[Chuck Pagano expresses his concern on Colts current offensive line situation]

ColtJ82    I may be jumping the gun a little about the line. This is how my mind works. If Holmes was a really good center why did he only get 12 snaps last year when Satele was obviously struggling horribly. I am all for letting him start, but who is the backup plan if he doesn't work out?  Mewhort is changing positions from tackle to guard and he is a rookie. How can he be trusted to jump right in and be a starter? Lance Louis to me isn't an upgrade in any sense of the word. I am starting to feel like I'm being negative, and I dont want to be. It just scares me to have all these questions marks on the line that is protecting ANDREW LUCK.. I am just tired of us having this problem year after year. Luck has hit the ground 250 times in his first 2 years. That is absolutely insane. This was a year when we could have afforded to spend money to upgrade the line, and Im afraid we didnt again this year. I hope Im wrong trust me.

[Chuck Pagano expresses his concern on Colts current offensive line situation]

This whole thing is setting up to be another instance where Grigson plays with fire and gets burnt. I for one am not sold on his ability to GM a super bowl contending team. Look at his draft picks and free agent signings. Look at the amount of money he has wasted on injury prone players who spend a good part of the season injured. I love the Colts. I want them to win more than anything. I just have no trust in Grigson. This whole offensive line situation shows me once again that he gambles big and loses often.Our interior line has been a horrilbe for years and years. He cuts 2 of last years starters and brings in no one. I agree that Satele and McGlynn needed to go, but to cut them and bring in no one is insane. Did he not even consider that Thompson could go down again? What if one of these young guys we have left on the line gets hurt for a couple games? What are we going to do then? He is putting so much trust in Holmes, and he hasn't even started one game in his short career. I just have this recurring nightmare of Clowney and Watt making a Luck sandwich. We have cap money left. I just don't see why he didn't bring in a couple good linemen to compete for starting jobs and to have for depth in case something like this happens. How many years do we have to have one of the worst O-lines in the league before we do something about it. At least Richardson will have an excuse for being horrible again this year. 

[Panic from the start.]

Does anyone else feel like Pep Hamilton is one of our biggest liabilities? It seems like every week he gives us a game plan. It NEVER works so we get way behind in the 1st half. Then after we have absolutely no other choice  he lets Luck take over the game and let loose and  most of the time we come back and win. It worked in the regular season, but never works long in the playoffs. You cant continue to expect other teams to make mistakes for your team to win. I now understand why he called it a no coast offense. No one would take credit for that crap. I just hope they learned something this season, and next year with all our players back we can have an awesome season.

[The Mental Side (Of The Richardson Trade)]

There is absolutely no doubt that this Richardson was a huge mistake. 4th in inches down by 3 touchdowns in the 4th quarter and we have to punt. That's says all you need to know about this power runner, and the coaches trust in his game. He was brought in exactly for those situations. I don't understand why this guy gets a pass every week. I have never heard of a player getting so many excuses made for him on why he cant perform, but he is what he is,and the real problem is that the coaches kept playing him week after week after he obviously wasn't running good. It took them way to long to pull him from the starting lineup. That's all on the coaches. I am not sold on Grigson, Hamilton or Munusky's judgement. We have the best young QB in the league, and I hope to God they can put the pieces around him to make this a championship team. I just hope Pagano can make the hard decisions and cut players and coaches if they don't perform. When we get all our players back and get a few key needs taken care of I think we will have a great year next year. The one thing that can mess us up is if they count on Richardson to be anything other that what I think he is. a 3rd option for running back. We need to resign Brown and hopefully Ballard will be back to 100 percent, but if not we have to get someone else. I just hope Grigsons pride doesn't sabotage us for next year.

[Ryan Grigson is the real problem.]

2013 was a good year in the history of the Indianapolis Colts. Some would even say great- but the truth is this, a group of youngsters that overcame adversity and overachieved despite the administrators of the team hindering them at every turn. The Indianapolis Colts began the 2013 season by acquiring a handful and a half of free agent players. Some were obvious fits for the scheme, such as LaRon Landry and Ahmad Bradshaw however, the former Executive of the Year seemed to whiff on some of the intermediate talent that he had acquired. Questions were raised about the acquisitions of Lawrence Sidbury and the insane contract given to Erik Walden. Most Colts fans and personnel were spoiled by the 2012 season, one where every Draft Pick and acquisition seemed to work for the Indianapolis Colts, however in 2013, that would be a different story all-together.

 

The downhill trend began with the 24th pick of the 2013 NFL Draft Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano thought it best to draft Bjoern Werner, a Defensive End from Florida State and convert him to an outside linebacker- with names like Kiko Alonso and Alec Ogletree (Both ILBs, but true linebackers) still on the draft board. The Colts then went on to draft two linemen on the offensive side, one on the defensive, a safety, a runningback and a tight end through the last six rounds of the draft. Of the six drafted players- zero started the season. One lineman (Hugh Thornton) earned a starting position due to injury, Werner was a rotational OLB, Khaled Holmes was (for some reason) AWOL the entire season. Boyett- the safety had off-the-field issues which led to him being released from the team. The defensive lineman, Montori Hughes ended the season with the Colts, albeit on injured reserve and the running back, Kerwynn Williams ended up bouncing on and off of the practice squad before the San Diego Chargers signed him. 

 

While the free agent additions of LaRon Landry, Ahmad Bradshaw and Gosder Cherilus ended up ok, the absolute horrendous acquisitions of Erik Walden, Lawrence Sidbury, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Kelvin Sheppard drained cap money that could have been used elsewhere and on more productive players. 

 

Then the season began-

 

Three weeks into the NFL season, Vick Ballard, Ahmad Bradshaw, Donald Thomas, and Dwayne Allen's seasons all ended. Ryan Grigson decided to counteract these injuries by swapping out his 1st round pick for Trent Richardson- a Running back selected two spots behind Andrew Luck in the 2012 NFL Draft, and the apparent savior to the Indianapolis Colts. His impact was not felt, and he was relegated to a #2 RB spot. 

 

Here's looking to 2014, a season that will most likely begin with Samson Satele still in the offensive line works, two consecutive wasted 1st Round Picks, and another disappointing draft for the Indianapolis Colts. Don't worry though, Grigson's gotta get something right sometime? He WAS Executive of the Year last year. 

I absolutely agree with most of what you are saying. I don't understand why Grigson gave starter money to injury prone free agents who were back ups on their old teams. I also don't understand what makes him think a WR who cant catch (DHB) and a RB who cant run (Richardson) on their old teams would do any better on our teams. Andrew Luck (much like Manning) makes the people around him look good though. Including the GM. Even if they don't exactly deserve it. There is no doubt this last off season was a disaster. Over 100 million spent in free agency, and who did we get (besides Laundry, who hits hard, but is a liability in coverage). I just hope he learns from his mistakes and brings in players who can play at a championship level. He has already all but killed our chances of having a good 2014 draft. I'm also not sold on Pep Hamilton. Our offense never looked prepared for the teams they were facing, and the reason we pulled it together at the end of the year was because we obvioudly completely abandoned his "Power Run" offense and put the ball in Luck's hands and let him do what he does best. I understand that we lost a ton of players to injury, and the way Luck pulled this team together and had a successful season says a lot about how special of a player he is. We just need to put the right people around him (including coaches and GM's) before we are going to be able to win championships. The other side of the ball is a mess. I just hope Pagano can make the hard choices and get rid of players and coaches who don't perform.