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Post by williamtsherman on Aug 11, 2021 7:41:08 GMT -6
Big unforced mistake and typical of Irsay. Very reminiscent of when he kept Grigson and Pagano (when everyone thought they would be fired) after that lovey dovey meeting a few years back, thus allowing them to ruin a couple more years.
Not that Reich and Ballard are as bad, but same kind of irrational decision making by Irsay. The sort of extensions he gave should be reserved for those having significant post season success or those who have nailed down a truly dominating sort of roster. There was no NEED to commit to this level of extensions….totally unforced error.
The most impactful positions in football are QB (obviously) and then (in no particular order) WR, Left OT, CB, Edge Rusher. What is Ballard's best move at any of these groups? In which of these groups are the Colts currently set up the best? How to the colts groups compare with league average?
I think it's actually rather easy for a GM to load up with talent at the low-impact positions if you are willing to spend your draft capital and salary cap there. Other teams are simply not competing with you that hard for the low-impact talent, (they are distracted by using all their capital and money at the HIGH impact positions). Problem is, you start to lack talent at the high impact positions and then you have (at best) a high floor, low ceiling team with little chance of post season success ( sound like any team you know?)
Ballard is getting WAY too much credit for his success at low impact positions. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 20, 2022 19:40:05 GMT -6
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Post by CallingBS on Jan 20, 2022 20:29:34 GMT -6
Well, drug addict at CEO probably isn't the ideal sitch...
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Post by lmills72 on Jan 20, 2022 21:19:26 GMT -6
I'm don't really want to defend Ballard, but I think it's worth clarifying his draft record.
He's had 14 picks in the first two rounds of the draft (I assume that would be considered a team's high draft capital). He's spent 8 of those picks on positions the General defines as high-impact positions. It's not that he's ignored those positions; it's that he's apparently done a shitty job of evaluating and picking talent at those positions.
And yes, with those other 6 picks in the first two rounds he's picked up players like Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, Johnathon Taylor and Braden Smith at those low-impact positions.
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 21, 2022 7:31:04 GMT -6
And, by the way, where does all that super drafting success at the low-impact positions have the Colts right now?
Out of five possible first round picks, Ballard has used exactly one on a high value position (DE Paye). And this is after Grigson's final pick was a Center.
Man, I just can't figure out why the Colts are so weak at the key positions??
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Post by Lurkin McGurkin on Jan 21, 2022 7:57:53 GMT -6
You have to have a high performing QB to win.
Wentz is not that. Unfortunately, I don't see a franchise QB in the draft this year, even if they traded up. And I can't see cutting Wentz loose with the cap hit (although it's not terrible, relatively speaking). They could cut him and go after Wilson and get a few years (he's 33) out of him, or go after Rodgers and get a year or 3, but the cap would be screwed.
After watching Hard Knocks this season, I get the impression that Reich may not have the "fire" to be a head coach. If he could take some of Ballard's... uh, "passion" (some might call it "insanity") for the game, I think he'd motivate the team a little more. Reich seems to be more interested in being everyone's friend, and while that CAN work, it often doesn't.
Wentz needs a fire lit under his ass. His stupid mistakes cost them a couple games this year. Reich's poor play-calling cost a couple. If just ONE of them got their shit together, they'd be playing this weekend.
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Post by lmills72 on Jan 21, 2022 23:40:20 GMT -6
And, by the way, where does all that super drafting success at the low-impact positions have the Colts right now? Out of five possible first round picks, Ballard has used exactly one on a high value position (DE Paye). And this is after Grigson's final pick was a Center. Man, I just can't figure out why the Colts are so weak at the key positions?? This is mostly correct but maybe a little misleading. Ballard has had five first-round picks to use but he hasn't made five first-round picks as he's traded out of the first round twice. The results of those moves are generally pretty damning, I think. Ballard's first rounds picks have been: 2017: Malik Hooker, S. Allowed to become a free agent after 4 injury-plagued years. Played with Dallas last year. 2018: Quenton Nelson, OG. 2019: Traded to Washington, who used the pick for Montez Sweat, DE. Sweat has been a serviceable DE better than most players the Colts have put at DE. I could be wrong here but I think one thing the Colts got out of that trade was a second-round pick in 2020, which would have been either Pittman or Taylor. 2020: Traded to San Francisco for Deforrest Buckner. SF traded the pick to Tampa Bay who used it to pick RT Tristan Wirfs, who protected Brady's blind side on the way to a Super Bowl victory and is considered a quality young OL (and also a Pro Bowler this year). 2021: Kwity Paye, DE. I think Paye has some promise, but admittedly didn't show a ton last year. Pittman/Taylor and Buckner are all fine players but, as the General rightly asks, are they more important than improving a little at DE or a lot of RT? The fact that Ballard has hit on a few "Pro Bowl players" masks a lot of poor decisions, poor talent evaluation overall and way too many misses for him to be considered a quality GM. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 22, 2022 9:20:05 GMT -6
NFL GM is a tough job from which people are very prone to getting fired. Give Ballard credit that he has hit on a system to inflate his image.
