DougDew

I guess you are not following the hypothetical, or do but are now trying to turn something I said as a hypothetical into something literal. There are several of us questioning your contention that Irsay himself said that Indy...as a geography of market or city...is not a destination for free agents, which puts him and his GMs at a disadvantage to (essentially) building a competitive team. I would hope if this has been the prevailing message given to him over 25 years by agents, that the reasons he was given would have spilled out at some point. A facture or a ligament?

First of all, don't misrep what I said. I said IF Irsay thinks Indy is a hick town and he persistently stereotypes elite free agents as all wanting something more worldly (or not) than what Indy has to offer...as reason why FAs won't come here, I think he probably should resign as an NFL owner. I guess I'm just left with him not giving any reasons why Indy is perennially a losing city when it comes to free agent competition.

I laughed when I broke my toe. I can laugh at JT hurting his thumb given the circumstances. I'm not going along with any popular definition of sensitivity on the matter. Instead, the world would be a better place if people deferred to mine. Can you repeat what I said about JT that gives you that conclusion? The harshest of which was during a time when he himself (reportedly) said that he would never play for the Colts again. BTW, if I truly "disliked" JT, why would I need to avoid it just because you point it out? Plenty of people here still maintain he should not have the money. I am not one of them. I'm pretty neutral about it, and hope he breaks off a few big runs to earn it. Maybe he won't have the playing time now.

You're defending Irsay here without ever getting to the point of what you wrote. Why does Irsay think that Indy is not a destination for FA? If that's what Irsay has been told over the past 25 years by a variety of GMs, players, and agents, certainly he can repeat the reasons he's been given. What are the reasons Irsay has given as to why free agents don't want to come to Indy?

I think you need to walk back your post. Its a thumb injury that's not even certain to be severe, as its been presented to us thus far. I'd wager that in a few weeks of doing nothing, he's going to have a fully functional hand and it will have no impact on his ability to lead a full life until age 80. But its impact on his ability to fulfill a new rich contract going into a playoff run is kind of humorous given the totality of the season. I'm not walking anything I said about JT back. I've never said to not sign him....if he indeed comes around to wanting to be in Indy at all. If he doesn't want to be here and will never play here....based upon reports/rumors at the time...I'd say don't expect to get much in a trade for him. He changed his mind about wanting to play for Indy (reportedly), and the contract was signed at the same time. I have no problem with a ballhanding potential impact player making $14m. ( Its the nonball handling or non impact players making north of $18m is what I question) JT is a national name because he broke off several long TD runs. Without those, he's just another RB who does well when his oline blocks well, and not so well when it doesn't. I have no idea if he will earn his contract or not (by breaking off runs). Who knows when that happens...or if it will ever happen again. I'm not one of the posters who said to not sign him. Just like I'm not a Levis lover, despite what some want to think. LOL.

If I'm understanding what you are saying. Irsay has said that the Colts cannot compete in signing the most expensive free agents because of the size of the market. Or (and), the Indy market is not desirable to elite free agents because of what it is, (which means Irsay believes all elite free agents think alike and want the same things from a city) If Irsay actually believes the latter, I'd say he should just pack up his things and leave town now, because he's obviously either not a Hoosier at heart or he stereotypes what the elite free agents want out of life (but that the other free agents are okay with Indy because it suits them) I'm not criticizing you or Irsay. Just saying that what you are saying doesn't quite portray Irsay in a nice light, IMO. I'm probably not following.

I don't think so. I assume the topic of Indy being a cultural waste land for elite NFL players came from people outside of Indy. But if Irsay actually thinks the average elite NFL player needs better night clubs to go to than what Indy offers, he's hanging in the wrong circles.

Have they given the reasons behind their conclusions? Or are we to conclude that they think players think Indy is a cultural hick town? Have you considered the possibility that this is just an excuse for them losing battles?

So why would Reich want to trade assets to get Young in the first place? And why would CAR hire Frank if they thought Young was best? Wouldn't they talk about RPO and offensive scheme when they decide to hire a HC and trade up for a QB of their choice? Or just to get a sense of how the HC would run his O? Having to go to Frank and ask him now seems about 9 games and $30m too late.

There seems to be a discussion around surgery. Probably a ligament that's on the cusp of being able to heal with no intervention. At this point, not a whole lot different from what we first heard about AR.

LOL. Its okay. I stubbed my toe once so hard I broke it. I laughed at myself, so I'm okay with laughing at a guy who can't work because he hurt his thumb and still makes millions.

Dislike for him? I think the contract is fine. I never said otherwise. He's a guy who handles the ball frequently and can make plays so $14m isn't out of the question. But there is a theory that RBs get hurt a lot and that any one of them is unreliable. Seems to be holding true...and these have just been sort of stupid minor things....not like getting a knee blown up.

