ColtStrong2013

I understand this to be a sensitive topic with the news of the day: But this post was the first thing I thought of this morning... Going into the first drama free offseason in a while, or so we thought.

I doubt there are very many on this forum that don't wish that...

They could also create a new ownership group (calling Peyton Manning) and put more pressure back onto the NFL. We act like this isn't an owner's league. I have little thought that moving the Colts to a foreign city is a good idea versus a team in another small market elsewhere that doesn't have the same fan base and support.

Why the Indianapolis Colts? The team that has had one of the top attendance record in the entire league for the past, what? three decades? We also hosted the best Super Bowl possibly ever, in terms of efficiency. Make Tepper move to Mexico. He's a clown, and his fans are gone...

I’m not sure we really know… I hope to see an aggressive offseason. I would categorize last year as one. Landing a top offensive coaching candidate and pairing him with a top 5 draft pick, super human at qb was a pretty big change in the Ballard tenure. If he steps it up a notch from that this offseason, I don’t see a reason we won’t be competitive. Most of it will ride on Richardson’s health and continued development.

It depends how sentimental his museum is… selling his collect ion would put a huge dent in the taxes. I can’t imagine that taxes hasn’t been part of the planning. It’s poor planning if it hasn’t been in the works. I can’t imagine that being the case. perhaps they bring in some minority ownership to raise capital to offset that burden, but I don’t see it with how involved are. The Colts are the Irsay legacy. They all seem to be all-in on that. You can spot Carley on the sideline with a headset on most home games.

do you know what helps that? Having consistent qb play. It hides a lot of holes, and every team has them. The margin of winning is small, and more often than not can be pointed at the qb play. Houston game is the perfect example of that…

for one, they are all Indianapolis based girls. All 3 are vice-chairs and co-owners of the franchise. So the succession is in place. Carley is the oldest and has represented the team since 2004. Casey is married to AJ Foyt IV, you know the Indy car family… she went to Indiana University, as did Kalen, the youngest.

its the same tired “year 8- blah blah.” They have their qb. They have a legit head coach, not a last second makeshift guy pretending to be. They were a few plays away from the division title with their qb on IR. Get him weapons. Keep him protecting (mostly from himself). Add some pieces on defense and go do the damn thing.

No. I wasn't. I was only happy with the performance of Andrew Luck. I get what you are saying. I also think it could be a big reason Ballard's been given a second chance by Irsay. He might have wanted Frank to be a short term makeshift deal, but he had a good 2018 run and then Irsay tied him up with him for too long. We don't know that it was Ballard's decision to keep him that long, just like we don't know that it was Ballard making the decisions on qb's. I think the fact that he's been given a second chance, and this time Irsay stepped out of the picture and let him entirely conduct the coaching search/decision as well as draft the qb speaks volumes.

I don't disagree at qb. And I would say that he probably would agree with you, in hindsight. At the time, they had Phil Rivers coming in on what they all thought would be 2 years. It was probably the right time to make that move. Dodds scouted Herbert pretty hard and they ended up trading for Buckner. I really liked the idea of Jordan Love, and in hindsight, he could have worked out sitting for a year behind Rivers and then taking his lumps for the 2021 and 2022 seasons, which were miserable anyways. But that's all in hindsight, so it doesn't do much good discussing the what-if. What if Ty Goodson caught that ball, and we beat Houston and are still in the playoffs right now? See- I just don't like playing that game. It's not living in reality. We have our qb. We need to get him healthy and throwing again. We need to protect him and help him protect himself. And we need to be aggressive in putting weapons around him/shoring up the defensive side of the ball. Next year is a big year for the Indianapolis Colts. I won't sugarcoat it more than it needs to be said.

@shasta519 I don't expect you to read that post. Considering you just said you think I jerk off in a Ballard sock puppet. And I'm not sure you can actually read comprehensively. But you should try...

Anyone with a brain can realize the qb play is the difference between being on the edge of the playoffs and actually getting there. We win 11 games with a more competent qb in 2021 (remember we had a league-leading probowl nominated roster that year). We nearly won the division with Gardner. Minshew. at qb and half this forum won't even appreciate that fact. All anyone does on here is bash Ballard while praising CJ Stroud. And I get it to an extent. CJ's a hell of a football player, and it may very well be always a "What-if" situation for us regarding him. I went and looked at the poll from April that started circulating, and while I didn't participate for some reason, I like many, thought CJ was likely the best candidate, I just didn't think we would get him. I'm pretty high on Richardson's potential, and I'm of course concerned about injuries. What team isn't concerned about losing their franchise qb. This one especially is, or should be, considering we ruined the greatest young qb in the history of the game. But AR was Ballard's pick. The Irsay's were patient enough to give him that opportunity, one of which we will never know the true behind the scenes reason it took this long, although I have my beliefs and it's more to do with Irsay/Reich than it ever was Ballard. I can understand the frustration of his record up to this point. I can understand his frustration too. As miserable as it has been for us as fans, can you imagine how he feels? I "white-knight" for him because I feel that not defending him on things that are logical, like having a qb issue (there's a lot of teams that do and haven't been near as successful, even with multiple tries at top 5 qb picks) is not supporting him. And the fact is, he's our GM. He's going to continue to be, regardless of how big of a fit you people throw on this forum. Or how many articles Greg Doyle writes that no one reads because the Indy Star sold out like every other newspaper. I support him because I like the guy, genuinely like him. And I'm not alone in that. By all accounts, everyone that works with him and that has worked with him do too. Can't say that for our last GM. Total * that ruined a generational qb. All I ever see on here is stanning over his record like he accomplished anything. He accomplished selecting the easiest draft pick in the world in Andrew Luck, and then doing nothing while this franchise rode his back for several years. I didn't blame him for retiring. I would have quit a long time before he did. I'm an eternal optimist, to a fault. I'm very optimistic about a young, black super-stud athlete at Quarterback for this team, after everything this franchise has been through over the last decade. I think there is some really strong talent across the roster. Are there holes? obviously. Every team has them. The team's that hide them better than we have are the ones that are getting consistent qb play, and it makes all the difference. CJ Stroud is showing it... I'm hopeful Ballard grows as a GM. Just like you would hope your coach learns from mistakes early in his career and doesn't continue making them like Pagano and Reich did. I hope Steichen works wonders. As long as Chris Ballard's our GM, I am going to support him, and hope for his success. I don't have a timetable for that support. A lot of folks on here lost it a long time ago it seems. And I don't blame anyone, necessarily. It's just not the type of fan I'm going to be.