1) Spend your top draft captital on low-value positions. Other teams will not be competing with you and it will be relatively easy to come up with top performers on the interior line and such positions.
2) trade back and get a lot of additional picks. Talent evaluation always being something of a crap shoot, this gives you more chances to show your "genius". People will tend to forget all the Quincy Wilsons, Tarell Bashams, Rock Ya-sins etc, because they are...you know...forgettable.
3) Make frequent mention of the shibboleths concerning rough tough interior line play and the running game. True, these are directly contradicted by the results of the post season every year, but they have such a devoted following among media people and brain-dead fans that this will definitely shape your image in a positive way among such people and, more importantly, in the drug-addled mind of your dipshit owner.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 23, 2022 11:20:42 GMT -6
You have to have a high performing QB to win. Wentz is not that. Unfortunately, I don't see a franchise QB in the draft this year, even if they traded up. And I can't see cutting Wentz loose with the cap hit (although it's not terrible, relatively speaking). Joe Burrow came through, sort of.
Up in Green Bay it was the more journeyman QB.
Today we have match ups featuring good QB talent on all counts in both games.
It is interesting how all this works. Of the 8 teams this weekend, the Colts played 6 games against 5 of the teams and outscored them collectively in total. Close games winnable games all.
But Wentz for a number of reasons was not the guy they Colts needed to win most of those games, but his greatest failings were in some of those close losses where he did not have to be a star, just a journeyman. And he was short of that.
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 23, 2022 13:19:27 GMT -6
Actually the Colts were walking on thin ice the whole year with Wentz's injury proneness. Had Wentz missed games, as he did most seasons in Philadelphia, the Colts would have had to play Ehlinger or Brett Hundley or God knows who. This would have rightly been seen as a foreseeable and titanic GM f--- up. Ballard was very, very lucky.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 23, 2022 20:26:42 GMT -6
Not to mention his Covid decision to exercise individual liberty without much concern for his team.
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Post by Lurkin McGurkin on Jan 24, 2022 7:25:52 GMT -6
Because concern for his team should outweigh any concerns about a chemical with unknown long-term side effects being injected into his bloodstream.
He should just go along with it. Like a good comrade.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 24, 2022 9:19:15 GMT -6
Because concern for his team should outweigh any concerns about a chemical with unknown long-term side effects being injected into his bloodstream. He should just go along with it. Like a good comrade. He should worry about which is the greater risk, especially given the concerns are not supported by much evidence, and the vaccine protects from KNOWN possible short term disability and infection which have a fairly high known risk to him and others, and for that matter the infection has KNOWN danger of long haul Covid. This is not certain, but given what we know MUCH more likely than these "unknown risks."
The known risks are both easily dealt with by monitoring your health after vaccination, and if they occur are relatively easily treated. Overall MUCH lower risk than infection. And that little thing about blowing a chance for playoff success for yourself and your team is not trivial. People take greater risks every day to do their job. Especially NFL QBs who drop back to pass...
He avoids a risk of these highly unlikely, speculative at best, long term risks but accepts a risk of infection. Yes, I do think he should factor in the safety of others as well his obligation to make good efforts to further his team's success, too. Which after all is very much in HIS interest too.
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Post by Lurkin McGurkin on Jan 24, 2022 9:45:35 GMT -6
It'll be years before we know what the real side-effects of this vaccine are.
Most troublesome is the fact that this was the first vaccine using mRNA technology, and it took a crisis to get it approved.
But go ahead and believe everything that you're told by the government. They'd never lie to American citizens, right?
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Post by villagepub on Jan 24, 2022 13:04:33 GMT -6
Are we turning yet another message board thread into a wasted debate over Covid-19?
The topic is Colts Management. Let's get back to that discussion. Take the Covid-19 discussion back to the General BSU Athletics board, where IT STILL DOESN'T BELONG!
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