Colts Practice Squad Signings
 

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The Colts announced 16 practice squad signings today:

LB Liam Anderson

S Henry Black

S Marcel Dabo

RB Jake Funk

S Ronnie Harrison Jr.

RB Jason Huntley

WR D.J. Montgomery

DE Al-Quadin Muhammad

LB Donavan Mutin

WR Amari Rodgers

DT Caleb Sampson

OT Dan Skipper

WR Mike Strachan

CB Isaac Taylor-Stuart

CB Kevin Toliver II

WR Juwann Winfree


https://www.colts.com/news/practice-...-wide-receiver

In a league where passing is king the Colts have drafted/found only 3 wide receivers even worth keeping. I know we will fill the room out with cast offs from other teams but this is inexcusable from Ballard. We are close to having the highest paid players (at their respective positions) when signed at running back, outside linebacker and guard-positions that can be found with cast offs. I hate the way Ballard goes about building a team.

Good talent evaluator, poor team builder.

...

I hate how he builds a team. I think he seems to be an upfront good man. Great talent evaluator. I actually like the man

Like both those additions. Mutin is actually a physical freak, super fast guy with coverage potential.

Reportedly the Colts are adding former Tennessee WR Racey McMath to its practice squad. Racey was a 6th Round Pick in the 2021 Draft and has some experience playing Special Teams.

The Colts have an extra spot on practice squad due to participating in the International Player Pathway Program (Marcel Dabo).

https://twitter.com/Schultz_Report/s...54645338534010

Well since he has been here Ballard has drafted 8 wide receivers. 4 high in the draft, 4 low in the draft.

All 8 were still in the league until this season, Dezmon Patmon is still a free agent.

4 of those 8 are still on the team. 3 of the high draft picks and 1 of the low picks.

The other high draft pick was signed by the Giants as a free agent.

Pittman has been better than all the WR's drafted below him and better than a few above.

Pierce had a better rookie season than all the WRs drafted below him and a few above.


All with sub-standard QB play. I would say that's not bad.

Ballard created a void at the position by not really investing in it early on. He inherited a team w/ 1 very good WR in TY and a bunch of JAGs and the only real investment he made in his first 3 years was the 2nd rounder on Campbell (all others were either late round draft picks or bargain FAs). And since Campbell didn't work out that only created a larger void.

And then when Campbell finally showed up, he let him walk. Dude just doesn't give a F about the position... and our record reflects it.

Cambell was offered one year "prove it" deals by everyone. He went with the offer with the best QB situation. Why would you sign a 1 year contract with a rookie QB who needs to grow?

When he got here the major issues were offensive line and defense. What has improved since then? offensive line and defense.

Then the QB retired. Our top pick in two of the last four drafts has been receiver. We have drafted a receiver high in three of the last four drafts. We will probably take a receiver high next draft as well. We have invested a lot in skill positions. I don't really give a fuck about receivers till we have a QB in place. That's what that hater Kevin Bowen bitched about all last offseason and that wasn't the problem at all. Of course he will never admit that, he just moves on to the next hindsight thing to bitch about. Gransen and Campbell were in the top ten of separation for most of the year, we just couldn't get them the ball. The problem was what I correctly identified before the season started, trying to use Pryor at LT. Although no one could have predicted he would fall apart that badly. Reich should have just started the rookie.

Reich likes big tall receivers so he filled the roster with big tall receivers. Steichen probably wants more variety in his receivers hence the Downs pick. We will see a roster makeover at the position. We have had a scheme change, that comes with personnel change.

Agree you can't really blame Ballard for Campbell moving on. Wouldn't have made any sense to give Campbell more than a 1 year prove it deal, and as you noted it was better for him to move on considering our QB situation.


The OL was better from '18-'21, but after last year I'm not so sure we're any better off than we were in '17. And while parts of the D have gotten better we still have no consistent pass rush, and our secondary is probably going to be a shit show.

I have no idea who Kevin Bowen is. I was just pointing out that when Ballard got here our WR talent was pretty damn dry as well, and he didn't add anything even when we had a QB. I mean Dontrelle Inman was our 2nd best WR in 2018.

And again, who's fault was it that all we had at LT last year was Pryor and a 3rd round rookie not ready to play?

We'll see after the season... but if the O-line returns to form, this is a non-issue. O-line was our #1 issue under Grigson and Ballard will have provided a solid unit for 5 of 6 seasons. The blemish season will be one he owned but that nobody had any reason to think would be that bad.

