probably won't be here then.

I’m gonna love it when Pittman puts up 1500 yards thus season since last year he had a QB that held him back. All the shit talk is fuckin bullshit, dudes a #1 and he’s a threat, Wentz just couldn’t utilize him right

Get ready for Mathieu.

He is waiting eric fisher out.

I never said he was was just a JAG. Nelson is great, I love the guy. But the rest of your post proves my point. We need playmakers and a damn good LT. It's too late to trade him now though since Ballard let Reed and Glo walk away.

I love Pittman, but Ballards failure to put another great wide receiver next to him is going to hurt him. He will get double or even triple coverage since that POS Ballard hasn't done jack shit to help him. I am souring on Ballard big time. Ballard has the money, spend it!

Ran into a guy wearing a Vikings shirt today on the disc golf course. Told him Reed would be solid and thanked him for Rhodes.

It takes a team, thank you captain obvious.

It does make the running work. Since the arrival of Nelson, the Colts can run left anytime they want. You think Taylor would be as effective with a JAG at left guard?

Oh, and maybe you misspoke, but if Ballard got only one first rounder for Q, Ballard would be gone.

Only getting one draft pick for Nelson doesnt solve the problem.

You beat me to it. It's going to be tough for MPJ to wrack up yards when he's double and triple covered since he's the only real receiving threat that we have in the WR/TE group.

Hard to double and triple Pitt with 8/9 in the box, I’m saying he will have a monster year

Until we have a real QB (we have one) who can actually run Reich's game plan we have no idea what kind of receivers we have. I keep thinking about all the open receivers in Kurt Warner's video. If they had been hit and hit in stride like Ryan will would we think that they all sucked? How did they get open if they were shit? I'm just throwing out that maybe Ballard is right and the issue isn't that receivers couldn't get open but that the QB couldn't find them. Bottom line for me is I am not that worried about our offense, run or pass. I think it will be top third of NFL at least. The only place I have worries is LT and I'm hoping that Ballard is a better scout than me or most of my friends on this board.

Captain obvious? OK, SFB's.

My issue is that Ballard is going to have to pay Q a shit ton of money for a left guard. Let me make it clear again, I love the guy! But this team has way too many holes to fill like weapons, secondary and a LT to be paying a guard the kind of money that is getting talked about.

Sure you can. They filled in holes with Reed and Glowinsky. You draft well and fill gaps with guys who are to expensive for their former team. You draft a guy like our RT, Smith, in the second round.

And IF they trade him, they had better get more than 1 first rounder. He is this generations John Hannah.

And btw, the Steelers did pretty good with Villaneuva as a walk on.

Spike. We don't have a team yet. There still is a draft and we still will sign some free agents (otherwise we wont have enough players to make a team). We improved the one thing that was absolutely necessary for us to compete-pass rush. We disagree on Nelson's monetary worth, I get that. Your opinion is reasonable, I just disagree. I think he is so special that he is worth the money. We are really only talking maybe 4-5 million as going rate for a really good guard is 12-14 million and Nelson will probably get 18-20. LT is a concern, but maybe I am wrong about Pryor and he will be a stud. I don't have confidence but I have been wrong so many times about players...The secondary supposedly isn't that important in Bradley's system according to reports, except for safety and there are rumors about Mathieu coming our way. An off season where you pick up high end pass rusher and a QB is a pretty damn good start, and pretty damn good period, to me. Give it time. Ballard is way more patient than any of us.

I guess we will see.

They signed Matt Ryan and then went back to sleep. I guess we'll wait for the draft/cut downs/ bargain shopping.

Yeah, how many SB's did John Hannah win? Look, it's a mute point anyways right now. Having lost Reed and Glo, the Colts definitely need to keep Q now.

Where's that exciting defensive player Jim talked about? The fan favorite? Oh, it's Sunday...can't do any business today. It's just talk.

It doesn't matter. They could clone young Dwight Freeney and put him on the roster tomorrow, then five days would pass and you'd be bored of it and gripe about Ballard's complacency.

In 2018, Andrew Luck had arguably his best season. Our top-4 receivers were TY Hilton (maybe outside his prime), Chester Rodgers, Ryan Grant and Dontrelle Inman. Not exactly a murderer's row. Then we had Eric Ebron who wasn't shit before or after 2018. Rookie Nyheim Hines caught 63 balls.

Not saying Ryan is as good as Luck was. But you've heard people say it over and over... Reich's offense gets guys open. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Ryan can do with it.

Well, if there's anything the Colts have been for the last five years, it's complacent. See y'all next week. Maybe they'll have done something other than lose players, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe they'll pay Q his $20M/year this week. Lol

I hope all of the silence means that Ballard is working hard behind the scenes to fill some of these holes on the roster with what's left of the quality FAs. What I suspect though is that it's business as usual: 1-2 pre-draft moves now completed, so time to focus on the draft and then try to fill the holes with bargain 1 year deals after the draft.

This would be fine if the QB we had just traded for was in his 20s or early 30s and there's time to slowly build the roster to a championship level team. But since he's 37 the window is probably 2, maybe 3 years, so the slow build won't get the job done during the Ryan years.

Yep. You actually follow the Colts! That's what they do. Zzzzzz