Sean Spence

[AKB]

You guys know I love to share these highlight videos with you.

 

As always, what are your thoughts on this guy?

 

 

[throwing BBZ]

I would feel better if was slotted as a solid backup.
And there is the possibility that he thrives in our D. Best of luck to him.

[Smonroe]

When I look at reviews for a product on Amazon I always start with the lowest rated. I want to know what problems people have had and I want to know the percentage of low those ratings.  

 

I feel the same way about players, everyone better have a highlight reel or they shouldn't be in the NFL.  I'd like to know the players weak points and the percentage of times they're exploited.  I guarantee the other teams know them.

 

So it's a long winded way of saying thanks for the highlights, but...

[AKB]

1 minute ago, Smonroe said:

When I look at reviews for a product on Amazon I always start with the lowest rated. I want to know what problems people have had and I want to know the percentage of low those ratings.  

 

I feel the same way about players, everyone better have a highlight reel or they shouldn't be in the NFL.  I'd like to know the players weak points and the percentage of times they're exploited.  I guarantee the other teams know them.

 

So it's a long winded way of saying thanks for the highlights, but...

I understand. 

 

The highlight video facilitates the discussion, it is not intended to dictate it. 

 

He is fast, and he does tackle well. 

[krunk]

I think one of either Spence or Edwin Jackson could end up being a backup  depending on how the draft goes.  You bring in a Reuben Foster or Jarrad Davis and that pretty much guarantees at least one of Jackson or Spence goes to backup duties. Both could be backups if we draft two ILB high.

[AKB]

1 minute ago, krunk said:

I think one of either Spence or Edwin Jackson could end up being a backup  depending on how the draft goes.  You bring in a Reuben Foster or Jarrad Davis and that pretty much guarantees at least one of Jackson or Spence goes to backup duties. Both could be backups if we draft two ILB high.

who starts next to the draftee?

[D-lineman]

Great video thank you 

[AKB]

51 minutes ago, D-lineman said:

Great video thank you 

 I didn't create the video. I enjoy his videos though. He makes quite a few of them on a regular basis.

[Defjamz26]

1 hour ago, AustinnKaine said:

who starts next to the draftee?

Morrison. I see it as a make or break year for him. If he's bad give Spence his starting spot if he's better and draft another ILB 2018.

[krunk]

1 hour ago, AustinnKaine said:

who starts next to the draftee?

probably Edwin unless Spence shows well

[a06cc]

It will be the linebacker who has the best coverage skills. That's if we have a rookie ILB starting.

[Boiler_Colt]

He's certainly faster than any of the guys we had starting last year

[Buck Showalter]

4 hours ago, AustinnKaine said:

who starts next to the draftee?

 

3 hours ago, krunk said:

probably Edwin unless Spence shows well

Well, as opposed to past years under Grigson & even Polian, if Ballard stays true to his word about creating competition, it'll be hard to pencil in any type of legit depth chart until after camp & even possibly well into pre-season...

No???

[crazycolt1]

2 hours ago, Buck Showalter said:

 

Well, as opposed to past years under Grigson & even Polian, if Ballard stays true to his word about creating competition, it'll be hard to pencil in any type of legit depth chart until after camp & even possibly well into pre-season...

No???

I don't get this creating competition talk. That has been going on in the NFL since it started. It is nothing new.

It is pretty common knowledge there is always another player who is waiting to take your spot if you are a NFL player.

The non starters are just waiting and working for their chance to start. It means more money come their next contract so there is and always has been competition.

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

8 minutes ago, crazycolt1 said:

I don't get this creating competition talk. That has been going on in the NFL since it started. It is nothing new.

It is pretty common knowledge there is always another player who is waiting to take your spot if you are a NFL player.

The non starters are just waiting and working for their chance to start. It means more money come their next contract so there is and always has been competition.

 

 

Look, I think Ballard's point is that there has to be competition. And it is his way of saying that there wasn't enough competition on the roster he inherited, if any.

[Mr. Irrelevant]

BTW, digging the highlights on Spence. The kid had more tackles in the highlight video than the entire team last year! Just kidding...

 

... or maybe not. 

[krunk]

4 hours ago, Buck Showalter said:

 

Well, as opposed to past years under Grigson & even Polian, if Ballard stays true to his word about creating competition, it'll be hard to pencil in any type of legit depth chart until after camp & even possibly well into pre-season...

No???

We are just fan projecting here. But I think its likely to happen. Spence, Jackson would be really good back ups to have if the staff drafted two ILB high. Not saying either are bad players but I could totally see the staff drafting a Jarrad Davis, Reuben Foster, or Raekwon Mcmillan. In that case we know its very likely they'd start. The competition stuff is just talk in that case.