Pass rush is his weak point on D, we'll find out a lot from Kwity and Dayo if they can stay healthy this year. But beyond that, our D has been pretty good this tenure. Even last year, the eyeball test paints a far different picture than the final rankings which don't show how bad the offense fucked the defense.

Bowen is a golfer/frat guy that they make cover football. He wants Ballard to build his Madden team. As dry as WR may have been, we had far more pressing needs, especially with the luxury at QB. Consider that Luck had his best season with that receiving corps.

Everyone acknowledged that fuck up, Ballard included. Again, way worse than anybody could've reasonably expected, but still a fuck up. That doesn't just erase the prior success and become his identity because it's current.

If the OL bounces back then fair enough. I think they'll be better than last year (really can't be any worse), but I think there will be some struggles too. Especially on the right side where Fries is an obvious weak link, and if someone(s) gets hurt then we're fucked again since we have very little depth.

Yeah, Ballard owned that disaster in words, but what's concerning is he hasn't owned it in action. He did absolutely nothing to bring in competition and/or depth at our weakest spot on the OL (RG), and didn't do much else at other positions (1 mid round OT).


The problem is that in today's NFL as the pass rush goes so does the D. Agree that the D was pretty good last year, but our lack of pass rush still hurt us. And in the years prior to that the lack of pass rush absolutely killed us late in games.

Imagine how good of a year Luck would have had if he had more than 1 good WR to throw to.

Maybe... Like in 2018, we didn't reach on guys like Courtland Sutton or Christian Kirk and instead drafted Darius Leonard and Braden Smith. I think that was the more optimal route.

Next, Campbell-Luck was super exciting for everyone... can't do anything about Luck bailing and Campbell being one of the most unlucky injury guys we've seen.

After that is butterfly effect... No Pittman, no JT, etc. because we're picking in the high-20s or 30s if Luck stays. Not spending resources looking for a QB, either.

We've had a top ten oline for most of the time he has been here. We'll see at the end of the year, but the line was already trending up with Raimann improving and Pryor out of the lineup.

I see a lot of these arguments start with Bowen, or JMV with Venturi being fed leading questions. Bowen is the local morning sports show radio host. The arguments are usually regurgitated through social media. He used to work for the Colts. Putting together his Madden team is a good way to put it. Every team has weak position groups every single year. He usually complains incessantly about whatever it is, all last summer he complained about WR. I listened to most every show.

Eric Ebron was our second leading receiver who was a FA signing receiving TE. Best year of his career. Then Hines who was a draft pick. He also signed Jack Doyle who was always a reliable third-down receiver. That team had a ton of issues, and WR was not at the front of the list. Everyone was screaming about oline and defense.

Finding franchise LT's is not a gimmie. You just don't stash one on your squad till the opportunity to play them comes around. I would say 90% of the time you have to draft one. The fact that he might have found one in the 3rd is pretty impressive. Yeah, Pryor is on him and Reich for starting him. It was an analytics move that backfired pretty impressively. Guy isn't perfect, no GM is.

For 2018 we could have brought in someone better than Ryan Grant via FA to be WR2 is what I was mostly getting at, but we had enough draft capital that year we probably could have moved up and taken Kirk instead of Turray.

Where Ballard really fucked up w/ WR was in 2019 where he passed on all 3 of Deebo Samuel, AJ Brown, and DK Metcalf in the 2nd round for Rock, Banogu (gah), and Campbell.

https://walterfootball.com/freeagents2018all.php

Not a ton of choices there. We tried to get Allen Robinson who fit Reich’s mold. But he signed with the Bears.

You can play the “should have drafted” game with every GM. None of them are going to win that.

As stated in the other post I'm sure they'll be better. Until the injuries hit and then they'll probably be really bad again. Also, hate to brake the news to you guys but this improvement by the OL in the 2nd half of the season really wasn't all that great. At least from a pass blocking standpoint. Our OL gave up 25 sacks in the final 8 games after Pryor was benched, which prorates to 53 for a 17 game season. That would have ranked them as the 4th worst in the league instead of 2nd.

Ebron was a good pickup, and Hines and Doyle were good that year too. I recall that the offense struggled until Inman came in and gave Luck at least a dependable WR2. Either way, the fact that Ballard ignored WR early on and royally fucked up by passing on all 3 of Samuel, AJ Brown, and Metcalf in the 2nd round in 2019 are 2 big contributors as to why we have such an underwhelming and thin WR group.

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I agree, which is why IMO we should have drafted Darrisaw in '21, or at least kept Fisher on until Raimann was ready.

