stitches

He doesn't need to be disrepsectful for it to be a negative distraction in the locker room. I think he asked to be released too... He probably told them "if you are not willing to play me on 3d down, just release me" ... which would have been just another in series of talks they've been having about him being unhappy with his role. This didn't start this week. You can go back and see when the first media statement was made... I would bet he was making the same noises behind the scenes a week or two prior.

Yeah... agreed on this not changing the trajectory of the team. That's why I don't consider this to be a huge move. IMO one way or another this was going to happen over the next few months. The avoidance of his injury guarantee kicking in is an interesting point that might have contributed to the Colts decision. I don't know what Steichen is even supposed to say. He might just refer the journalists to the statements the team and Irsay made. That's how he was dealing with the Taylor stuff. "First before you ask - I heard about Taylor, I won't comment any further than what the team has said" Or something of the sort. And on followups he will just say "I stand up with the decision the team made", etc....

I mean... he's been loud over several weeks now about his role and how he thinks he should be getting more snaps and how he doesn't understand why he's not playing more. I think it was pretty obvious that if he's willing to go in front of the media with this strongly worded statements, then he probably is saying this ... and more behind the scenes...

Kind of a sad ending to his Colts career. I expected us to cut him in the off-season, but it seems like the noise he was making over the last few months about playing time accelerated this decision. You cannot have a player who's been team captain and has the gravitas of Leonard in the locker room continuously make a point of airing his displeasure with his role. If he wasn't willing to accept the coaches decisions and was going to continue being a distraction, I guess this was the best decision for both him and the team. Wish him the best wherever he ends up.

I don't think Levis has a problem with mobility. His mobility is not the reason his pressure to sack ratio was one of the highest recorded of potential top pick pre-draft. He just doesn't see it. In a lot of cases he's oblivious to it, he has absolutely ZERO idea that a freight train is about to annihilate him. At first I thought... maybe his pass-protection screwed up and he wasn't even supposed to look there... but then you start seeing him getting blasted again and again and again by rushes coming from all direction and in all types of situations. I don't know how else to explain it because it doesn't make much sense to me, it's like he has zero peripheral vision and no feel about the movements of the pocket and rushers. I've heard people say he panics, but no... I disagree with this too... he's not frenetic and wild in the pocket(i.e. what Minshew has been doing lately), he's actually relatively calm... almost to a fault... he sits in the pocket and he gets hammered, again... because IMO he just is oblivious to the pressure... doesn't see it, doesn't feel it...

That's an interesting conjecture. You might be right, but I kind of feel like the more likely scenario is - this is just what Steichen is like and he probably won't change much in his relationship with the media. He will probably continue doing the bare minimum in a "I'm here so I don't get fined" manner, but honestly... I don't care much. Would it be good to get some insight on his thoughts about the offense? Sure... but if the offense is working, this IMO is the most important thing. There are plenty of analysts who understand the game well enough to explain stuff to us if there is hunger to delve into Colts offense minutiae... at least I hope so...

I don't think pocket awareness and feel ever get dramatically better. He might have some marginal improvements through sheer repetition(or it might get worse - aka "seeing ghosts"), but there really aren't many cases where a QB with horrible pocket presence becomes a QB with great pocket presence. There are more cases of accuracy improving than there are of pocket awareness, simply because with accuracy there might be underlying mechanical problems that can be fixed. I don't know how you fix inability to feel, sense and see pressure. I love Stroud. He looks awesome to me... he looks like the Georgia game Stroud more often than not + possible refinement of his on schedule play. I guess the lesson from this draft cycle for me would be - trust the peak performance when it has happened against the best of the best competition. I was really flaky with it. I knew there is a chance he can do it, but I didn't think it will happen this early and to that degree. Panthers have considerable problems on multiple levels - from supporting cast to coaching to... Bryce's own limitations. Maybe he can work around one or two of those, but right now it feels like everything is working against him. I'm still not sure what to think about Purdy... he looks good, but then again.. we've seen prolonged stretches where players like Nick Mullens looked good in that offense...

