Colts to Sign Eric Fisher 1 yr / $9.4M

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by smitty46953

Believe I mentioned everything you stated ? Only difference being in time frame for recovery. As I said hope our medical staff got this one right.

That and the difference that I seem to like the move a lot more, which was the main point I was making.

Originally Posted by Puck

Sooooo. we got 2 DE a QB AND a TE AND a top LT Damn. Ballard may know more than us


Just goes to show. None of us know the behind the scenes going ons.


This has been a freakin awesome off season!!!!

Is the TE you were referring to Granson? Because a 4th round TE, especially in this class, doesn't exactly move the needle for me, at least not until he goes out on the field and proves it. Of the people who weren't hanging on Ballard's ballsack throughout the draft, I think pretty much all of us said that the draft would look a lot better with a FA signing at LT, and clearly Ballard was waiting for the comp pick portion of FA to expire to go shopping for his LT, and had that luxury because there were 3 options sitting there on Day 1 of the draft, and 4 the day after the draft (Fisher, Villanueva, Leno, Okung). That said, I'll continue to say Jenkins would've been the better pick at 21 until Paye proves me wrong with production. I hope he does, but I have my doubts.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

That and the difference that I seem to like the move a lot more, which was the main point I was making.



Is the TE you were referring to Granson? Because a 4th round TE, especially in this class, doesn't exactly move the needle for me, at least not until he goes out on the field and proves it. Of the people who weren't hanging on Ballard's ballsack throughout the draft, I think pretty much all of us said that the draft would look a lot better with a FA signing at LT, and clearly Ballard was waiting for the comp pick portion of FA to expire to go shopping for his LT, and had that luxury because there were 3 options sitting there on Day 1 of the draft, and 4 the day after the draft (Fisher, Villanueva, Leno, Okung). That said, I'll continue to say Jenkins would've been the better pick at 21 until Paye proves me wrong with production. I hope he does, but I have my doubts.

You are obsessed with someone being right and someone being wrong. The normal people on here want Ballard's decisions to work out for the better. If that is hanging on his ballsack to you, then you have even more issues to deal with.

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

You are obsessed with someone being right and someone being wrong. The normal people on here want Ballard's decisions to work out for the better. If that is hanging on his ballsack to you, then you have even more issues to deal with.

There were and are valid criticisms of Ballard this offseason, but pretty much everyone here (the exceptions I've noted being myself, Chromeburn, and Smitty) has been all about deference to Ballard and the front office's roster building and decision making ability, as though they could do no wrong. I'll certainly give Ballard his due credit, he's built up talent on this roster quickly and well, especially given the extenuating circumstances he's had to deal with that likely would've sunk most GMs and teams. He's certainly a top tier GM today. But even the best GMs will tell you that if you're hitting 50% of the time, you're doing a fantastic job. That's why I don't get all of you pretending that no move Ballard makes could be wrong. He'll tell you himself he's probably going to get half or more of them wrong. Furthermore, I feel there's a great deal of validity in the criticisms that Ballard seems to avoid high end free agency to the detriment of the team, that he seems to overfocus on fixing one thing each offseason, and that he tends to leave some holes on the roster that he had opportunities to fix in that offseason. All of that happened at the DE position this offseason. It scares me that Paye is DE1 on a team that is supposed to be a contender, in part because he's raw even for a rookie and in part because DEs rarely come in and have early success as rookies. And if you don't believe Paye is DE1, go watch the fourth episode of "With the Next Pick" and listen to the words come out of Eberflus's mouth. I really hope the first thing they did with Paye was enroll him in martial arts classes, because a lot of great pass rushers, including Jared Allen who was a master technician, credit that with learning good hand usage, handfighting, and leverage, and those are the things Paye needs to work on the most.

[apballin]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

There were and are valid criticisms of Ballard this offseason, but pretty much everyone here (the exceptions I've noted being myself, Chromeburn, and Smitty) has been all about deference to Ballard and the front office's roster building and decision making ability, as though they could do no wrong. I'll certainly give Ballard his due credit, he's built up talent on this roster quickly and well, especially given the extenuating circumstances he's had to deal with that likely would've sunk most GMs and teams. He's certainly a top tier GM today. But even the best GMs will tell you that if you're hitting 50% of the time, you're doing a fantastic job. That's why I don't get all of you pretending that no move Ballard makes could be wrong. He'll tell you himself he's probably going to get half or more of them wrong. Furthermore, I feel there's a great deal of validity in the criticisms that Ballard seems to avoid high end free agency to the detriment of the team, that he seems to overfocus on fixing one thing each offseason, and that he tends to leave some holes on the roster that he had opportunities to fix in that offseason. All of that happened at the DE position this offseason. It scares me that Paye is DE1 on a team that is supposed to be a contender, in part because he's raw even for a rookie and in part because DEs rarely come in and have early success as rookies. And if you don't believe Paye is DE1, go watch the fourth episode of "With the Next Pick" and listen to the words come out of Eberflus's mouth. I really hope the first thing they did with Paye was enroll him in martial arts classes, because a lot of great pass rushers, including Jared Allen who was a master technician, credit that with learning good hand usage, handfighting, and leverage, and those are the things Paye needs to work on the most.