No one is expecting Ballard to be perfect, but we should expect him to learn from his mistakes. And while he may have admitted he fucked up on the OL last offseason his complete lack of investment in the OL this offseason shows he hasn't learned from those mistakes.

Had he drafted a WR that year, everyone would have jumped on the "he did nothing about xxxxx that year. It is easy to look back and say what could have been done. It is another to live with your decisions and move forward.

Because we were starting a rookie on the left side and Q was injured. Kelly didn't help things with whatever was up with him. The rookie was going to make rookie mistakes. However, Smith returned to form as a top ten RT. And by the end of the year, Raimannn was in the top three of rookie LT's.

I'm sure 29 other GM's have regrets about players they should have taken. Draft is a numbers game. You are not going to hit on every player. But Ballard has already proven to be one of the best drafters in the league.

Maybe, of course everyone would be complaining about DE then. Paye had six sacks last year and looked like he was going to take a step till injury. I hope he turns the corner this year, he is already a great run defender. What I do like is they had Darisaw and Paye even with each other on their board, just DE won out with positional value. But they seem to be targeting the right players. So if Raimann turns out as he is trending, they found a LT and a DE with both picks.

They were starting a rookie LT because of Ballard’s previous “kick the can down the road” mentality.


Considering his previous inability to address DE and his handling of Denico Autry you are likely right. He put the team in a position where they had nothing at DE going into that draft. It’s a consequence of Ballard’s methods.

Ballard has drafted individual players fairly well, what he hasn’t done is assemble good teams. His major hits are almost all at positions that are devalued in the current NFL. And he leaves gaping holes to be addressed later. He also gifts positions to his players and is also nearly allergic to mid level vets. We’ll see how Paye and Raimann turn out and that may change the dynamic some. No matter how you slice it though Ballard has been in charge of the Colts for 6 years the team currently has no proven top end players at the most important positions in football - QB, LT, DE, WR, CB. Some decent players. Some players with potential. No one you can bank on. It’s hard for me to agree that’s the product of a good GM.

Good shit

Well, you got it right that it was shit.

No, it's true. He has hit on some individual players but in total his model to build a team, has not produced results that translate to team success.

This isn't just some 1070 The Fan thing. I was just driving and one of the national shows was on (think it was the Spain and Fitz show), doing their run down of team predictions. They predicted us with 3 wins saying the roster is filled with holes and we may challenge AZ for the worst record this year. The summary statement- how can a GM be allowed to blame the retirement of a QB for the rest of the team being bad 5 years later and that's just acceptable as an excuse, and they laughed as they moved on. It's true. This team is not bad because Andrew Luck retired, this team is bad because the GM has not built a roster to compete in the modern day NFL.

AR and Steichen likely represent a transition into modern day football, which is great, but going into this season, this roster is not good and Ballard, via draft and FA, is the one that is responsible for that.

Well said. What is just as concerning as Ballard's lackluster roster building skills is that he hasn't shown that he has learned from his mistakes. Something his homers on the board here not surprisingly fail to reply to when I bring it up.

I agree with the sentiment that Ballard has done a lousy job of building a team, so far. I add so far because there are a ton of high upside guys that are starting their 2-4th year. If he hits on Dayo and Paye (a distinct possibility still-Dayo is 3 years from Achilles and should have his explosion back and Paye started to come on last year before his injury), hits on Raiman and AR then my ragging on Ballard would be bullshit (and I hope I get to eat that crow). As we sit here at this moment those players just have potential. I think this is a huge year for Ballard, some of these guys need to live up to their potential or Irsay will have some tough decisions to make.

Agreed. Hell the reality is if he just hits on AR he has probably bought himself another 4 years. But Raimann, Paye, and Dayo could really change the equation. I obviously hope they all do. I still have concerns about the methods though. There is a decent amount I like about Ballard and I would be happy if I felt he was growing into the position. As IndyNorm has said, I see no changes that indicate he has learned anything. I’ve heard the words, but no change in action. Some, including Chrome, have suggested Ballard will be different once his QB is in place. We’ll see. I’m assuming that won’t start until AR has proven he’s the guy because this offseason was the same Ballard we’ve seen for 6 years.

Well, if you think we will get the second pick in the draft, then you would agree with those guys. I think we are going to do much better than that.

We have a lot of young guys, who may very well flourish this year with the added experience. Are they unproven, or lacking experience sure, but the likes of Pierce, Woods, Ogletree, Gransen, Raimann on offense will hopefully grow together and form a potent nucleus on offense. If you then add in Richardson, Downs and who knows, Taylor, then suddenly in a years time, we might be thinking very differently about the quality of this roster.

