Ballard 2024 end of year presser
 

Watching it now. He is owning his mistakes from the past. and it looks like he wants to make some serious changes to his style.

On Anthony Richardson: "We knew when we took him it was going to be a roller coaster... The number 1 thing we have to figure out and have to work through is he's got to stay healthy. That, to me, is the biggest question."

"We have to have competition at the position ... because competition makes you better and because he's not proven he can stay healthy for 17 games."

On his team-building: "Right now, we're not close. I want to make that clear. Being close is losing on the last play of the of the Super Bowl. Going 8-9 is not close."

Re-signing and rewarding so. many of his own last offseason created a complacency and that was a major problem. Must be an edge in the locker room.

Apparently had a convo Zaire Franklin & I don't think it was comfortable for Franklin.

He did say things I wanted to hear now lets see if there is action behind those words.

They also let DBs coach Ron Milus and LBs coach Richard Smith go

It’s better to hear him acknowledge mistakes than to double down on them, but I won’t believe it until we see it. He’s been the same guy from the beginning and the issues have been obvious from the beginning to anyone not drinking the Kool Aid. The only thing that’s changed is that he’s running out of excuses. I’m afraid he’s just a con man placating the masses still convinced he’s right. Unfortunately all we can do is watch and see.

He has to reflect, and it seems he did. It seems to me that he identified his shortcomings correctly. What he does with that information is what matters.

When he addressed free agency, it seemed to me that his pause was there because he did not want to let it out what he has planned, but I think we see him more active in the trade market than before, and tries to do the trades like for Buckner, which was a definite home run.

That isn't too surprising.

Both of those guys have pretty much followed Gus Bradley around for much of the last decade.

o


Whenever I read something along these lines, I always think of Jim Caldwell's time-out call with 29 seconds left to play in the 4th quarter of the 2010 Wildcard playoff game against the Jets ...... and his subsequent post-game press conference in which he insisted that he would do it all over again if he had the chance.



Look at the expression on Peyton Manning's face, followed by his helpless hand-gesture immediately after the timeout was called between the 1:55:12 and the 1:55-25 mark of this video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y48nV0UR1E

o

While the criticism of Richardson is valid I see Ballard's comments as deflection from an egregious failure that rests squarely on his shoulders, that is, his misguided approach to the secondary last year. The back four was an absolute disgrace last year. Ballard steadfastly refused to utilize free agency, trades, or draft capital to improve the secondary both in starting talent and depth, instead proudly insisting that the growth of the players would be sufficient.

How did 2024 stack up against 2023 in some valuable metrics? Yards per attempt: 2023/7.32 2024/7.60 Completion percentage: 2023/65.1. 2024/69.4 Touchdowns: 2023/21 2024/27 Interceptions: 2023/15 2024/16 (woo-hoo)
Passer rating: 2023/88.2 2024/95.8

While one must take into account the job the front 7 are doing these figures are a damning indictment of Ballard's failure as a GM. It was, without question, one of the biggest topics of conversation last offseason. Not just on this forum but in the media as well. This was the hill Ballard chose to die on. And die he did. So much of what comes out of his mouth is nothing more than subterfuge to secure yet another inexplicable year of employment at perhaps the most impactful job in the NFL. I'll bet the sheer number of people that Ballard has been willing to throw under the bus requires them to run on a schedule around Lucas Oil Stadium.

Exactly. With the exception of in '22 where he blamed the OL going to shit on the media giving him crap about the WR room, he basically says the same thing every year: the buck stops w/ me, I need to get better, etc. I'll believe all of that when I see it.

I like how he called out the “unnamed player “ giving quotes to the media a chicken shit