stitches

Sacks are not a great measure of how good/disruptive the DL is. If they stay at about the same level they were this year and we make the playoffs, it will likely be not because of the defense that we make the playoffs but despite it.

I would... no idea if Ballard would, especially after signing Pittman to a big deal. I really don't see him paying 50-55M to 2 receivers...

I'm usually against it, but... if we can get Nabers or MHJ I think I would do it.

Gus is the most obvious answer IMO.

Chloe, you still don't get it. Ballard does NOT value CB at that level. I really doubt he spends a top 15 pick on the position, especially since NONE of the top CBs in the draft cover his length requirements for the position. He might trade back to the end of the 1st or beginning of R2 and take like... Kool-Aid McKinstry or TJ Tampa or Ennis Rakestraw ... But you know what position he really values? He values the hell out of the trenches and especially defensive trenches... and there are players in that 15 range that fit the bill... Dallas Turner(if he falls to 15)... he's like almost carbon copy of the guy he tried to sign in FA - Danielle Hunter if you look at his measurements and testing, Jared Verse, Chop Robinson, Latu... he can easily fall in love with any of them IMO,

I would be surprised if Ballard takes a CB at 15. I think it's more likely he takes a DE than CB...

I think smart teams spend selectively in FA and smart teams have much better focus on areas of the team that best correlate with winning.

IMO they are some of the best young analysts out there. Peter King mentioned Solak in his retirement column as someone from the young generation that's doing good work.

I was ballparking it 10.5+7.5(Davis - 5 this year, but he has 2.5M dead cap for next year too), Taven Bryan(3.5M... that's what we paid him last year... haven't seen the new number), Franklin(10M)...

Caleb is considered a generational prospect by a lot of people in the league. There is a high level of certainty that he will be good even before he takes a snap in the league. This wasn't true with AR and that's why they needed to see a few more games of his progression and a few more games of him looking like a good NFL QB. And I think that's fair... I think I'm right about there with them on this one...

That's kind of true... but if I had to guess the Chiefs were getting a lot more new fans even before Swift and Kelce got together, simply because they had some of the most exciting players to watch.

Run defense is important. It's not important enough to spend 35M on it this off-season while almost entirely neglecting the pass-defense part. On Pittman, I agree with you kind of(meaning, I don't mind that contract)... but I also see their point. When it comes to highly paid receivers... paying 23M to a possession receiver, who again IMO fits the "boring" label, is probably more than most teams would spend.

There is more film of Caleb in college. Much more... and at higher and more consistent level. I don't know how you can fault them for that take... I'd take Caleb over RIchardson... and I'm probably Richardson's biggest fan here. IMO the very fact that they are having that discussion is showing just how high they are on Richardson, rather than being disrespectful in any way.

It's like they are reading my mind. I called them boring last year before AR's drafting and I was hoping AR will bring in some of the missing excitement back... and he did to a degree while he played... but the rest of the roster is painfully unmistakably boring. And boring is not necessarily bad... you can have a boring machine of a team that destroys every opponent, but when the boring is married with mediocre... then the product is almost unwatchable. I wonder if there are metrics about how much new fans every team attracts. If I had to guess, the Colts would be around the bottom of the league during Ballard's tenure. If you are not already a fan of this team, is there any reason to tune in and watch a Colts game? So yeah... again... here's to hoping AR can stay healthy and changes some of this...

Ben Solak and Sheil Kapadia absolutely nail the Colts and Ballard(starts at about 1:00:20):

If AR busts nothing else on the roster matters. If anything - you can argue, at least having solid pieces on the roster will make it easier for the next GM to trade some of them for draft capital and go for his choice of a QB. And I still think you need to stack the weapons for young QB. This has been the case throughout the league. Every big time young QB in the league exploded when he got good weapons. Mahomes had Tyreek and Kelce. Hurts took the next step with Devonta Smith and AJ Brown. Burrow made strides with Chase and Higgings, Tua - Tyreek and Waddle... Etc. we don't have a single pass catching weapon as good as any of those. You need to be sure with your QB and you need to not give him or yourself any excuses - add weapons, protect him and let's see if he's good enough or not, rather than wondering in 2 years whether we did enough for him to succeed or not.

For our scheme he probably is top 10, but at the same time ... I kind of agree that people have the idea that Sneed is an elite corner which IMO he isn't. He's good and would have improved our team, but it's not like trading for prime Jalen Ramsey. I personally am not too heartbroken over this. The salary and compensation came at about the level I would have been OK with paying, but I don't think it's a no brainier or something of the sort. I continue insisting that the big picture approach and philosophy from Ballard is more problematic than one specific missed opportunity.

I've been telling you this for years, guys and gals. The answer is "no". But he does think defensive tackle and run stuffing linebacker are...