[krunk]

2 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

I don't get this creating competition talk. That has been going on in the NFL since it started. It is nothing new.

It is pretty common knowledge there is always another player who is waiting to take your spot if you are a NFL player.

The non starters are just waiting and working for their chance to start. It means more money come their next contract so there is and always has been competition.

 

Theres a difference between competition that really has the talent to be the starter and competition that really doesnt have the talent to take someones position. The backups have to be guys who make the starters uncomfortable about there chances of keeping their spot. That keeps out complacency and drives true competition. If youre confident the guy backing you up really has no chance to take your spot then you may not play at your highest level. Ballard is putting free agents on the roster who have starter level talent. Guys who were drafted fairly high, guys who come from good programs. Maybe the situation didnt workout elsewhere for XYZ reason and what not. Hes giving them a legit shot to showcase what they have. Then hes going to sprinkle in layers of solid draft picks over top of that. Young guys who are hungry to prove themselves. The two together create a strong culture of competition. Grigsons roster really didnt have backups who had a strong chance of over taking the starter. The backup in most cases was a clear back up.

[crazycolt1]

2 hours ago, krunk said:

Theres a difference between competition that really has the talent to be the starter and competition that really doesnt have the talent to take someones position. The backups have to be guys who make the starters uncomfortable about there chances of keeping their spot. That keeps out complacency and drives true competition. If youre confident the guy backing you up really has no chance to take your spot then you may not play at your highest level. Ballard is putting free agents on the roster who have starter level talent. Guys who were drafted fairly high, guys who come from good programs. Maybe the situation didnt workout elsewhere for XYZ reason and what not. Hes giving them a legit shot to showcase what they have. Then hes going to sprinkle in layers of solid draft picks over top of that. Young guys who are hungry to prove themselves. The two together create a strong culture of competition. Grigsons roster really didnt have backups who had a strong chance of over taking the starter. The backup in most cases was a clear back up.

Assuming a draft pick will be a starter is assuming a lot. There are not a lot of draft picks who become starters day one. A team will be lucky to find two starters out of 6 or 7 draft picks that start immediately. Hopefully some of them will become starters eventually. Out of the Colts 7 draft picks I think there will be at least 2 that will more than likely never become starters. WE can only hope that Ballard will hit a home run in his first draft but that remains to be seen.

While you are correct in the drop off in talent from starter to the second tier guys in the last couple of years IMO I don't think the starter not playing to the best of his ability was an issue.

There is quite a few players drafted by Grigson on the roster and I think they will stay on the roster. Grigson missed on a couple of positions and that cost him his job. It wasn't from lack of trying but a few members in here seem to think Grigson was really bad across the board when that was not true. But two 8-8 seasons someone had to be the fall guy and Grigson was that man. I am not saying he didn't deserve losing his job but he wasn't as bad as some seem to think.

[lollygagger8]

Spence / EJax next to Reddick @ ILB.......

 

[UKColt13]

Plays low, plays hard. Better take on LB than I expected him to be.

 

Interested to see how he plays.

[krunk]

51 minutes ago, crazycolt1 said:

Assuming a draft pick will be a starter is assuming a lot. There are not a lot of draft picks who become starters day one. A team will be lucky to find two starters out of 6 or 7 draft picks that start immediately. Hopefully some of them will become starters eventually. Out of the Colts 7 draft picks I think there will be at least 2 that will more than likely never become starters. WE can only hope that Ballard will hit a home run in his first draft but that remains to be seen.

While you are correct in the drop off in talent from starter to the second tier guys in the last couple of years IMO I don't think the starter not playing to the best of his ability was an issue.

There is quite a few players drafted by Grigson on the roster and I think they will stay on the roster. Grigson missed on a couple of positions and that cost him his job. It wasn't from lack of trying but a few members in here seem to think Grigson was really bad across the board when that was not true. But two 8-8 seasons someone had to be the fall guy and Grigson was that man. I am not saying he didn't deserve losing his job but he wasn't as bad as some seem to think.

Assuming that Reuben Foster or Jarrad Davis will start is not assuming a lot.  It's almost a virtual lock just about.  The team is not going to tell them that out right, but that's what they expect.  Especially right now when we really don't have any established veterans anywhere amongs the ILB.   I could see if we had some established veterans there but we dont.   I don't think there was a man on this forum who didn't fully expect for Ryan Kelly to start.   We already knew he would and that's mainly because there was not much quality on the roster at the position. .

