bababooey
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Posts posted by bababooey
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AFC West is in, we still have the best grade. Raiders, Chiefs, Chargers all got C+ and Denver got a B.
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5 hours ago, Finball said:
No one from AFC west should get A- but from NFC west, 49ers have pretty strong case.
True, the only thing they were missing was trading for Cousins.
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Hopefully Aiken lights a fire under his butt
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2 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:
By the way.....
Our A- grade was the HIGHEST in the division.
I mentioned that in my quote underneath my original post, we currently have the only A- in the entire NFL, with two more division write ups to be published tomorrow and Thursday.
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10 minutes ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:
From what I read team doctors expected that he wouldn't require surgery, then once it just wasn't responding, there wasn't really a choice.
Sucks because that's a 3-4 month wait and now he might miss time.
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11 hours ago, southwest1 said:
I'm just amazed that anybody at ESPN gave our draft & acquisitions an A. Usually, their writers heap all the praise on Luck, slam our owner, & claim we can't win against playoff caliber teams.
This temporary 'love fest' for INDY is just a byproduct of unloading Grigson. They'll be back to ignoring us once the regular season starts. LOL! I like being under estimated. It lowers expectations & makes other squads dismiss us at their own peril. Keep doing it reporters. I prefer the element of surprise anyway.
On the flip side, Peter King and the MMQB have us at 24 while Tennessee is at 4.
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It begins...
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Not a fan of Nike's. The "mesh" on the Reebok jersey fell with gravity, now sitting on the couch in my Nike jersey bunches up bc they are meant to be worn by people standing in the game and not couch potatoes.
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4 minutes ago, Coltfreak said:
ColtFreaks.com. Love the salary cap. Breakdown.
Are you the admin of that site?
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6 minutes ago, BR-549 said:
And ...
FWIW, I get the feeling players are buying in now, mostly because they see real leadership and decision making in our GM.
No source, just a gut feeling.
When you bring in guys from good defensive teams like Hankins, Sheard, and Simon, in addition to Ballard from Kansas City and then have a strong draft and a rejuvenated group of guys that are all Grigson era guys you may see us take a 2015 Carolina/Denver or 2016 Atlanta like step and exceed expectations similar to 2012.
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17 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:
Around the NFL, there is still great concern about our OL.
The reason why I don't share that concern to the same level is one man..... Joe Philbin.
I think Philbin has told Ballard the pieces are here, they just need time and experience.
So, in Philbin I trust and I'm impressed that Ballard, in his first year, trusted Philbin to this extent. I like Banner very much and believe he'll be part of our starting OL in the years to come.
But all in all, Philbin is the guy who makes this go.....
I know we are biased but I agree, we see it more granular than they do. 3/5ths of the OL could start on any team. The right side is coming along, but was good enough to win 8 games, and if our defense moves from 30th to even 25 then that is the difference between winning and losing games against Detroit in week 1, Texans on SNF, and Jags in London.
Until the Jags aren't picking in the top 5, I do not care how much people are in love with them. Until the Titans can beat us (it's been years), I do not care how much people are in love with them. Until the Texans win a playoff game against a team with an actual QB that we didn't have to take out for them, I do not care how much people are in love with them.
We had what it took to win the division last year and blew it, we had as good of an offseason as you can have on paper, let's hope things start to come together.
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I use reddit for my other teams (Yankees and NY Rangers) as there isn't really a baseball or hockey board I'm into, plus I love the spicy memes people post. I also have WFAN as the radio station for my local teams but this Colts board is my home for all things Colts. I live in the northeast so I just don't listen to Indiana radio.
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15 hours ago, Luck is Good said:
Penguins just obliterated the Senators today by a score of 7-0. Holy crap. I think the Penguins will end that in Game 6. And I think the Predators will finish off the Ducks in Game 6 tomorrow night
Need penguins to win so I can feel better about the Rangers snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against Ottawa. Although Carl Hagelin is on my % list after saying Marc Andre Fleury is the best teammate he's ever had and it's not close.
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Went 3-3 in our division and 8-8 after handing victories to Detroit, Houston, and Jacksonville. Luck will be healthy. Grigson is gone. Defense is better. Gimme the AFC South crown again.
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Also should be known that he gave us the highest grade in the AFC South (Texans C+, Jags B+, Titans B) and we have the highest grade in the NFL right now with NFC South/West and AFC West coming out later this week, no other team currently is above B+ except us.
Edit 5/23: NFC South is out, we still have the best grade and only A-
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Link for AFC South article, you can click on the right side to see the other divisions as well (not all are finished, they will be wrapped up by Wednesday 5/24)
Indianapolis Colts
What went right
Jim Irsay fired Ryan Grigson and replaced him with Chris Ballard. It's hard to think of an NFL general manager who did less with more than Grigson, who had Andrew Luck fall into his lap with the first pick in his first draft and spent most of the next five years putting obstacles in the QB's way. Grigson had a solid 2012 draft after Luck, but then struggled mightily in the years to come while mostly striking out in free agency. With an ailing Luck missing time in 2015 and 2016, the Colts fell far enough for Grigson to lose his job.
Ballard, his replacement, spent time in a pair of successful organizations by working with the Brian Urlacher-era Bears before joining John Dorsey as he revitalized Kansas City's roster. That alone isn't enough to prove Ballard will succeed -- Grigson, after all, won a Super Bowl as a scout in St. Louis before enjoying years of success with the Eagles -- but Ballard's first offseason with the team has been very promising, both in terms of attacking weaknesses and identifying value within the market.
Ballard bought in bulk to shore up the defense. After years of neglect and poor drafting, the Colts sadly aren't one star player away from turning things around. They gave tons of snaps to replacement-level talent during the past few years, a combination of mid-to-late round picks forced into meaningful roles along with big-name free agents who failed to live up to expectations.
In his first offseason with the team, Ballard rightfully took the quantity approach to shoring up the league's fourth-worst defense per DVOA from a year ago. He targeted useful rotation players from other teams and came away with shockingly good deals, especially given how desperate teams were to acquire pass-rushers and defensive pieces.
Take Jabaal Sheard, who was a three-year starter in Cleveland before playing as a solid rotation end for the Patriots after Chandler Jones left last year. Sheard recorded 13 sacks in two seasons with the Pats and picked up a three-year, $25 million deal to join Indy. Compare his deal to the three-year, $27 million contract handed out to Miami's Andre Branch, who spent four years as a relatively anonymous piece in Jacksonville before putting together a competent half-season playing alongside two superstars in Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake last year. The last time Sheard hit the market (2015), the Patriots thought he was worth $5.5 million per year. The last time Branch hit the market, the league thought he was worth half that.
Of course, there's more to the deal than the average annual numbers. Sheard's deal has $9.9 million in real guarantees, all of which comes in 2017; if Sheard disappoints away from the halo of Bill Belichick, the Colts have the flexibility to get out. Branch, meanwhile, has nearly twice as much -- $16.8 million -- guaranteed in his deal, despite a much shorter track record as a pro. Indy ended up with the better player and more flexibility at a fraction of the cost. That's the difference between a well-run organization and one throwing money at flashes in the pan who it hopes are multiyear solutions.
Sheard isn't the only one. John Simon, who was very effective as a third edge rusher in Houston, came on board for a three-year deal with just $5.5 million in guarantees, again all in Year 1. Barkevious Mingo and Sean Spence are linebackers who could be useful if spotted in modest roles while contributing on special teams. Even Johnathan Hankins, the team's biggest free-agent signing, is on a three-year, $27 million deal with $10 million guaranteed, all coming this year.
The Colts have brought in a ton of young, short-term defensive help with upside in what will be an evaluation year. Grigson made some moves like this early in his tenure with Indy, targeting players like Greg Toler and Ricky Jean-Francois, but they were on far larger deals and expected to be long-term starters at their positions. With the sort of contracts Ballard is handing out, the guys who stick will be under contract for a couple of more seasons, while the ones who don't will be giving way to a more sustainable defensive model.
The emphasis on defense was even stronger during the draft. The Colts added extra fourth- and fifth-round picks by dealing Dwayne Allen (and a sixth-round pick) before trading down with the 49ers during the draft. Indy ended up with eight selections, all of which came among the top 161 picks. Outside of the pick haul Grigson inherited before his first season on the job, his four previous drafts produced a total of just 17 selections among those top 161 picks. There's no specific meaning to having a top-161 pick, but the point still stands: Ballard added picks that weren't meaningless seventh-rounders.
Using Chase Stuart's draft chart and including the draft picks traded for Trent Richardson and Vontae Davis, Grigson used nearly twice as much of his draft capital on offense (141.6 points) as he did on defense (73.2 points). Even if you take out Luck, it's still 107 points on offense to 73.2 points of defense. Grigson invested in free-agent defenders, but it's still a problem.
In his first draft, Ballard invested nearly four times as much of his draft capital in defenders (24.5 points) as he did on offensive players (6.3 points). Indianapolis' top three picks were all defenders, led by safety Malik Hooker, who fell to the Colts at 15 after most mock drafts had him going in the top 10. Six of Indy's eight selections were on the defensive side, and the other two were at positions of need along the offensive line and at running back.
