DougDew

We are thin at NT. The guys you mentioned are lighter guys who play the inside when the DL is in full speed pass rush mode and Grover goes out. We are thin at guys who can stuff the run.

Keep it up young man. Not bad for his 3rd? NFL start and going up against the Jags.

I believe the drug that Mathis tested positive for...a fertility drug... is considered a masking agent by the NFL, not a direct anabolic. Mathis' excuse for having that masking agent was infertility issues ( I believe after they already had kids before the twins? maybe not). I may be wrong about that.

Yeah. The tweet saying that meat is "produced" makes it sound like its an imported product to me. Someone floating the idea that it came from foreign meat seems like fishing for an excuse.

Um. Meat comes from Poultry, Pork, and Beef. That would be chickens, turkey's, pigs, and cows. Possibly an old plow horse (wink, wink) if the packing plant was making sausage. Meat is raised locally. Its not a product that can be easily "outsourced". Its not what we call "produced". Meat is raised. Most athletes with money want fresh cuts. They rarely shop for canned hot dogs at Aldi. Maybe because Chinese meat has anabolic steroids' in it would be a reason a multimillionaire would buy his meat from China in the first place, as an excuse. The claim that's why he failed the test? If I was Goodell and a player used that as an excuse, I'd laugh and then point him to the many players that consult professional nutritionists about consuming the freshest cuts of lean meat. China makes a lot of things better than the USA. Cows ain't one of them.

But they secured their Top 5 NFL RB for 3 years, so there is a lot to cheer about.......

Throughout the entire NFL? I don't pay attention to stuff like that. But Robert Mathis' game improved exponentially the year he was taking a supposedly benign fertility drug....and led the entire NFL in sacks that year. He never had as good of a year as the year he took the PEDs. Then he retired. Are you saying that PEDs cannot be performing enhancing in Grover's case? How did he perform in the 5 years? he didn't test positive for PEDs? And is he surprising people with his play this year and a part of last year?

I don't know if I would be as harsh as you about this. But the stuff as you describe it sounds more like a collection of players that don't have the proper personalities. IMO, its not something that can be guided/changed by some type of locker room nanny imposing their character onto players that have different character. Now, I'm not characterizing it as a character issue, but what you describe sound like a personality issue that can't be fixed by a policy. IMO, its a sign of a locker room that has a collection of players that are less talented...less than the whole package needed....than the typical team and are overachieving physically and mentally just to stay 500. Maybe too many humans that are high "RAS" with high individual ceilings...but not a demonstrated history of being the type it takes to be good team football players?

Yeah, but after 6 games, he still plays this season. How easy will it be to stay out of the top 10 if Grove comes back as a JAG?

Its why they're called Performance Enhancing and why the NFL bans the substance Grover tested for. Who knows what the effect on Grove was, but the idea that he won't come back the same player is not nonsense at all.

Which then makes you wonder about his statement. I assume the player is told to "knock it off" and why before they suspend him 6 games? maybe not.

On purpose or not, if the PEDs had him playing at a higher level then it will impact his play going forward.

New information for the prognosticators to process: Grover out 6 weeks for PED suspension. Which also begs the question, will he be the same player without PEDs? (don't know what they were)

Well, that explains some things.

Those words in the post were edited out after a few minutes. So they are nobody's words.

It was my mistake. I'm not questioning Irsay over what he just said. I don't think the Colts are playing loose with words to their advantage. I assume the Colts acknowledge the grade 3 MRI sprain diagnosis. And that degree does not require surgery. So the grade 3 MRI result gives an aura of the Colts being the source of the 4-6 week speculation, and not just media types rumoring. I think its not unreasonable for many fans to be confused when there were facts supporting the 4-6 week statement, no matter who said it.

Yes. I didn't engage in the JT thread much because what both the Colts said and JT said was fairly benign, with most of the intense stuff being media speculation. So I must have misinterpreted the 4 week timeline for AR originally stated as a team media release when it was not. But the idea that SS would be the person speaking about the (non) timeline, then Irsay gives a timeline, is something that confuses the situation. I expect the HC to be the spokesperson for player availability. Obviously, when the issue is contract than somebody higher than the HC would speak. But injury and who he's going to play, the HC should be the media source even when its a season ending procedure, IMO.

Schefter typically reports speculation whenever I watch him. He talks a lot and says nothing. Maybe he should wear a hat with a neon sign that says "for the next 90% I'll have airtime, I'm speculating rumors" then the other 10% of his reports he can go hatless and be the news guy. Since he doesn't do that, I'm not going to spend the time to read everything he reports only to weed out the good stuff. He's a Sports "inside scoop celebrity" that ESPN allocates air time for. I assume that the Colts wouldn't need to engage directly if they thought guys like Schefter didn't get in the way. I assume I'd have to weed through Rappaport's stuff too.

Other QBs don't always do that though. I mean, they are going to have to take a normal NFL hit once in a while and not leave the game over it. Maybe his body has never been tested enough in college to know whether it even has the make-up to be an NFL player. Maybe if he played more in college, an injury history would be part of his resume. He may not have even made it to the draft if he had a more normal college career similar to the players typically taken #4. And maybe drafting him #4 and throwing away normal college player analytical fundamentals was just hopeful/desperate effort on the part of Ballard. Maybe AR is simply on a bust trajectory due to fragility. Size and speed have nothing to do with that. I guess we'll have to live with these possibilities until next season when we can find out more about AR. Too bad.

Or the media not being a reliable source when 4 weeks is mentioned.....so the Colts have to give their message outside of media. Which is weird. The more media there is, the more everybody ignores it. Makes you wonder how it can survive. Teams and fans just bypass the media and message directly. And ESPN wants how much for a subscription for the opportunity to watch its shows 24/7? LOL. I'm certainly not a media/news junkie. If before I'm going to spend my time reading a bunch of stuff only to weed it down to 5%, I guess I'll need work extra hard and devote more hours of my life learning my media/twitter celebrities.

I had the same reaction to the intense criticisms of Frank's play calling. How does anybody know that what we didn't do would have worked out better than what we did? I get conversation, but intense arguing....which is usually prompted by intense opinion......is weird. How can someone be so convinced that what didn't happen would have been better than what actually happened?

Before y'all argue over your speculations, its a moot debate because we will only know one side of it. Anybody who thinks we'd have done better or worse with AR is just speculating.

Yes, I know. MJHj was mentioned in the OP, that's why I'm even talking about it.

I suggested trading for Ridder if ATL wanted to trade up to 4 for a QB (because some were insisting they wanted a new QB). And then build out the roster with the draft picks. Ridder is not going to be the super hero guy, but a team can win games with him, IMO. I would not describe that as being "high" on him. That trade scenario was in the context of us not getting Stroud and ATL wanting to trade up to get a new QB (which I didn't remotely think they wanted). I've never wanted the Colts to draft Bennett, just like I've never wanted the Colts to draft Young. They are both too small, IMO. My seemingly positive comments about Bennett was in the convo about why in the world Young was thought of so highly by so many. I didn't see the disparity, but I never wanted either of them. Agree that outside WR gets the better ROI. I'm not advocating Bowers over MJHj or anybody at this point. But I think he needs to be in the convo despite who we have in our TE room.

This wins the post of the month.