[krunk]

54 minutes ago, crazycolt1 said:

Assuming a draft pick will be a starter is assuming a lot. There are not a lot of draft picks who become starters day one. A team will be lucky to find two starters out of 6 or 7 draft picks that start immediately. Hopefully some of them will become starters eventually. Out of the Colts 7 draft picks I think there will be at least 2 that will more than likely never become starters. WE can only hope that Ballard will hit a home run in his first draft but that remains to be seen.

While you are correct in the drop off in talent from starter to the second tier guys in the last couple of years IMO I don't think the starter not playing to the best of his ability was an issue.

There is quite a few players drafted by Grigson on the roster and I think they will stay on the roster. Grigson missed on a couple of positions and that cost him his job. It wasn't from lack of trying but a few members in here seem to think Grigson was really bad across the board when that was not true. But two 8-8 seasons someone had to be the fall guy and Grigson was that man. I am not saying he didn't deserve losing his job but he wasn't as bad as some seem to think.

Anybody who's followed me knows I wasn't a Grigson basher.  But when it came to the quality of the depth of his roster it wasn't very good.   Virtually none of our starters had any reason to worry about the guys behind them being good enough to play over them.

[Buck Showalter]

7 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

I don't get this creating competition talk. That has been going on in the NFL since it started. It is nothing new.

It is pretty common knowledge there is always another player who is waiting to take your spot if you are a NFL player.

The non starters are just waiting and working for their chance to start. It means more money come their next contract so there is and always has been competition.

 

 

4 hours ago, krunk said:

We are just fan projecting here. But I think its likely to happen. Spence, Jackson would be really good back ups to have if the staff drafted two ILB high. Not saying either are bad players but I could totally see the staff drafting a Jarrad Davis, Reuben Foster, or Raekwon Mcmillan. In that case we know its very likely they'd start. The competition stuff is just talk in that case.

When I heard Ballards "competition" remarks, I immediately thought of Grigsons early gaffs with personnel at the center position....

[PeterBowman]

also to piggy back on the competition remarks...there's that but there's also quality depth. So when someone gets hurt (and they will because it's football and it happens) there won't be much of or any noticeable drop off in play. Plus keeping a nice rotation going and keeping said players fresh.

[Superman]

8 hours ago, krunk said:

Theres a difference between competition that really has the talent to be the starter and competition that really doesnt have the talent to take someones position. The backups have to be guys who make the starters uncomfortable about there chances of keeping their spot. That keeps out complacency and drives true competition. If youre confident the guy backing you up really has no chance to take your spot then you may not play at your highest level. Ballard is putting free agents on the roster who have starter level talent. Guys who were drafted fairly high, guys who come from good programs. Maybe the situation didnt workout elsewhere for XYZ reason and what not. Hes giving them a legit shot to showcase what they have. Then hes going to sprinkle in layers of solid draft picks over top of that. Young guys who are hungry to prove themselves. The two together create a strong culture of competition. Grigsons roster really didnt have backups who had a strong chance of over taking the starter. The backup in most cases was a clear back up.

 

What's ironic to me is that ILB is arguably one of the positions at which the Colts showed the most willingness to let competition decide who would play. From day one with Freeman to the end with Edwin Jackson, the Colts under Grigson and Pagano were never resistant to use different players at ILB. 

[krunk]

48 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

What's ironic to me is that ILB is arguably one of the positions at which the Colts showed the most willingness to let competition decide who would play. From day one with Freeman to the end with Edwin Jackson, the Colts under Grigson and Pagano were never resistant to use different players at ILB. 

The competition was always between free agents.   We never had any drafted players unless it was somebody from the 5th round like Herrera and he wasn't even good enough to beat out the UDFA.  Best ILB we had was Freeman and he wasn't even drafted either.   Overall it basically was a bunch of backups competing with each other.  Freeman and Jackon really never had anybody in that group that had much possibility of pushing them for the spot.

[Superman]

13 minutes ago, krunk said:

The competition was always between free agents.   We never had any drafted players unless it was somebody from the 5th round like Herrera and he wasn't even good enough to beat out the UDFA.  Best ILB we had was Freeman and he wasn't even drafted either.   Overall it basically was a bunch of backups competing with each other.  Freeman and Jackon really never had anybody in that group that had much possibility of pushing them for the spot.

 

Jackson didn't come until 2014. It was Freeman and a bunch of guys the first two years. Freeman was from the CFL, and competed to earn the starting job, then held on to it. There were a bunch of guys who got time -- Angerer, Sheppard, Conner, McNary, Andrew Jackson, Herrera, there was a promising guy in preseason a couple years ago who got hurt and his name escapes me at the moment, etc. 

 

The stipulation of "draft pick" isn't relevant, since a) Spence isn't a draft pick, and b) Ballard hasn't drafted anyone yet. 

 

The idea that a staff that signed a Canadian league player and started him for four years would be against competition is puzzling to me. 

[krunk]

45 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

Jackson didn't come until 2014. It was Freeman and a bunch of guys the first two years. Freeman was from the CFL, and competed to earn the starting job, then held on to it. There were a bunch of guys who got time -- Angerer, Sheppard, Conner, McNary, Andrew Jackson, Herrera, there was a promising guy in preseason a couple years ago who got hurt and his name escapes me at the moment, etc. 

 

The stipulation of "draft pick" isn't relevant, since a) Spence isn't a draft pick, and b) Ballard hasn't drafted anyone yet. 

 

The idea that a staff that signed a Canadian league player and started him for four years would be against competition is puzzling to me. 

I think you're crossing up my signals here.   I'll get back to you when I get off work here shortly.

[krunk]

1 hour ago, Superman said:

 

Jackson didn't come until 2014. It was Freeman and a bunch of guys the first two years. Freeman was from the CFL, and competed to earn the starting job, then held on to it. There were a bunch of guys who got time -- Angerer, Sheppard, Conner, McNary, Andrew Jackson, Herrera, there was a promising guy in preseason a couple years ago who got hurt and his name escapes me at the moment, etc. 

 

The stipulation of "draft pick" isn't relevant, since a) Spence isn't a draft pick, and b) Ballard hasn't drafted anyone yet. 

 

The idea that a staff that signed a Canadian league player and started him for four years would be against competition is puzzling to me. 

 

 

Maybe I gave the impression I was saying Grigson and Pagano purposely stymied competition.   That is not what I was saying.  They always emphasized competition but we didn't really see the benefit of said competitions because the quality of the players they chose for the competition wasn't good. If somebody beat somebody out it's not like the backup was even average. When they found their starters the depth they had behind the starter was a pretty good drop off in most cases.   Not much of a competition overall.

 

Ballard isn't innovating anything new with what he's doing, but I feel like he has a better sense for the type of guys he will choose to drive the competition.  What I think he'll do or is attempting to do is get a good mix of solid draft picks and have them competing against free agents who are former high round/mid level draft picks.  Not just the linebackers but the whole roster. Players who a lot of people once saw as being starter capable(like Spence), or someone having a number of starter level athletic traits.   I don't think it will be like before when we had the Josh Mcnarys, the Enoch Mwambas, and some of the other guys.  I think the depth guys will have more ability to push or overtake the starter.  I think that's how you get better performace out of the whole group.   

[Superman]

1 minute ago, krunk said:

Maybe I gave the impression I was saying Grigson and Pagano purposely stymied competition.   That is not what I was saying.  They always emphasized competition but we didn't really see the benefit of said competitions because the quality of the players they chose for the competition wasn't good. If somebody beat somebody out it's not like the backup was even average. When they found their starters the depth they had behind the starter was a pretty good drop off in most cases.   Not much of a competition overall.

 

Ballard isn't innovating anything new with what he's doing, but I feel like he has a better sense for the type of guys he will choose to drive the competition.  What I think he'll do or is attempting to do is get a good mix of solid draft picks and have them competing against free agents who are former high round/mid level draft picks.  Not just the linebackers but the whole roster. Players who a lot of people once saw as being starter capable(like Spence), or someone having a number of starter level athletic traits.   I don't think it will be like before when we had the Josh Mcnarys, the Enoch Mwambas, and some of the other guys.  I think the depth guys will have more ability to push or overtake the starter.  I think that's how you get better performace out of the whole group.   

 

To me, that's a roundabout way of saying Grigson didn't bring in enough good players. And I think we all agree there, which is why he's gone now.

 

I don't think they were against competition. There are a lot of examples of competition, including Freeman, who came out of nowhere to lock down the starting spot for four seasons. There are other players who didn't do a good job, like Sio Moore, and players who couldn't fully recover from injury, like Nate Irving.

 

I do think Ballard will bring in lots of players, not just settling on a starting unit because 'these are our guys,' but will continue to push the issue. But that only matters if he brings in players who are capable of doing the job, and we won't know that for a while. 

 

To me, there's just a lot of 'at least he's not Grigson' going on, and it makes me cringe. Five years ago, there was a lot of 'at least he's not Polian' going on, and Grigson was putting together a GM of the Year offseason, but the bloom fell off that rose pretty quickly. You can only really judge a GM over a period of time. Just because he brings in several players in his first offseason doesn't really mean anything about his team building philosophy or his ability to execute his strategy.