No draft strategy is foolproof. These guys may not work out. Chuck Pagano hasn't done a great job of bringing along young defensive talent in Indy, and this new batch of defenders could fall victim to the same fate. As a coherent plan, though, what Indianapolis did this offseason made a ton of sense.
What went wrong
The offensive line still needs work. I'm not just cutting and pasting this from years past, although I could have done so. Outside of signing Titans backup Brian Schwenke and drafting 6-foot-8 Southern California behemoth Zach Banner as a run-blocking project in the fourth round, the Colts are running things back with the same offensive line. That group hasn't been very effective, although it's still a young line. This wasn't a great draft for offensive linemen, and the cost of signing linemen in free agency was exorbitant this offseason, but the Colts may regret not making one big splash to upgrade the right side in front of Luck.
What's next?
Look into help at inside linebacker. The Colts are still pretty thin on the interior, where undrafted free agent Edwin Jackson was thrust into the lineup last year. Sean Spence could figure into a starting role, but there are possibilities still available in the free-agent market. Daryl Smith hasn't slipped all that much and started 11 games as a strong-side linebacker for the Bucs last year. DeAndre Levy was a superstar two years ago, but injuries have kept him off the field; he could shift inside in a 3-4. Daryl Washington has spent the past three years suspended, but he was reinstated in April before being released by the Cardinals. Stability or upside, Indy has options.
Grade: A-
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1 hour ago, coltsfeva said:
Agreed. And if that doesn't change, he'll probably be gone. We can understand a player growing for the better, why not a coach? You are right, if the Colts are going to succeed, that's one of the things that has to change. I just think Pagano has the capacity to learn and grow. That goes for all the coaches and coordinators.
Hopefully with better players and the loss of such a horrible guy in grigson I will hope he can take it next level.
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4 minutes ago, coltsfeva said:
True. But I don't think he's ever had the potential talent level of this group to work with. Let's see what happens this year. I'm just not sure he is as bad as some fans say he is.
I respectfully disagree. We've seen how good this team can be when we are clicking on all cylinders, specifically Denver the year they won the SB two seasons ago. Almost every other game has been a half game, looking flat and going down early and coming up short in a comeback, or going ahead early and falling apart in the end. Not consistent at all, and the slow starts kept us out of the playoffs two years in a row. We rarely play to our potential.
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20 minutes ago, Valpo2004 said:
Great now I'm scared.
To be fair, he did write an article about why the Pats would win the Superbowl after their Kansas City loss.
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13 minutes ago, Gramz said:
you're probably the only one that has missed me.
NOT TRUE, it's been a long offseason without you
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3 minutes ago, Gramz said:
Well..... in the past she has stated that he cannot throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time.
She seemed pretty knowledgeable about that
GRAMZ IS BACK!!!!!
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On 5/17/2017 at 7:52 AM, coltsfeva said:
Exactly what would Toub bring that Pagano can't? Let's see what Pags does this year, with a better roster. People are assuming we can't beat top-tier teams and Pagano is a horrible coach. I know things have to fall in place ( staying healthy, better Oline and defensive play, etc) but this is game of inches and split seconds that separate wins and losses. I agree with the OPs assessment. Playoffs are in the realm of possibility and once there, anything can happen.
Pagano beat 3 of the final 4 teams in 2013, including the AFC Champ and the SB winner. And still got stomped by the Pats that year. Since the AFC championship, the only big wins we have gotten was Denver when Luck got injured and Green Bay last year. Pagano's tenure has been like Rex's with the Jets.
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16 hours ago, Zalazar Elijahh said:
Yeah exactly. Growing up my dad (who is a jets fan) would always tell me how any team versing peyton manning always knew they were gonna put up points and score no matter what team it was. But will you score more points than Peyton does? Literally every week Peyton HAD to score touchdowns, at leastt 2 a game. to even just have a chance to win. And for him to have been the most winning qb until tom broke it by playing that way is just unreal.
Jets fan father...that's rough. My dad, uncle, and grandpa are all Colts fans, but my brother went with his friends and my other Uncle and is a Jets fan. Constant misery.
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Haven't checked the other threads but I saw the Colts posted an NFL.com video where the guy has us at 11 wins AND division winners. We should have been at least a 10-11 win team last year (Detroit, Texans, Jags in London). We have to get back to winning one score games and if this defense moves up even 5 ranks, that's playoffs baby.
Edit: The guy I am talking about is Pete Shrager and the video I am referring to is right next to Brandt's write up if anyone wants to see.
you're probably the only one that has missed me.
Happy Birthday Ghost Jr.
in Colts Football
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Love TY, great father. LOVED his TD celebration the day his daughter was born.