Yoshinator

Yes, I was responding to a post about WRs. Just WR hits. Ballard has had a lot of hits at other positions.

Pittman is the only definite hit Ballard has had since being the GM. When Downs and Pierce are maybe, and they're the next best thing, that's not a ringing endorsement. IMO, we'll take a WR in the first two days again. Probably round 2.

I think we stand pat at 15. Mitchell or Arnold might be there at 15, Bowers might be there at 15, Brian Thomas is another one. There's also the EDGE rushers. I'm guessing someone that Ballard has in the top 10 of his rankings will fall to 15, and he'll stand pat and take him there. I've heard the rumors of trading up for a WR, I just don't believe them.

The only similarities that Ballard and Veach have is that they were both on KC at the time Mahomes was drafted (Veach is the GM now obviously), and they both build well through the draft. Other than that, they are different in every other way as GMs. You are correct, Ballard is more like Dorsey. Ballard is actually best friends with Dorsey. They had a thing in the draft where Dorsey always prank called Ballard during the draft. Was kinda funny. If AR hits, then we will have gotten there as a playoff team the slow way. However, with Ballard, it will have taken a lot onger than it ever should have. People can blame Lucks retirement, Reich, or whatever, but GMs generally don't start with a franchise QB when they take over a team. IMO, Ballard was a scout who had no idea how to be a GM when he took over, and when Luck retired, it completely exposed him. He finally figured it out 7 years in his tenure. Might be too little, too late.

Yep, the narrative would be that the Lakers were on a hot streak and the Nuggets ran into them at the wrong time. In reality, I don't trust the refs or the league when it comes to the Lakers and Lebron James. He is still the poster boy of the league.

I feel the league may try to rig the series for the Lakers. Didn't want to have this matchup.

Yeah that's right. I got the girl wrong lol.

Yeah for sure. I'm guessing Ballard will trade down in the first 2 days of the draft. So we'll probably end up with 9 picks or so anyway.

Yeah maybe. Sorry for overreacting a bit. Just didn't realize they determined picks like that.

In any case, it's cool Clark went to Indiana. That'll make it fun for people who watch the WNBA on this forum.

I believe she's done that twice Vs Stephen Curry. She beat him 2 years ago and then he beat her last year. EDIT: She beat him last year and he beat her this year.

Not only does the WNBA not draw, but Caitlin Clark would get destroyed by any male NBA player. She would probably get destroyed if she played in the G league. Women cannot compete with men in physical sports. That's just a fact. If the WNBA drew close to the NBA, there would be merit to this. They don't though. So it's a moot point.

Flacco makes sense cancelling out Moss as he was half a million more than him. Minshew went for $5.5 million more a year than Davis. How the hell does that take away our 5th round pick? Not mad at you, but I'm tired of not getting any compensatory picks. Absolute garbage way of determining who gets picks. Can't sign anyone and you don't gain any picks. Absolutely sickening. A 5th rounder doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is when Ballard has a track record of hitting on late picks a decent amount of the time.

Why would Minshew get cancelled out by Flacco and Davis? Minshew got more than both of them. He should only be cancelled out if we signed a FA equal to or more than Minshew.

Sign a vet CB and draft a WR. The WR cupboard is bare now in FA. Not only that, rookie CBs tend to take longer to develop as rookies, and this WR class is loaded. The CB class is nice too, but we need a veteran CB for Gus Bradley. We have Pittman at WR as a veteran.

Yeah, I forgot about Marcel Dabo. That's good news.

I have another off-the-wall prediction. Colts trade the Broncos their 15th pick for Patrick Surtain. They could use that pick to move up in the draft and get a QB. Them having 12 and 15 would get them ahead of the Vikings who have 11 and 23. We then extend Surtain to a long-term deal.

Crosby seems like he would be a Ballard guy. It probably would cost our 1st rounder for him. However, we might be able to pull off Dayo and a 3rd for Crosby or something like that so the Raiders get an EDGE back that they can extend for cheaper than Crosby and we only lose a 3rd to get an upgrade at EDGE. There's a lot of possibilities there.

I actually see Dallas Turner as an all-or-nothing guy. High ceiling, low floor type of guy. His ceiling to me is Myles Garrett, his floor is Ben Banogu. He's an elite athlete with the potential to be great, but he could crash and burn very easily too. There's no middle to him IMO. If he hits, then he'll get double-digit sacks his rookie year. If he misses, he could only get 2-3 sacks and struggle to learn how to play the game well.

Nice nice. I didn't see it. Wasn't piggybacking off your post lol. I agree though. Baker plays FS. Simmons is better at SS. That would give us our S duo. It's one of the more obvious possibilities, I would be happy if it happened. We'll see as the S class isn't great.

I'm going to make a prediction. We trade for Budda Baker and give him an extension. We may even release Cox to save another $6 million. We trade a 3rd rounder for Budda Baker and a 6th rounder. That's my prediction.

Maybe we will go after Akhello Witherspoon on a one-year deal? Maybe both him and Quandre Diggs? This is really interesting in any case.

The difference with Mahomes and AR to me is the timeline of the GMs on both teams. Brett Veach was only on the Chiefs for a year at this point before he started building around Mahomes. Ballard is the GM of the Colts for 8 years now and he isn't doing it. With Veach, you can argue it's because he was waiting for Mahomes to get better and he was relatively new as a GM. With Ballard, it's just how he is. The rosters are similar from that time, yes. I agree. I just think we are fooling ourselves by saying he's going to spend over and over and it never happens. We just come up with a new reason. I'm guilty of it too. I'm actually fine with the offseason besides Sneed. That was inexcusable not getting him IMO, but everything else is ok. We just have to do well in the draft. I think we will take a WR on day 2 or in a trade down (Xavier Worthy maybe). The draft is Ballards bread and butter, so I always know he'll do his best there to help the team.

He was aggressive on this front with Wentz and Ryan. Those were trades and not FAs though. Ballard generally will get his guy in a trade if he wants him (Sneed not withstanding). Free Agency is where I have the issue (where Ballard is competing with other teams with money). The funny thing is that I'm actually perfectly fine with what Ballard did in FA besides not getting Sneed. That was the only major error IMO. Everything else can be fixed in the draft immediately. I'm just not of the mindset that AR needs to prove himself first before splurging in FA. I think that's a mistake personally. Though this year, a lot of the best FAs were also guys that we re-signed anyway.

@VikingsFanInChennai Can you please make sure to count my pick on the spreadsheet? I don't want someone else to duplicate it when the last round begins in a few mins.