DougDew

@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.

And the NFC South has been pretty weak. They'd probably be leading/contending for the division even if Levis was the QB.

Have they squandered the capital gained from the McCaffrey trade? That trade is looking like a waste at the moment.

Tells you that they were a bad team going into the draft, then gave up draft picks and a good weapon for a young QB to have to then take the worst young QB of the 4 in contention. JMO.

Funny thing, his offense looks that same as it did here. But he also suffers from having the same bad WRs and Oline problems, not to mention questions at QB.

JTs price is built on him breaking off some long runs for TDs. That's what made him an NFL name. He needs to do that several times in a season to earn that level of money, IMO. The stuff he has been doing since his return is very good, but not really elite.

11/26 Young: 18/31 194 yds, 0TDs, 0INTs, Longest 25 yds, 4 Sacks, Rating 76.5 Stroud: 26/36 304 yds 2TDs, 0INTs, Longest 34, Sacks 4, Rating 116 AR: N/A Levis: 18/28 185 yds, 0TDs, 0INTs, Longest 25, Sacks 1, Rating 83.2 Bonus: (4th round) Aiden O'Connell, LVR: 23/33 248 yds, 1TD, 0INT, Longest 33 yds, Sack 1, Rating 101.2 I'd say that Levis and Young look like rookie QBs, who also have bad weapons/offenses to manage. Stroud looks like a top 16 QB already. And O'Connell has been playing better than Young and Levis, IMO eye test, despite being a 4th round rookie on his 2nd HC (which may be an improvement from the 1st)

Bowers played last week, probably 20 snaps. I get a lot of UGA games. They said he had surgery for a high ankle sprain and recovered in about half of the predicted time. So he might be a tough guy/quick healer type. The last WalterFootball mock draft I saw had him going to the Colts at 13. He probably would be BPA if he was there at 13.

I agree about the guarantee. I said that a few pages ago, just didn't repeat it in the recent string of comments. Getting better for the playoffs and improving the roster could simply come in the form of giving the other (and better?) LBers Leonard's playing time. Maybe go with more safeties, and Leonard was seen as the odd man out. I'm no fan of Cox, but I see him as at least doing one thing better than the other TEs, blocking, so I don't think he is as easy to replace as Leonard. I also think the Team Captain designation had already seemed like a nod to Leonard's stature. I mean, the guy has hardly played in two years so its kind of hard for him to have actually earn that status in 2023. And with his comments being less than the company-line many times, I don't think he really had much stature with the FO anymore. Just a guess.

Maybe they would have by now if Woods was ready to play. I think its cuts are usually about roster spots and upgrading with replacements, ultimately. With investment in the future a consideration.

I think it would be a bit weird to have a Team Captain inactive the rest of the year because of bad play. Usually the captains are the star players. I don't think Leonard ever said anything out of line, but everything he did say seemed to conflict with the decision makers decisions...for a number of years now. Style can mask substance for only so long. But I doubt there was any real concern over him being a locker room issue. Again, they probably just wanted to free up a roster spot to see if they can find better coverage guys/combos.

Thanks, I forgot they already did. Ballard is always trying to improve the team by churning the bottom of the roster. Fans are confused because they think Leonard was something better than that. And a bottom tier guy who vocally wanted starter playing time....well...that math doesn't compute.

I don't know why this is complicated. They released a player who was not outplaying his backups. Ballard/SS is trying to improve the defense, and Leonard was a known quantity who's play was not improving. They probably released Leonard to get better for the playoff run....to be replaced by better LBers.....and might even bring in a LB SS hybrid who can cover the middle better with the vacated roster spot? The other stuff is just fans coming to grips with it, IMO, and assuming that the Colts released a very good player mid season...which is not really the case.

The issue is that Mallory and Granson will never be great blockers..JMO. And Woods had catching issues when he did play. I think those are some pretty big things to hang your hat on getting corrected if a generational TE is sitting there at 13 when you pick. Do you want AR waiting for those TEs to reach their potential, or give him an immediately high level player (like Nelson) that gives him a target day 1? And the more I talk, the more I sound like Bowers to the Colts. But I'd be happy with any player at any position outside of oline that could come in day 1 and play at a high level.

The LT position has been unsettled the past three years. Maybe now they can more seriously address the issue since Raimann seems solid. But then there is Kelly too, and his concussion. And Q is playing well. I've never been a fan of the initial draft investment or the resign (didn't really care much) but I think there are a lot more priorities on this team than trying to save $10M at LG.

The difference between Q and Darius is that there is really no one to take over for Q like there was for Leonard. You can't just cut somebody for financials unless you have a player of equal caliber to replace him. Even if he is overpaid, I don't see a ready replacement for Q on the roster. Cutting Leonard really didn't hurt the team given the other LBers already here.

Yeah, I forgot about that. Seems like those of us who thought he might struggle because of body type have some support at this point...also by the way he played upon his return.

I probably sound like I'm a big Bowers to the Colts guy because I bring this up a lot. I'm not, but I previously said that I would not look at our TE room as something that should keep us from drafting a game changer at TE (if that's what Bowers is). TE was considered a strength here by many, but there are a lot of questions there....with each one of them. Ogletree seems to be the most solid player, IMO.

That's something the Colt/Ballard have tried to sell as an attraction. I think its a hard thing to sell. Maybe those days are over now with SS advising Ballard.

He's been mildly rebelling against "the established policy" for a couple of years. We want you to get vaxxed: No, I'm not We call you Darius: No, its actually Shaq. We want you to play MIKE: I prefer my old spot We are playing other guys: I need to play more You're fired: Wow, they fire me on my day off. Nothing seemed to be a straight yes...and more of a passive aggressive no with a lot of stuff Irsay/NFL/coaching wanted. When there are other guys to take his spot with cheaper pay, its not that hard to cut Darius.

I don't think there is any doubt. And in a way, the Colts let Leonard demonstrate that he could not play up to his level of compensation. Not that a team can't cut a player at any time, but giving him the playing time shows everybody where Leonard is at.