They were pretty close. I remember reading something some time ago about John Dorsey being pretty unorganized with stuff and after Ballard left, who many say was ultra-organized almost to a fault, it became more noticeable, and problems started coming up quickly. I'll see if I can find the article. Found it: https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/06/29/kansas-city-chiefs-john-dorsey-fired-nfl-notebook

“Shane we need to inform you that we’ve fired Chris Ballard.” -Jim Irsay “what? Why?” - Shane “it’s time to move on.” -irsay ”Mr. Irsay, Chris hired me, you let him handle that entire process remember?” “yeah it doesn’t matter now. We’ll be naming a gm soon.” - Irsay “I don’t know what to say. Chris and I were aligned on what the goals were going forward. We were close to exceeding every expectation with minshew, which wasn’t the plan as you know.” -Shane “listen, @shasta519, @OLD FAN MAN , turtle man @PRnum1, and the gang on the colts forum wanted him gone… and he’s gone so it’s time to move on Shane…” - Irsay “The colts forum, are you kidding me?” “no Shane… they know football. Let me tell you. turtleman not only didn’t want us to NOT pick cj stroud or Anthony, he didn’t want us to pick anyone at all last draft. I think he’s brilliant. I’m actually thinking about naming him assistant co-owner.”

because, uh, news flash… Steichen came here because of Ballard. Their ideals are aligned. If you think Steichen wasn’t massively influenced by the vision of drafting Anthony Richardson, I’m not sure what to tell you. Steichen could have told Ballard no, you do realize that right? He would have had plenty of other opportunities. And according to you and half of this board, plenty of opportunities to go to a place with a better GM. Except he didn’t. He chose to come to Indianapolis and work with Chris Ballard.

I just saw your name on the poll back in April for who you wanted the colts to draft at qb… you said none of the above. I don’t think you are a credible poster. lol. And the turtle talk is just weird. So I don’t think you are a serious poster either. have a good night turtle man

This is true. Good point. But that is a rare situation. and I think @Superman is correct, there was more than that was told leading to his abrupt firing.

Ballard 3-2-1 against Caserio head to head… one had a higher draft pick last year, with both taking qbs. Both teams had the same type of turnaround, except one had their drafted qb on IR and the other’s played mvp level. Division came down to a head-to-head matchup and the Texans won on a 4th down stop. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were being sarcastic, but you aren’t. You are totally serious and think you are “reasonable” to think Caserio runs circles around Ballard. lol.

Don't disagree. I think it's maybe more likely that there is dysfunction at the team level and changes there could be made before Brown is dealt. I read an interesting bit earlier that said the exit interview from Jason Kelce, and a discussion with AJ Brown could be the pieces that start a shakeup in the organization. It's certainly something to watch moving forward.

If you are stating that favoring disposing of Pagano and Reich more quickly, then I would suppose Jim Irsay would argue that he learned being patient and keeping the emotional stuff out of professional decisions was from the way his father ran things, which was on the opposite end of the spectrum.

I'd like to see it, but it's not visible.

I don't think they'll sit on him if he is willing to play hard ball and hold out. Especially if there is issues, but I doubt it's just with him. Eagles seem like they fell apart, and now that they are losing a leader in Jason Kelce, there's a lot of question marks. That o-line could be vastly different come training camp... I don't disagree that there might be concerns with the personality... And Ballard's also spoke of the ability to add explosive players in this draft, so it might be a massive reach, even if he were available. But if Vegas is throwing odds out there that he's likely gone, then it's worth paying attention to.

He said if they identify a game changer, then they will make it happen. He just said that last week… If Steichen says do it, then I think he’ll do it. AJ Brown would dramatically alter the offense. I doubt Ballard cares if his two biggest game changers were brought in by trading 1st round picks.

that’s more Jim Irsay’s philosophy on coaching than anyone… Ever heard the story of his dad firing the head coach after a preseason game? Jim was a kid and was humiliated. Sat and cried on the bus with the players he was so embarrassed. Swore he would never run the team like that. He’s been more than generous with coaches. It’s a large reason why Ballard is still handling things.