stitches

Good point about usually re-signing/extending them before they hit FA and Ballard wanting to wait and see how things go this year after the bad 2022...

What a steal...

Bears draft is done. What do you guys think about it? 1. Caleb Williams, QB, USC 9. Laiatu Latu UCLA EDGE 75. Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan 122. Jalen McMillan, WR, Washington

I think he was there at Texas and LSU pro days. Steichen and JBC were there at the Texas one too...

Either way, at this point the important thing is the extension is done, the details are largely for bookkeeping purposes. I don't really expect us to go after any of the big names either in FA or in trade at this point.

Yeah, that is somewhat notable, but it's probably largely coincidental and product of who was up for new contract this year and the state of the roster and payroll. I guess we will see in future year if there really is any change in approach... either way huge majority of those deals are for non-key players.

Because Ballard doesn't seem to like pushing money into the future, unless it's absolutely required... which at this moment doesn't seem to be the case.

MHJ: Do you hear me Mr. Irsay? Chris? Anybody here in Indy? Please save me from having to play for the Cardinals... or oh damn... god forbid... the... ewwwwwwwww... Patriots.. If Ballard somehow manages to do this... I swear I will stop moaning about him neglecting the receiving weapons for at least... 2 years...

Nice. Looks like a reasonable deal. Interesting to see how they structured it and whether they freed any money for this year?(I doubt it)

I think if you look at it a bit deeper it doesn't say that much and it's not that big of a departure. A ton of the signings in previous years come after the draft(i.e. he can still do it this year) and a lot of them are very cheap - very low average salary. So... what does that mean? IMO it means Ballard is waiting to see what he can do with the draft and then he will likely go out and fill the holes with cheap vets that in a lot of cases we don't even remember the next year. Example... Genard Avery, Chris Lammons, Kenyan Drake, Jake Martin, Amari Rodgers, Isaac Taylor-Stuart, Jalen Tabor, Breshad Perriman, AQM(back from Bears)... those were all signed last summer after the draft.

Two more Reception Perception charts:

The interesting thing with Worthy is... his Yards per reception are actually pretty low for someone like him who is supposed to be field stretcher... until you actually look at his usage. 39% of his receptions are behind the LOS!!! 39!!! He starts with negative yardage on 39% of his catches! And he still got to 13-14 yards per reception. So this is the second bit part of the way he can be used - gadget plays and screens. 21% of his plays were screens. And he's shifty and fast enough to make people miss and to gain yardage in those. I don't think we actually have a player that is great in those situations so... maybe? This is another tendency I saw while researching some of the pass-catchers this year - Steichen is departing SERIOUSLY from the Philly offense he was running - the Colts were 11th this season in % of plays with motion at the snap, while Philly has been dead last or thereabout for the last 3 season. To me this looks like he actually wants to run those types of plays... he wants to use motion... A LOT! So giving him a weapon of that type might be good... (BTW Bowers can be used in that way too... he has some insane YAC/reception ... over 8 or something). There are a lot of things to like about Worthy, but there are also some worries. IMO you will have to create uninterrupted releases for him. He's too small to survive contact in press-man. And he doesn't play small... like... he tries to get extra yards running through people, he tries to be physical... but... even though he doesn't play small, he IS SMALL... and you can see it on every second tackle where the DBs throw him around like a rag doll. He exited at least 2 games this season after a hit/hard tackle from defender. Sometimes when I watch him, I wish he would just go down like TY used to when he felt he's about to get tackled and mangled in the process. So if not him... I guess there are some other weapons in that mold too - Malachi Corley is one... Malik Washington. And of course the elephant in the room - Malik Nabers.

Anybody know when Ballard's pre-draft presser is?

Damn, I love this guy! I wish things turned out a different way ... at the very least at the end. But happy for him that he seems happy right now and happy he's helping with that charity. Both him and Chuck...

Might mean a lot of things, but IMO it's due to the volume of targets those top receivers get - meaning... others get targetted more when they are open, while those big time receivers get targetted all the time... both when they are open and when they are not... just my guess... IMO that graph is more useful to identify the extremes rather than to make any conclusions about the receivers in the middle... Extremes good - Jermaine Burton, Xavier Worthy, Ricky Pearsall, AD Mitchell... Extreme bad - Keon Coleman, Brenden Rice...

Seems like the only info we have for top round players being on top 30 visits are - Nabers and Worthy ... and Kneeland

Yep according to various tweets he indeed had 15 left handed passes that season. Insane! Want to see Frank's attitude about it:

Sorry

Watching Wentz play was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had. He wasn't the worst QB we've seen with the Colts, but he definitely was the most enraging to watch. Part of it was because he had some highs and you can actually see a glimpse of a world where he's a good QB. But his inconsistency and his wild plays were something else...(there was some absurd stat about left handed passes with him I can't remember)... Edit:

Not a bad idea. I had a similar idea of the Colts trying to pry Micah Parson from Dallas since they seem to be struggling with keeping their roster and I've heard their analysts throw potentially trading one of their stars that will soon need a new contract(Parsons, Lamb) for high picks as an option to rebuild and refresh the roster. Crosby is of similar mold and quality as a pass-rusher. I am not sure I personally would do it, but I can absolutely see Ballard doing something like this...