LOL.

If I were to remake the TE room, I'd start with Ogletree as the in-line TE and Mallory as the move TE. And we typically carry 4. Cox and Granson can seek roster competition. Woods needs to show me that he can stay healthy or fix whatever he's got going on off-field (his injury situation seems odd)

And from a FoxNews article on the firing. Panthers team owner David Tepper reportedly urged the team to pick Young over Stroud. It depends upon the definition of "reportedly". The author could be just cutting and pasting somebody else's sloppy reporting.

The financial aspect of small market vs large market is nonsense, IMO. There are more endorsements from local car dealerships in NYC than Indy? So what. Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes are doing commercials for State Farm insurance, and they play for KC. From a financial aspect, I'd say that avoiding a high state income tax rate on your NFL contract would be a greater financial incentive than the income generated by local endorsements.

What destroys a locker room is seeing players getting paid more for not performing any better than the next guy in his spot. Those players have to either play to their level of pay or be held accountable and cut. JMO.

A former DT of the Colts, Ellis Johnson, was a competitive bass fishing tournament contestant. Had the boat, rods and reels, equipment, to be very good and actually turned pro after he retired from the Colts, IIRC. I'd wager that a good portion of NFL players come from small towns/small markets and are not interested in the places the media thinks cool people want to live. Can't speak to Irsay, but he does seem to have some of that trendy coolness take on things so he might in fact think that the lack of FAs is because of the Indy culture lifestyle. Sounds like an excuse though.

For the discussion about who wanted Young....Reich or Tepper...check out WalterFootball's "firing grade" for Reich. (The site is a PITA to load so I'll let y'all find it yourselves). He says "The coaching staff wanted Stroud but Tepper picked Young". WF could be simply spreading the logical inference many have made, but reading his site over the years tells me that he does have a decent level of inside contacts into NFL teams and their scouting world.

Thinking about this a bit. Rhule got hired away from Baylor...not fired. Rhule was not really a free agent coach to be free to sign anywhere. Rhule was fired from CAR, so was sort of a free agent to be hired by any college. I can see Rhule's side where on one hand he was hired away by CAR, so they would pay Baylor's contract, but the other he was fired by CAR, so NEB would not be responsible for CAR contract. CAR would be wrong to blend the salaries as a calculation. I would think that in most situations, the college coach gets hired away by the NFL coach, and not the other direction. I guess Saban moved onto to Alabama, but probably had to resign from MIA to do it. Seems a very lawyerly issue. You may be right. Just pointing out a difference in the two situations.

@rockywoj, @RollerColt BTW, hedging is when your normal business profit is based upon a set of conditions, and you "hedge" the business to protect it from those conditions changing. A proper hedge has to have a profitable business line underpinning. If the hedge itself is the source of profit...that's when it looks like gambling or funny money. Farmers might have a situation where they have input costs at, say, $4,00 per bushel and output sale crop prices are $6.00 per bushel at the time of their input. They "hedge" the crop prices as to lock in their $2.00/bushel profit....in case by the time they sell the crop prices haven't declined to $5.00/ bushel or less. Of course, the hedge eliminates the possibility they gain a windfall if prices rise to $7.00/bushel by the time they sell. They use a hedge to lock in the margin created by their main line of work. They are not hedging (speculating) on crop prices as their main driver of income/wealth. There is a difference. Now back to football.....

I would point out that our oline is probably the best its been in 3 years, because we have the best LT we've had in three years. I would say that Shane's Minshew/Raimann/Downs/Pittman/Moss, is as good as anything Frank worked with since Luck. But I'm not comparing Shane to Reich. I'm comparing CAR's talent to the talent Reich had here. Frank deserves to be fired both times. Just pointing out the similarities of the weaknesses in the talent.

However you criticize it, we still scored a lot of points under Reich/Wentz with basically the same players we have now but lower quality LT. Scored a lot more than CAR is scoring. The big difference is that CAR doesn't have JT, but I don't see that as a complete account.

We scored a lot of points during the Wentz year, without a great oline and the same if not worse WRs. Last season was just bad everywhere. Just saying that the criticisms of the CAR talent pool look a lot like the weaknesses around here over the past three seasons now. Frank has been dealing with the same issues with two different teams. I think he should have done better, just pointing it out. It would be interesting to see where CAR would have been if they had Moore, CMC, and Levis. Not a juggernaut but probably 5 wins by now?

Don't these rules apply when a fired coach gets hired by another team within the NFL? Nebraska contract wouldn't have an impact on CARs NFL contract. Heck, Rhule could get hired as the CEO of Home Depot and it shouldn't affect the terms of the CAR contract? I don't see the Reich/Colts/CAR situation being the same as Rhule/ CAR/ NEB.