Some here wanted to give an additional 1st too...

Not PFF but I thought those stats on Downs are impressive:

Kenny has been playing some great football this year. Glad to see him return to form

Since I don't have the reports about his injury... is this true? Are 3 of the 4 knee injuries the same single injury(I assume that was the "nagging pain in the knee" report I found)? And the 4th knee injury being one where he sprained his knee dancing(and he doesn't seem to have missed any games for any of those)? The rest seems to be... a concussion, hamstring injuries and the shoulder injury. I really have no idea about the qualifications of that doctor and if/whether he has some axe to grind like some fans seem to be suggesting... But in general... again... it's kind of a moot point at this current time. Ballard and the Colts medical staff seems to have been OK with his medical report before the draft. At least OK enough to draft him top 5. I don't see anything of big concern in his medical history(with the limited info we have). There are players with much worse histories than this. For me the much more pressing issue right now is his ability to protect himself, rather than... again... some supposed horrible medical history that is so convoluted and uncertain that even that doctor doesn't seem know what his exact injuries are and why he's missed like... a month or two of play in 5 years with such "horrific" medical history.

Meh. I really don't know how to evaluate this when we don't even know what most of those injuries were and were not serious enough to sideline him for any considerable amount of time. A ton of players, including QBs. have injuries and play through them. Some of those are serious, some not so much. How much does it matter that he's had knocks here and there if he hasn't missed many games with them? Here's what I can gather about his injuries: Senior year HS(2019) - shoulder injury - misses the last month of the season (this seems like the most serious one) Freshman year College - hamstring, concussion, "nagging pain in right knee which required arthroscopic surgery"(this was done after the season) You can argue that the only serious injury he's had(before this one) is the shoulder injury in HS and that was like... 4 years ago. It's kind of a moot point right now. The important thing is that he's injured now. I hope he learns to protect himself better, but like I've stated previously - I don't want him changing the way he plays.

Yeah, I was skeptical about it to begin with. Even with what he said in the off-season, to me it was obvious he does NOT want to give up playcalling. His answer to firing some of his assistants when he was with the Colts was not to delegate more reponsibility to the newly promoted offensive staff... it was to take on that relinquished responsibility himself. To me it seems like when things are not going well, he's the type of coach who thinks he should be doing more, rather than thinking he's doing what he's doing inadequately so he should try to find someone else who can do better.

I was relatively high on Stroud before the draft, but it feels like he's already surpassed my expectations. I thought his ceiling is something along the lines of Burrow, but ... he actually looks more dynamic. WOW! While with AR you could see the flashes and hints of what he could be, Stroud already is so damn good.

Congrats all! Good game by the defense in general. Made plays when plays needed to be made. The offense made a few plays too, but overall way too inconsistent. Minshews warts are beginning to show more and more frequently.

Kelly's absence has been very visible. For all the clamoring for us to run the ball Taylor is at like... 3 yards per carry...

Minshew has HORRIBLE pocket awareness....

Belichick is tanking for Caleb.

Both defensive lines look soft as butter.

I think Minshew is second with 17 TOWP. And he has done it in 2 fewer games. Kind of wild how good our offense has been when you consider how mistake prone Minshew has been.

Too early IMO. Like others have said, they gave up their 2024 1st to trade up for him, so they are almost forced to give him another year, but IMO even without it they need to try to make it work with him. And unfortunately for Frank Reich this might mean giving him a better and more modern offense to run. Think about what Mike McDaniel did with Tua in Miami - Tua had very similar struggles in his rookie year, but has turned things around and now the biggest concern for him is his health rather than his level of play. And of course , this has to come with better supporting cast as well.

We should have traded Taylor... BEFORE he asked to be traded... and then after he asked to be traded... and then again at the trade deadline. This is valid for some of our other vets too...

I think Shaq gets released at the end of the season. That would be a sad ending to what could have been a legendary Colts career. Unfortunately the injuries have robbed him off a lot of what made him special.

He's no Stroud...

Kenny has been having a great season.