Henry Anderson traded to the Jets
 

One of my favorite colts but I guess he didn't fit into new system. Got a 7th round pick in this years draft.

Okay I am officially off the Ballard bandwagon until he proves otherwise by putting a quality product on the field. WTF??

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I really believe Henry was not a fit in a 4 3 defense. Injury history may have been a factor too.

This is a head-scratcher. I guess we'll have to wait and see what this is all about.

He fits the defense.

He played 3 tech here before and was fine

Ballard is a fucking moron.

Lighten up Francis!

No

Definitely a tank season.

This is bullshit. Anderson is a good player. You make the scheme fit your players, not the other way around. Holy crap.

For once, I’d like to be the team acquiring a good player for a late round draft pick, rather than the other way around

WTH!? This seems really dumb. and we only got a 7th rounder for him!?

This is dumber than letting Hankins go. Why are we getting rid of talent for nothing?

Maybe the throat injury meant he can't swallow anymore, and they found out that it didn't happen during the game, but was induced by Pagano?

Is hankins and anderson a result of eberflus not wanting them and ballard accommodating?

This is a huge head scratcher, why the hell not see what he can do when a 7th is the best you can get.

Just get rid of all the Grigson picks. Keep Hilton and Geathers and that's it.

Probably should cut Luck and Kelly tomorrow then.

Sorry forgot them. But the gist is that Grigson din't draft well at all.

I'm ok this.

Disappointed as well to be honest. However, Anderson’s rookie contract is set to expire after this season. If they didn’t view him as a long term contributor, perhaps the thinking was that they might as well let another player learn and grow in the system.

If they want to create competition they should have made players beat out Hankins and Anderson. If they did, so be it - cut them. But they got next to nothing for releasing them (cash and a 7th rd pick) and I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t make this D better.

Just curious, but did anyone sign Hankins yet? I haven't been able to find anything on him.

Still out of work. What I’ve read is that he’s insisting on a lot of money, so it’s turned a few teams off. If I recall correctly, he lasted quite a while on the FA market for the same reason before we signed him. He’ll find a team eventually

I agree much more with you on Anderson ($2 million salary/rookie contract) than Hankins ($8.5 million/$4.5 million guaranteed on 3/18).

I agree. I dislike the Hankins cut, but I get that if they are certain he does not fit, push the money forward. Anderson was cheap as chips and seemed to be doing everything to fit the system, why not give him a chance vs a 7th round throw away pick.

I suspect they watched him during mini camp and thought it just wasn't going to work. If we cut him we get nothing. I don't know if they would keep him over a guy who they thought had a future on the team. Also it gives him a chance to go to a team where he can show what he has got before his contract is up. Just speculating, but I suspect they would have cut him if they are talking a group of 8 linemen.

maybe, but it is still pretty Meh.

All I see in this move is scheme inflexibilitity. It's the exact opposite of what I wanted. It's what made the Colts get rid of Dwight Freeney because they somehow couldn't figure out how to use an all-time great pass rusher. If you can't figure out how to use Hankins and Anderson in your scheme, your scheme sucks.

I agree I am not ready to give up on the new regime, but I was hoping for a flexible maximize what you have while getting what you want kind of team.

We gutted our interior DL
 

I too think cutting Hankins was a mistake.
Ballsrd has done some good things, a couple great things, some bad things and a couple really bad things.

I like going back to a 4-3. Good thing.
But Hankins and Anderson could have done fine, not fitting the system is an arse excuse. Hankins proved his value and he gets into the backfield well for being a run stuffer. As for Anderson, he is a great value player, even if he is injury prone. The only reason I see why Ballard cut him is bc he is a Grigson pick, when Anderson was actually one of Grigson's decent hits, unfortunately like Geathers and Mewhort however he is injury prone.

Letting Hankins go was a huge mistake and a major disapoinment for those of us Colts fans that put up with sub-par interior D-linemen for over 2 decades. He was well worth 8.5 million and he hasn't even hit his prime yet.

It looks like we may be aiming for another tanker of a season. That is why we can overreach for a couple guards and that is why they came out and told us we are in year 1 of rebuild mode.

Will we sit Luck out for another season while letting teams bully their way up our interior defense. Which DT or LB on our roster is going to stop Fournette now? That name would have been Hankins, but Ballard rewarded great play by cutting the player he signed 1 yr into his contract.

Hankins wasn't just a huge mistake bc we lost his talents, but bc what top tier free agent wants to sign with Ballard when he can do to you what he did Hankins? Maybe that played a part in us being so quiet in free agency and why we didn't get some of these guys we tried going after.

I think this draft could have gone a bit better.
Why did we pass on Harold Landry when he can play Edge or OLB? I think we must be aiming to us Braden Smith as our RT and Mewhort as RG. If Mewhort gets hurt we then bump Smith inside and use Good at RT. There were too many game changing playmakers for us to go guard again. Way too many.

Should have gambled on Hurst if they were going to get rid of every DT we had previously.

It will be interesting to see if there is a philosophical difference between Reich and Eberflus / Ballard. Maybe a consequence of the way this coaching staff came together. I have confidence that offensively they’ll be flexible and put the players they have in positions to succeed. However, defensively I have no confidence that will be the case. It’s obviously too early to tell, but so far it has a very “do what we do” feel.

How do we know this though? Anderson has been a 3-4 end for the last 7 years going back to college. If you don't trust your coaches to make player evaluations, why even hire them then. I like Anderson, but he has been hurt for two years and it's not like either of them were pro-bowl players. They want lighter quick step one gap penetrating players. That is who they want to give snaps, and if they have guys they want to develop they will want to give them the snaps.

I think we are in year two of the rebuild.

I wish they could have fixed everything, but there just wasn't enough draft picks. It will take another draft.

The biggest thing I wish they had done was take a chance on Hurst. That heartbeat problem must be pretty bad.

Ok but neither Hankins nor Anderson are Dwight Freeney level impact players. Solid but hardly irreplaceable.

The addition of Tyquan Lewis, really made Anderson expendable. Lewis has much more scheme versatility and athleticism.

Going into camp I see the depth chart looking something like this.

RDE- Simon, Basham, Johnson
NT- Woods, Stewart
UT-Ridgeway, ???
LDE-Sheard, Autry, Lewis

Anyone of Sheard, Autry Lewis could kick inside to UT an passing downs

I'm really not sure how Margus Hunt fits into this scheme at all though.

Didn’t you used to have Henry Anderson as your avatar?

If we don’t replace them, what is the point?

I thought I read somewhere that Hankins took so long so sign last yr because he only wanted to play ina 3-4 and turned down teams that wanted him as a 4-3 DT. And of course he had an amount of money he wanted also.

Is it possible in their deal he said if you change to a 4-3 you need to grant my release as part of the deal?


Either way.... there will be more releases and cuts and Ballard has a ton of cash yet to spend. Never know might be a lot more new faces coming in.

Yes, he did say that before signing. Played some 4-3 in NY and wasn't his fit. I imagine that could have been a clause in contract ? :cool: