Jump to content
Indianapolis Colts
Indianapolis Colts Fan Forum

Free Agency Under Ballard 2017

FalseStart
 Share

Free Agency Under Ballard  

54 members have voted

  1. 1. Pre Draft Grade For GM Ballard

    • A
      18
    • B
      32
    • C
      3
    • D
      1
    • F
      0

Recommended Posts

DaColts85 Team Captain

DaColts85

Posted
Posted

Some good youth and depth. Plus he brought back our own guys that have an impact and let the others go. Butler is huge because Green is far from a starter. Doyle is key and Luck needs a safety blanket. Turbin provides good depth. Hankins sealed it for me though. Solid starter to eat up the middle. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FalseStart Practice Squad

FalseStart

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, 21isSuperman said:

I think an important factor to consider is not only the players he's brought in, but the contracts.  In general, it's been low investment contracts so we aren't tied to these guys for years down the road.  I think that's very important

 

It will be interesting to see which draft prospects we bring in to balance out our team...I'm thinking at least 2 CBs, 1 RB, 1 OL, 1 DL, 1 S, 1 ILB somewhere in the Draft... See how he blends it all into a strong off season...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
2006Coltsbestever Ring of Honor

2006Coltsbestever

Posted
Posted
50 minutes ago, 21isSuperman said:

I think an important factor to consider is not only the players he's brought in, but the contracts.  In general, it's been low investment contracts so we aren't tied to these guys for years down the road.  I think that's very important

Also re-signing Doyle and Butler have to be included with his key pickups. I would probably go B+, not quite an A and before today it was still a B- which was borderline Good and Above Average when factoring in everything = contracts and talent pickup. Today was huge. I voted B

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Yoshinator Ring of Honor

Yoshinator

Posted
Posted

Either an A or B for sure. Tempted to give it an A, but was conservative and gave a bit because it's Ballard's 1st year and I want a sample size. He stuck to his mantra for the most part and filled the trenches. Also helped the pass rush a decent amount and put us in great position for the draft. The great thing now, is our needs are also guys who should be BPA in the draft, and that will benefit us greatly. Hankins really was the whipped cream on the proverbial brownie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
stitches Ring of Honor

stitches

Posted
Posted

On paper B+. He got 2 of my favorite FAs(Hankins and Simon), but he kind of overpaid for one of them(Hankins). He gave out good contracts that don't tie us up long term, yet give us some mid-term upside(the 3 year contracts) if those players pan out. We are arguably better now than before FA at pretty much every single position(except for CB) and he did it without big splashes. He improved the depth and competition on the roster and he set us up to largely be able to draft without much consideration for need in the draft.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jblastick Practice Squad

jblastick

Posted
Posted

He's swapped old and slow for young and fast.  The contracts don't create salary cap issues in future years.  He's taken one of the oldest rosters and turned them into one of the youngest without the benefit on ONE draft. If he builds the defense even stronger through the draft and this will be an outstanding offseason.  Being able to make ONE tackle to prevent a first down can be the difference in a game.  Colts had the 30th ranked defense last year.  I'm not expecting them to be top 10 but hell, be 20th and you'll win a couple more games.  Look at some of our losses last year that could've been wins with a LITTLE better defense.  Detroit, both Houston games, Jax at London.  Turn those into wins and we're 12-4 last year as crazy as that sounds.  If you think about last year, the only games we really weren't competitive in were at Denver, KC, Oakland and Pittsburgh.  I don't feel many, if any, of our 8 wins last year were "fortunate" or lucky. We MAY have caught Green Bay playing poorly but that happens to all teams.  San Diego was a game we won late but actually pretty much controlled and squandered away the lead.  Last game vs Jax you throw out given the circumstances of being out of the playoff hunt.  I realize I'm making a short story long but the Colts aren't as far away as many (out of market mostly) might think.  We need to be BETTER on defense, not elite and I think by getting younger and quicker (and will be even more so through the draft) Ballard has really done that.  Grade = A for executing his plan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mr. Irrelevant Team Captain

Mr. Irrelevant

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, stitches said:

On paper B+. He got 2 of my favorite FAs(Hankins and Simon), but he kind of overpaid for one of them(Hankins). He gave out good contracts that don't tie us up long term, yet give us some mid-term upside(the 3 year contracts) if those players pan out. We are arguably better now than before FA at pretty much every single position(except for CB) and he did it without big splashes. He improved the depth and competition on the roster and he set us up to largely be able to draft without much consideration for need in the draft.

 

Yeah, it is also important to stress that Ballard had to do a lot in a short time. He was hired late, had to make a lot of decisions about which players to cut, and the quickly patch things up in FA. You're not meant to rebuild a team with FA (and this is not the long term goal with this FA class), but defense definitely looks better now than in December.

 

What I like the most, however, is that you get a feeling that Ballard has a vision for building a defense, with Grigson it was kinda random. I couldn't see the overall vision anyway, LOL. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Defjamz26 Ring of Honor

Defjamz26

Posted
Posted

B+

 

I don't think he made any bad moves. Young players on cheap contracts. He's creating real depth and competition which we didn't have in the Grigson era because older FAs were brought in and handed jobs.I think based on what was available in FA vs the draft, he got what we needed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...