stitches

Sometimes busts are easy and quick to determine. Determining franchise QBs might take 2-3 years. IMO if by the end of year 3 you are not sure if this is your guy, you probably should start searching for the next guy.

I thought Ballard had to be fired after last season. But once the decision was made to keep him, IMO he needs to be given the time to see his project through. You either fire him and start over with new GM and new HC or you give him at least 2-3 more years to fix his mistakes and give time for the new QB to show what he can do. I think Irsay sees things similarly and for the time being Ballard is safe, which is good by me.

Dan Graziano has a piece on the biggest QB questions for all 32 teams... here's what he writes on Richardson. https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/draft2023/insider/story/_/id/37596898/biggest-2023-nfl-season-quarterback-questions-all-32-teams-qb-battles-contracts-rookies

I have to fess up a bit. I was looking through the stats for rookie QBs in the last 5 years... and more specifically the stats for QBs taken in the top 10-12 picks... Josh Rosen 11-14 Josh Allen 10-12 Sam Darnold 17-15 Baker Mayfield 27-14 Daniel Jones 24-12 Kyler Murray 20-12 Justin Herbert 31-10 Tua Tagovailoa 11-5 Joe Burrow 13-5 Justin Fields 7-10 Trey Lance 5-2 Trevor Lawrence 12-17 About half of them had more INTs than TDs and there really is no rhyme or reason to it... some of the best of them had more INTs than TDs as rookies. So maybe it won't be as much of a surprise if Richardson does have more INTs than TDs as a rookie...

Some Minshew quotes on Richardson...

The role of the QB is to move the offense and score points efficiently. From then on we can all have our own preferences for style and flair of the offense, but those IMO are secondary to the primary goals and role of the QB.

^ Another installment of Hicks' series on empty personnel sets the Colts are likely to run a lot of this year for Richardson...

I think Richardson mentioned somewhere that they are more verbose than he's used to, but I didn't expect it to be WCO type of playcalls. I just found this article from 2018 about Cam complaining about lengthy playcalls in Norv Turner's offense... so it's probably similar in Steichen's since he considers him a mentor... https://www.espn.com/blog/carolina-panthers/post/_/id/30853/cam-newton-not-alone-saying-calling-a-play-shouldnt-be-a-paragraph

BTW do we know just how verbose the offense Steichen likes will be?

Agreed. Better than hearing worries and negative things, but still doesn't say much. For example, no idea how Bremer got that idea that the Colts are super impressed with Richardson's pocket movement in rookie minicamp. Are they even doing fake 11-on-11, let alone non-red-shirted action where you can actually see his pocket movement? And I'm saying that while believing Richardson's pocket movement is the best in this class.

Yeah, you can see all QBs in that video - Richardson, Minshew and Ehlinger. They are allowed to be in the building this week, but not sure if they are allowed to work on-field with coaches. The official OTAs are next week and I bet we will see more videos/pictures with everybody there.

Chuck breaking down some Julius Brents film:

Yes, only 4 left. Richardson, Brents, Freeland and Adebawore...

Downs has been signed: https://www.colts.com/news/josh-downs-signed-2023-nfl-draft-pick-wide-receiver-third-round

I disagree there was a lack of QB needy teams. There were PLENTY of them after the Colts. None of them bit on Levis. That's not to say they wouldn't have bit on Richardson. The Seahawks are on the record about seriously considering Richardson. Atlanta has no franchise QB, Washington, Pats, Bucs were all teams that need a QB. There was a ton of smoke about the Vikings wanting to move up for Richardson... I think there was a reason Levis fell and Richardson didn't. One is just a better prospect and/or there are some concerns with Levis ourside of his play. Just my

That's the thing, I didn't watch Richardson and think "there are many passes that are not intercepted here but will be intercepted in the league". He's inacurrate in different ways. His turnover worthy plays % were 3.3%... this includes everything - both interceptible passes, fumbles, etc. That would be about average mark for the league. Again... it's not exceptional or something... but it's not horrible. Yeah... we don't really know how ready he will be and how comfortable he will be to sit in the pocket and deliver balls downfield. It might take some time before he's ready AND before Steichen actually lets him play that game. We will see. One thing is for sure though. IMO he will punish defenses that don't respect his athleticism.

I mean there are reports that the Panthers were seriously considering Richardson for the no. 1 pick. The Seahawks have said he was in serious consideration for their no. 5 pick. The Colts took him at 4. I have no idea what else people want to consider Richardson as a talent worthy of that selection. Whatever... at this point it doesn't matter. Richardson is our QB ... hopefully he becomes a franchise QB.

Yeah, for some reason I thought we had given him extra guaranteed money when we just moved around already guaranteed money. That's my mistake. We all have our "taken over by a raging teenager" moments

MegaStrachan!

I was thinking the same thing... 7 wins or thereabout. And then I started filling the game by game W/L predictions and I got us to 11-6 I thought it's kind of delusional so I didn't post it but... yeah. If Richardson is functional in the passing game... who knows...

Yeah, even if we could I doubt Irsay goes after his money. He should blame Ballard for giving him even more guaranteed money for this season without needing to do it last year.