Quote:
Originally Posted by rm1369
Chaka you and I have been having this discussion for 3-4 years. And guess what? We are exactly where I have been saying we would end up - mediocre.
I’m not so sure what is hard to understand. Ballard has never fielded a complete team. Never. Yes every team has some degree of weakness. It’s a matter of magnitude. And Ballard has repeatedly left several major areas extremely weak while waiting on player development or next years draft. LT, WR, and DE primarily. Ballard refuses to “overspend” on average NFL talent. Great, except that means the team has repeatedly put out below average players at critical positions each and every year. Having a few great players that carry the bad players works in the NBA, it doesn’t in the NFL. You get exposed. If you have bottom 5 pass rush it doesn’t matter how great your LBs and secondary are. Oline can’t block? Doesn’t matter much you have the best RB in the league or have maybe finally solved the WR issue. We’ve seen it year after year - an obvious issue the team says is fine, then it costs them games and they spend half the season trying to find a solution.
Where this intersects with Ballard’s approach to the cap is that other teams do mortgage some of the future for today. Instead of filling holes with rookies and vet minimum guys they shoot their shot and shore up areas with over paid average players. It doesn’t always work, but it sure as fuck beats what Ballard does. Do the colts have a brighter future than the rams? Maybe. But the Rams have something to show for prioritizing a window. I guess Ballard’s is yet to come
That doesn’t even touch how he’s been fucking up at QB. I mostly give him a pass there. It’s an unbelievable difficult task, but one he makes more difficult by his “building a dynasty” philosophy.
Let me ask you - how many more years does Ballard need to prove what you and him believe? I said it was at best a 4 year plan before competitiveness using his method. Most on here, especially you, told me I was nuts. So I’ll ask - how much longer until the genius reveals itself?
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Well, we certainly disagree but I doubt I ever said you were crazy. Look, the Colts
have been competitive since Ballard got here, with the exception of the Luck retirement year (and the 2017 season when Ballard was just hired, and Luck was unavailable).
Ballard's strategy is predicated on the homegrown players maintaining their level of performance. That's been a problem this year, for some weird reason that nobody has figured out. Except where injuries played a role, the weak spots on the roster are Ballard's responsibility in large part (though I'm certain he also receives input from coaches, scouts etc. on players like Pryor before deciding to give him the starting spot), and in most cases he's got a young, high draft pick in place for the future.
And the simple reality is that the elite teams tend to have elite QBs, and the Colts haven't had that despite their best efforts to the contrary. I'm glad you're willing to give Ballard a pass on the QB issue, because I think it's warranted. No matter how much people hate him now, Wentz was a worthwhile gamble. The other, more veteran QBs were also probably the right move for a team that, by all accounts, otherwise seemed ready to compete.
I've never said Ballard is perfect, but I'm convinced that Ballard's strategy is solid. If he's run out of Indy with pitchforks, he'll just succeed elsewhere.