quick thoughts on the donkeys

[HoosierinFL]

This is easily the worst team in Indy Colts history.
Yea, worse than the 80s teams, worse than the suck for luck team. All of it.

I’ve never seen a team with this much talent just completely refuse to do things the right way, to win games they can and should win.

I’ve been very slow to sour on Ballard but he’s the one who is supposed to determine the culture of this team, and this culture is awful.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by HoosierinFL

This is easily the worst team in Indy Colts history.
Yea, worse than the 80s teams, worse than the suck for luck team. All of it.

I’ve never seen a team with this much talent just completely refuse to do things the right way, to win games they can and should win.

I’ve been very slow to sour on Ballard but he’s the one who is supposed to determine the culture of this team, and this culture is awful.

Dead on with this. This is BALLARD'S TEAM! They carry forth his ethos, and that ethos is to be haughty with absolutely zero justification. He is a fraud and the team he has constructed is a mirror image of him.

FUCKING FIRE HIM!

[CletusPyle]

I came out here this morning wondering if I was the only one sick of this team...obviously I'm not! The worst part is I have very little confidence that any of this will get fixed soon. Our ownership, with Irsay's health problems, is one of the weakest in the NFL, Ballard is a blowhard that has been exposed, Steichen is a coordinator not ready yet to be a head coach, and the team doesn't appear to have any leaders and no real identity. How do you fix all of that?

We are a small market team that has zero clout right now in the NFL. Nobody wants us to win right now, we had one of the best QBs of all time for 14 years and won one Super Bowl, I'm not sure we will ever sniff one again. Players like Andrew "I want to travel the world" Luck and Jonathan "I'll just leave this here" Taylor, have destroyed this franchise. I know many of you disagree with me on Luck, that's fine, but how many franchises have had that happen to them? That was knife to the heart that still hasn't healed!

Sorry for the long post, but I just don't know when or if this team will ever be a contender again?

[Lov2fish]

There are probably 10 players on this team I would keep. The rest needs to go and start over. I would include some that need to go that are on the other side of 30 and will serve no purpose in a complete rebuild. This is just a poorly constructed team in every aspect. A big swing and miss on a QB, and a swing and a miss on a receiver who is supposed to take the top off (AD Mitchell) Balard fucked it all up. He has no business being a GM. Roll it back and get in line for Arch.

[sherck]

Originally Posted by Lov2fish

Roll it back and get in line for Arch.

I totally agree.

My biggest Christmas wish for this franchise right now would be:

A. Love ya Jimmy but hand over the reigns of the franchise to Carlie.

B. Carlie, pull up your big girl panties and fire your GM and HC from whom all accountability should flow. Put together a panel of folks to consult for your next GM that should include Bill Polian, Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, heck....Bill Belicheat if desired and find your next guy.

C. Put your full faith and confidence in that next GM for him to find and hire a staff that can rebuild the franchise.

D. Evaluate every player on the roster and sell. Sell hard in 2025. Get every possible draft pick for the 2026 draft and beyond that you can.

E. Put a team of the field for 2025 that can, perhaps, win one game as you bring in every player you can find who is under 25 years old and evalute them as to their long term viability. Sell EVERYONE over 30 and ALMOST EVERYONE over 25.

F. Get the #1 draft pick for 2026 and go with the QB you think is most able to be a long-term franchise QB. AR is not the guy.

When you need to start over, there is no time like RIGHT NOW to do so.

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by sherck

I totally agree.

My biggest Christmas wish for this franchise right now would be:

A. Love ya Jimmy but hand over the reigns of the franchise to Carlie.

B. Carlie, pull up your big girl panties and fire your GM and HC from whom all accountability should flow. Put together a panel of folks to consult for your next GM that should include Bill Polian, Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, heck....Bill Belicheat if desired and find your next guy.

C. Put your full faith and confidence in that next GM for him to find and hire a staff that can rebuild the franchise.

D. Evaluate every player on the roster and sell. Sell hard in 2025. Get every possible draft pick for the 2026 draft and beyond that you can.

E. Put a team of the field for 2025 that can, perhaps, win one game as you bring in every player you can find who is under 25 years old and evalute them as to their long term viability. Sell EVERYONE over 30 and ALMOST EVERYONE over 25.

F. Get the #1 draft pick for 2026 and go with the QB you think is most able to be a long-term franchise QB. AR is not the guy.

When you need to start over, there is no time like RIGHT NOW to do so.

One of Ballard’s biggest issues is he believes and has grown a culture of “next year” instead of “right fucking now”. The team has talent, it lacks leadership and direction. His gifting positions to rookies philosophy sucks and I sure as fuck don’t want to repeat them. You need vets to win. So I don’t want a complete rebuild, I want a complete retooling. New leadership, new direction, and accountability. Keep the guys that fit and buy in, and push out the ones that don’t (bye JT). Do that and see what you have in AR. But the roster doesn’t need completely blown up, it needs molded into an actual fucking team instead of just a collection of high ceiling potential players.

IMO it would be stupid to give up on AR at this point. He’s one of the rawest rookie QBs to come out and he’s been surrounded by a shit show with no accountability. I’m not convinced he’s the one, but I’m not sure he isn’t. The team has done him no favors. Put an actual fucking team around him and see what we have.

[Brylok]

Two things I'm afraid of;

1. Fire Ballard and we'll be even worse. Yes, it's possible to get worse. I remember the 80s and 90s until we got Polian and Peyton. Awful. National laughing stock.

2. Colts "fans" don't have the patience to be bad anymore. LOS will be empty, games might be blacked out from TV again, and they could leave town (especially if Jim passes away). Colts fans are, largely, "fair weather" garbage. Y'all are okay though.

Aside from that, blow it all up. This team is unlikable. I feel sorry for Buckner.

[Kray007]

Okay, almost 24 hours later, and it’s time for everyone to turn off the gas and pull their heads out of the oven. No one is more disappointed with yesterday’s game than me. But, the cupboard is not dry and there is hope just over the horizon.

The defense played well, they throttled an offense that had begun to run on all eight cylinders. They took some of the gloss off Bo Nix and made him look like exactly what he is… a rookie. For a defense that specializes in making nondescript quarterbacks book like Dan Marino, that was a welcome sight.

The game, of course, hinged on Jonathan Taylor’s miscue. Calling it a miscue has a certain quality, almost like calling the Titanic, a minor traffic mishap. But, without a doubt in my mind, that play and the interception/fumble that was returned for a touchdown were the only things that stood between the Colts and victory.

[Kray007]

And, let’s not be hypocritical. Of the 14 people who put their cojones on the line and picked the game in the sodas contest, eight of you picked Denver to win the thing. Congratulations on your insight, but now some of you seem to be complaining that you were right.

[Dewey 5]

This team has no leadership or discipline. It starts with asshole Ballard & works down to Shane Stinkin. Flip the entire fucking building. The Colts flat out suck.