On defense as has been said, Paye, Dayo have shown flashes, our LB's are already proven to have some ability, and experience. The DB's are what scare me, especially at CB. Outside of Kenny Moore, there is literally no experience at all of any note. The safeties, are young, but have some experience and room to continue to develop.

I don't think that this roster is devoid of talent by any stretch of the imagination, are they young and experienced, yeah they are, but there are a lot of high round selections, that most have generally been happy with over the last two or three years in the draft.

Biggest areas of concern for the 23 season for me are, the protection of our QB, is Raimann going to make the sophomore leap, and will the rest of the line come to play at the levels their talents have previously shown them to be capable of? Depth is of huge concern. How rough are the bumps in the road going to be for the rookie QB? I am reasonably content we will be ok in the passing game and in stopping the run, Richardson should help our own running game to at least appear to get a lot of yards, even if not through the RB's necessarily. It is the back end coverage i am most worried about and i can see us giving up a ton of passing yardage with long TD's due to broken coverages, because the guys just aren't experienced enough, and maybe in some instances, are not talented enough to match up with the starting WR's of the NFL.

I agree the team isn’t devoid of talent, it just has no proven talent in the most important positions. You can give Ballard a pass at QB, but IMO you shouldn’t at the other positions. Paye and Dayo have room to grow, but so did Lewis and Turay. I’m hopeful, but realistic. Every team thinks their young guys are going to flourish and Ballard has done a good job of feeding the fans young guys to be hopeful about. He’s done it at the expense of fielding better teams. Your two primary concerns are great examples - OL depth and CB. OL depth has been talked to death and several people will say it’s an impossible task to have anything better than they do. However the same can’t be said for CB. There were constantly articles showing the vets that were available. Yes, guys that are JAGs. But vets who know the league. Ballard would rather throw a bunch or rookies, UDFAs, and 2nd year nobodies at the issue and see what sticks. And if one of those guys becomes a rotational player Ballard will be talked about as a genius. In the meantime the lack of experience is going to cost the team games and everyone knows it. If it is because you are in rebuilding mode then fine. I don’t like it but OK. The problem is that means we’ve been in rebuilding mode for 6 damn years, because this is always what Ballard has done. So why ever trade for a 73 yr old QB during a rebuilding year? And why the hell is the team not better set at any of the key positions after so many years of “building” and not winning?

If things go well in a couple areas then you could be right. Wouldn’t that make what the team has at CB and OL depth that much worse? I don’t understand how you can believe this will be a decent team AND be happy with some of the roster decisions.

I am unhappy with a ton of moves but think we can still be a decent team. It hangs on Steichen/AR to me. It Steichen is the real deal and AR progresses like I personally believe he will, we can win this lousy division

No fan of any team is totally happy about all the moves made by their team. I know you will shrug that off, so I will continue.

I think Paye and Dayo will prove to be what we expected them to be. I think they will help the young secondary by lessening the time a QB has. I also think OL depth is a league-wide issue. This has been noted by several posters here, but nobody wants to acknowledge it. Vets are not available if they are any good. Risner keeps being mentioned, but nobody is signing him. I am not even hearing of him visiting any teams. Further, Ballard is holding onto OL guys to see who can make a jump. I think he is aware of the lack of quality depth, so he is throwing a lot of guys in there to see who might work. I know they are not the guys that you want, but they are who is available. Also, I think the youth movement is being done to rebuild for a sustained run in a year or two. It is very rare for a team with a rookie QB to be a contender for a SB, so why not go with youth, and add in vets if the QB pans out? That would make more sense than wasting those resources on a rebuilding team.

In summary, since I know you will probably get lost, I am sating the direction is right. We have a solid core of relatively young guys, and if that core works out just a little, then next year will be the chance to make a push with a new draft class, and a couple of solid vets added via free agency. The QB situation is what has to be fixed first.

No one's saying Ballard had to go w/ a Vet for OL depth (although that would have been nice). He had 8 draft picks after he took Freeland at his disposal. I'm pretty damn sure he could have used one of those to draft someone better than Fries, and I guarantee he could have found multiple IOLs better than what we have for depth there.

I couldn't agree more, which is why I've been harping about Ballard not learning from his mistakes. The OL last year was a massive shit show of his making. To give him some credit he acknowledged this, but then all he does in the offseason to fix his giant fuck up is add a mid round draft pick as OT. And he did absolutely nothing to improve or add depth at IOL.

What is the correct way to build a team?