Did Jim Irsay believe before all of us?

[southwest1]

To me, Irsay is the perfect owner. He knows the business side of football, the personal side of football, he loves the fans, he communicates, he surrounds himself with football people, and he spares no expense in putting a winning product on the field. If he makes a mistake, he owns up to it. He's very community minded and very generous to local charities. We are so lucky to have an owner like this in Indianapolis!!!

The 2 items I bolded are why I respect Irsay as an owner & I can bypass some of his overzealous twitter responses.

Jim listens to Colts Nation at large & he is never afraid to open up his checkbook to keep the Blue Horseshoe relevant, vibrant, & strong. Thank you Mr. Irsay.

[Tark The Shark]

Early on, I doubted Irsay on if he was making the right decision, but I knew he was making the right choices to change the franchise and make it dominant again.

It all started with the hiring of Ryan Grigson. Grigson should be the front runner for GM of the Year. He decided to gut the coaching staff and the roster. Even if that meant that Peyton had to go. Now Grigson has brought in a good chunk of the successful parts of the team. Resigning Wayne, signing guys like Avery, McGlynn, Satele, Shipley, Justice, Redding, Freeman, Butler, Zbikowski.

Then the coaching staff. You have Chuck Pagano who is the motivator, the father figure, the family man as the head coach. Bruce Arians as the teacher of Luck, who uses a lot of formations to confuse defenses. Greg Manusky has the toughest job in teaching guys like Mathis, Freeney, Hughes, Mookie, Moala, Angerer, Connor, Powers, and Bethea a completely new defense and sometimes it has worked with varied success. Injuries made it even harder for Manusky.

Luck and the rest of this years draft class is the best I have seen in a while. Luck, Hilton, Fleener, Allen, Brazil, and Ballard all look like quality starters for our offense in years to come. Next year we can find out about Chapman, Fugger, and Anderson.

Some of the vets have played well. Reggie is the best player on the team right now. Consistently, game in and game out he plays a heck of a game. Castonzo looks better & better each and every game and is the only player on the O-line who hasn't missed time. Mathis has transitioned well to his new position.

Irsay knew when he needed to change things and boy, results came in quick.

[NewColtsFan]

When Jim Irsay said we might be a playoff team come December, was he smoking something at the beginning of the season or did he really believe what he said?

Man, needed to give props to the owner for being prophetic. So here I am.

Props to you, Mr. Irsay. I might need some of what you had when you said that, LOL.

Just curious, but anyone know/remember when Irsay made the comment about this team being a possible playoff team come December? Was it the spring? The summer? Pre-season? The start of the regular season? Just trying to see the whole picture here, that's all.

Otherwise, my thought is this.... whatever Irsay did or didn't believe, we have to remember he IS the owner and he's trying to encourage the fans to stay on board... in short, he's trying to make sure he's always selling tickets and everything that goes with buying tickets and being a fan. The bottom line is the bottom line.

Also.... since the team refused to publicly say anything about rebuilding, or starting over, Irsay had to stay positive. Sometimes there's a method to the madness.

Still.... props to Irsay.... in a short amount of time I've come to admire the man. He's a good owner and as a fan that's what you want.

[shakedownstreet]

irsay is the anti-jerry jones

nuff said

[BleedingBlue]

Irsay is a good owner.

Tanking the season for DPs was probably the smartest thing any owner has ever done in the history of the NFL. ;)

However, the way he handled the manning thing was horrible. he basically dropped more propaganda on the fan base than the Viet Cong did over hanoi. As time has gone by, it is basically clear that he was lying to us about a number of things.

There are some things that remain to be determined before we can say "the decision" was the right decision.

[SteelCityColt]

I can think of far worse owners, especially in the wider world of sport. Sadly with incompetent/evil/greedy owners its always the fans that cop for it most in the end.

[chad72]

It all started with the hiring of Ryan Grigson. Grigson should be the front runner for GM of the Year. He decided to gut the coaching staff and the roster. Even if that meant that Peyton had to go. Now Grigson has brought in a good chunk of the successful parts of the team. Resigning Wayne, signing guys like Avery, McGlynn, Satele, Shipley, Justice, Redding, Freeman, Butler, Zbikowski.

Letting Peyton go was not Grigson's decision, it was Irsay's. Drafting Luck was also not Grigson's decision, it was Irsay's. If Luck was not available, Peyton would still be here. Irsay wanted Luck in no uncertain terms and probably a big reason why RG3 and his agent did not want to come in here for a workout. Grigson's only decision was letting go of Caldwell. Irsay also made the decision to say goodbye to the Polians, obviously, before hiring Grigson.

Where Grigson did great was all the pieces of the puzzle he put together with the dead cap still holding us back. Executive of the year would probably be John Elway because he was the one who had to take the chance on Peyton before Peyton got to 100%. He was the one who had to choose to cut ties with a starting QB in Tebow and a horde of Tebow lovers out there in Bronco land from a team that won a playoff game. He had to hire the right defensive co-ordinator once Dennis Allen left and replaced him with Jack Del Rio and put enough pieces around Peyton in Tamme, Stokley and Dreessen so that Peyton had enough ammunition on the offensive side. Elway's moves were more risky but it seems like by winning the division this early and contending for a good seed in the AFC, Elway's moves have paid off.

Grigson did not have to take a chance with the 1st pick of the draft, he knew he was coming into a great situation with a great owner. Luck was a slam dunk pick, at least IMO (sorry, coach Dungy). Irsay made a well informed hire with Grigson, more props needs to go to Irsay for having done his homework to hire Grigson and continue to surround himself with good football people.