I just recently watched Jermaine Burton... He's amazing downfield too... I think he's a player who's a bit under the radar right now, but looks very intriguing to me. His Y/R were insane this year(over 20) and have been very high for 4 years running now... There seem to be some character/attitude concerns with him so no idea if the Colts will be interested but he might be the best receiver tracking the ball downfield and he has great hands and ballskills.

I think pretty much all of the FAs we re-signed hit free agency this year. They might not have gone on the tours around the league, but do you really think their agents weren't gathering information about their market the last few weeks to months at the very least? They all did and they liked what the Colts offered compared to what they were hearing from the league. Kenny Moore even mentioned that it was 50-50 whether he would come back for example. That's another aspect that I am not super happy about - Ballard lacks aggression and is very risk averse. He would rather have a solid player he knows rather than try to get a great one(or at least an upgrade) he doesn't know. We know what that leads to... It leads to securing the status quo. And if the status quo was more than mediocrity, that will be all good but alas, we've been nothing but mediocre for huge majority of Ballard's tenure. I think it's both. I think If you know you will have limited role in FA, you need to nail the draft... Year after year. And that is kind of a fool's errand. Teams are not great in that draft thing and over the long term they all converge towards the same level. That's a good exercise for humbling our egos, but at the same time I want to emphasize that we are fans on an internet board. That's pretty much what we do all the time - who should we get in FA, who should we draft, who should we cut and who and when should we trade, who should play RG or the second outside corner, etc. it's the nature of the boards. But again.. We are fans. Those people are pros. Those people are being paid MILLIONS to make those decisions and they have the resources of a multi-billion corporation behind them with the wide ranging support for their decision-making process. I have no illusions that I know more football than Ballard or that I have anywhere close to the resources he has. And teams miss all the time on those types of decisions. It's only natural for us as just fans to not be great at this either. But that doesn't mean I will agree with Ballard's ways and philosophies. In fact, even without any of his knowledge or resources and without the fear or shame of being called arrogant I will absolutely stand behind my opinion that Ballard's view of the game and what wins at the highest level in today's league is outdated. I am not sure what exactly is meant by overrated in the context. Every time a player comes to a point where they need to reset the market to their talents, it's the team that's highest on their skills and projection that is going to get them. So... highest expectation(salary) usually wins the bidding war and it's only natural for that to be a bit of an overpay in most cases since they are paying for the top percentile projection. But that comes with the territory. I wouldn't call it overrated... Probably there's a better word for it, but doesn't come to my mind right now. I don't necessarily disagree with Ballard's refusal to participate in bidding wars.. And this almost by default means we will be out on the biggest FAs. But I do think he can have a more aggressive approach in replacing mediocre pieces on our own team with players that have shown promise on other teams but don't command huge salaries or vets who have shown high level of play in the past... It's kind of interesting to me, because when Ballard has done it before, he has actually had good success in the mid-tier FA market - Houston, Ebron, Autry, Sheard, Gilmore, Rhodes... So yah... I would call free agency underutilized part of the roster building process for Ballard,.even though there is a risk of overpaying.

I still don't think the devil you know reasoning answers the question - why do we think in a league that according to our own philosophy overvalues free agents, it's only our own free agents that they don't overvalue and we get them for what they are actually worth? I just call nonsense... we can fool ourselves by saying "well we know them better than the rest of the league", which might be true... but again... this doesn't answer why wouldn't they value them higher(rather than lower) than us since it's apparently what they do with almost every other FA? I think in an ideal world our GM would pursue FAs based on what they can provide to the team rather than based what types of investments we've already made into a certain player. IMO it's just too limiting. Ballard pretty much by his own volition limits himself in FA to extremely narrow pool of possible signings... and huge majority of them are the players he has already drafted/signed. I agree with @Solid84 here,,, there is a certain level of arroggance and confirmation bias here.

Agree with that evaluation of what Ballard's philosophy is like. But you know what I realized recently - there is internal inconsistency within those principles. And specifically here I mean between A and C. Is there any reason we should think our own FAs are underrated by the league while the rest of the free agency pool gets "A and B money for B and C players"? Because if not, then why resigning our own provides us with any better value than going out of the organization and signing outside FAs? Example... is Grover's contract better than DJ Reader's contract? Is Pittman's contract any better than Ridley's contract? Is Taylor's contract any better than Josh Jacobs contract? Is Franklin's contract any better than Luvu's contract? etc. And if they are not... or at least not clearly so... then why would signing our own be the preferable path and isn't this putting an artificial limitation on the pool of players we will be entertaining signing?

Probably ... and then the agent released the info about the Colts deal being close to done to reporters in order to create more leverage in further negotiations either with the Chiefs or with other teams that are interested. and the reporters who were willing to print/tweet info coming from an agent without confirmation from the team(because the Ballard's Colts do NOT confirm that type of things before it's DONE DONE), did that, while the more experienced ones waited for confirmation from the team and never got it...

We don't really know just how deep those talks were... if there were any...

Like with many things regarding our defense, I absolutely agree with you... I just am not sure if Ballard agrees and he's the one whose opinion is really important here.