stitches

Hell, Darnold was traded for 2nd, 4th and 6th... How the hell does Fields not get you at least one day 2. Picket got better return... Sam freaking Howell got better pick. HOW?

👀👀 Am I doing this right? Nice!

When we know how the Colts and Ballard act on the market IMO it's almost certain that either the deal is done or the deal is not happening at all. I don't think I ever remember any big contract being negotiated by the Colts through the media. This just doesn't happen... like EVER. This is not Ballard's modus operandi. He does everything in the dark. When you hear about the deal it's usually already done. So... this line of thinking kind of gives credence to both versions - either the deal is done and just not announced yet(the more time passes the less likely this is BTW), or the Colts are not as close to a deal as a lot of people think and it's possible either agents or the Chiefs are using the Colts to leverage another team to give more(money and/or picks). Honestly. I usually believe in what Destin reports, but in this case it kind of looks to me like too much time has passed without official confirmation and at this point if I had to bet my money on something it's probably that the Colts don't trade for Snead at all.

It's probably conditional of some sort, 3d that becomes a 2nd or 4th that becomes a third if certain condition is met.

I continue not being a fan of trading premier picks for player that at the same time needs to get paid top of the market money unless it's absolutely elite player. And as good as Sneed is, I'm not certain he's quite at that level. At the same time I would feel like a hypocrite for criticizing Ballard for not addressing pass defense and then when he does, not being happy with the move, so I guess depending on the compensation I might have some mixed feelings if it happens...

He was second team all pro LT in 2022. He's been very good to great for the last 3 years.

Yah, usually the draft is happening during my sleep time so I have to send the picks in advance to the commissioner. BTW ... With the first pick in the draft the Chicago Bears select Caleb Williams

Aaron Donald just retired! Wow! The best defensive player of this generation and one of the best ever... Congrats to him for an amazing career.

For the record I will continue insisting that the biggest problem of this team's defensive philosophy is not Gus Bradley, but rather - Chris Ballard. Ballard is the one who wants to run that type of scheme. This is why he hired Eberflus and then Bradley and this is why he will hire another apple from the same tree even if Bradley is gone.

It just means the Chargers are almost for certain picking a WR, because they lost both their best receivers this off-season. And the Cardinals losing Hollywood Brown almost certainly means they will be picking WR too. So... 4 and 5 will be WRs. And if the Pats decide to go with WR over QB then this means all top 3 WRs will be gone by 5. And if not... the Giants at 6 have severe lack of receivers ... Titans... Jets... Broncos...

BTW this is very interesting. The Chargers are losing both of their top receivers this off-season. Wonder what their plan is to provide weapons to Herbert.

Like... backup nose tackle...

What was the expression... Fax don't care about your feelings... or something like that...

No worries... I will see this through despite Ryan Poles' best efforts to deprive me of every pick... BTW... it's possible by the end of it I might have just a couple of picks

....

I think it's normal for the owner to support his GM in public with whatever decision they are making in the moment. Irsay supported Ballard and Reich about Wentz publicly too, but we now know that behind the scenes he was not sold on Wentz from the start. I guess we would never know for sure if Irsay really wanted us to draft a QB after Luck retired, or if what he's saying 2 years later is revisionist history to make himself look better. I guess it's up for everybody to decide for themselves whether to believe Irsay or not.

I think you are correct... it was after the Wentz thing and it was either in a Holder or Keefer piece where they had a lot of quotes from Irsay, but yah... the report was that Irsay supposedly preferred us to draft and develop our next QB pretty much from the start. I might try to find it later, but it's hard to do 2 years later...

There were reports that Irsay wanted us to draft and grow our next QB pretty much from the start after Luck retired, but he trusted Ballard and Reich and let them proceed with their plan.

And Joe Thomas never was on a winning team and still he was the best OT of his generation. There are good players on bad teams. Frankie Luvu is just the easiest and most obvious example about the difference of what I think we needed vs what we got. I'm not stuck on him specifically. There are other LBs that could have helped with coverage and disrupting the passer more than Franklin. On that I can agree to some degree... the QB is the most important piece bar none. But still ... the QB is still less than half of the equation here. Hitting on a QB affords you opportunities and the QB can cover for a lot of shortcomings of your roster. But still... hitting on a QB doesn't absolve you from the responsibility of building a good roster... because when you go to the playoffs, you will meet other teams with great QBs ... and some of them will have strong rosters in addition to the strong QB. QB play has a strong impact on our play on offense. On D, our roster construction and talent, defensive philosophy and coaching are the things that matter most. Majority of this is on Ballard. BTW not having a great QB play is on Ballard too. And this is not hindsight, either. The moment Luck retired my contention has been that we need to go find our next QB from the draft ASAP. This is another philosophical disagreement I had with Ballard for the 3 years after Luck's retirement. Him and Reich wanted vets...

That's all I wanted to hear from Flacco. Right now having a vet backup with the experience and desire to work with our young QB is very important and he seems to be excited about that possibility.

Hooker was supposed to be that for us. And this seems to be unpopular opinion around here, but IMO he looked like he can actually be that for us, before the injuries hit him.

Umh... no... not really. This is very far from what my point is. I have barely criticized him for misses. I'm criticizing him for big picture stuff - roster building philosophy. I know perfectly well that noone bats 1.000... and I don't expect all his signings to be succesful. But I do want him to build a team based on what wins in 2024 rather than in the 80s. Again. I've never said anything like that. Everything I've said is about prioritization of resources. That doesn't mean run defense doesn't matter at all. And it doesn't mean anyone can do what Grover and Zaire Franklin can do... but I do think there is wider selection and cheaper selection of players who can approximate what they do and even if not playing at that exact level, the gains in other areas will be much more beneficial to wins. This has been the whole conversation here... If anyone's moves consistently don't work they are getting fired. BTW just for the record we've been closer to horrible more times than to contention in the 7 years of Ballard.

Not sure this is within moderators/administrators purview, but whenever I see such trollish behavior I always wonder if this is his only account here?! Because look at it... he logged in, posted, logged out... never to be seen again. Until the next drive by shooting in a few months time.