Mathis should be able to help with that, but we got killed by QBs rolling out and scrambling around not many QBs should be able to outrun Paye

[Chromeburn]

Originally Posted by apballin

Mathis should be able to help with that, but we got killed by QBs rolling out and scrambling around not many QBs should be able to outrun Paye

The nice things about Paye is he should be a complete DE. Strong enough to bull rush and contain running QBs. Fast enough to get around strong tackles to get to less mobile QBs. Just can he develop and how long does it take? I still think we would benefit from a FA pass rusher. Let’s see if Houston resigns. Although I think he is almost over the hill.

[YDFL Commish]

Originally Posted by Racehorse

You are obsessed with someone being right and someone being wrong. The normal people on here want Ballard's decisions to work out for the better. If that is hanging on his ballsack to you, then you have even more issues to deal with.

Look at Dammy's sig... that tells you how obsessed with himself being right and everyone else being wrong he is.

[Puck]

Originally Posted by Dam8610

That and the difference that I seem to like the move a lot more, which was the main point I was making.



Is the TE you were referring to Granson? Because a 4th round TE, especially in this class, doesn't exactly move the needle for me, at least not until he goes out on the field and proves it. Of the people who weren't hanging on Ballard's ballsack throughout the draft, I think pretty much all of us said that the draft would look a lot better with a FA signing at LT, and clearly Ballard was waiting for the comp pick portion of FA to expire to go shopping for his LT, and had that luxury because there were 3 options sitting there on Day 1 of the draft, and 4 the day after the draft (Fisher, Villanueva, Leno, Okung). That said, I'll continue to say Jenkins would've been the better pick at 21 until Paye proves me wrong with production. I hope he does, but I have my doubts.

Thanks for reminding us that Ballard did indeed have a plan and he executed it. It didn't waste a pick on a RT hoping to move him to LT. He got a legitimate pro bowl LT AND 2 of the best DE's in the draft. And yes. The TE is someone I'm excited because he brings a different wrinkle to the offense. He can also play slot receiver. He's a little small for a TE but has multi position playmaking ability.

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by Puck

Thanks for reminding us that Ballard did indeed have a plan and he executed it. It didn't waste a pick on a RT hoping to move him to LT. He got a legitimate pro bowl LT AND 2 of the best DE's in the draft. And yes. The TE is someone I'm excited because he brings a different wrinkle to the offense. He can also play slot receiver. He's a little small for a TE but has multi position playmaking ability.

I said the move for Fisher was a good one, and the way he executed it was even better. But aren't you Mr. BPA? Because to me, Jenkins was BPA at 21. I know you're going to say "but Ballard and the Colts didn't", but we've already established that Ballard isn't infallible. One thing I will say for sure is that I value a combination of floor and ceiling much higher than what it appears most NFL front offices do. They all appear to want to swing for the fences every time, which is why it's not surprising that the first round bust rate is 50%. What's funny to me is how much you all get on me about looking at measureables, but don't recognize when Ballard is unnecessarily obsessing over measureables (in this case arm length for OTs). Based on his statements, I'm betting he had Rashawn Slater, the guy who shut down Chase Young, as a Guard because of arm length. There is a validity to looking at arm length to project a player to LT in the NFL, but I think that's more about failure rate than it is about requiring abnormally long arms as Ballard seems to. Basically, if a potential OT has shorter than 33" arms, he's probably going to have to kick inside to OG in the NFL. The failure rate on OTs with arms shorter than 33" is 100% over the last several decades according to others who have done research on that sort of thing. Jenkins and Slater both had longer than 33" arms and incredible tape. I know Jenkins played RT at OKSU, but so did Tyron Smith at USC, and he's been a pretty solid NFL LT. When you watch Jenkins on tape, you see LT traits. Great kickslide, excellent technician who occasionally toys with DEs with his technique, able to handle speed (demolished Ossai the whole game), able to handle power, doesn't cheat outside and leave inside rush lanes, finishes every play strong. When the testing numbers came back, that eliminated any doubt he could play LT at the next level, at least in my mind. His RAS score was 9.74 or something ridiculous like that. At 21, Jenkins was the best combination of floor and ceiling, and Paye was the best ceiling. I'd rather have the former, but since we now have the latter, I hope it works out.

[Dam8610]

Originally Posted by apballin

Mathis should be able to help with that, but we got killed by QBs rolling out and scrambling around not many QBs should be able to outrun Paye

Doesn't matter if they can outrun Paye if he's stuck on a block.

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

Look at Dammy's sig... that tells you how obsessed with himself being right and everyone else being wrong he is.

LOL you mean because I ripped the one time in the history of the board that Omaha actually admitted he was wrong about something? That's more a commentary on him. I have no problem admitting when I'm wrong, feel free to dig through my post history. An example I know off the top of my head is that I was wrong about Nelson being a bad pick at 6. It's hard to project someone to be the next John Hannah, though.

[Oldcolt]

While Ballard isn't infallible it sure seem like you think you are Dam. I, like most of us freaks, like to think I think for myself. Me personally, I think Ballard is correct and you are wrong. Nothing more to it than that. I will say that I enjoy your strongly held opinions, without them this would be a dead board right now, so please keep telling me how stupid I am for not thinking like you do. It is fun to argue over shit that matters not.