BeanDiasucci

The Colts will unfortunately suffer an injury or two to the offensive line and its lack of quality and depth will be apparent again. After making improvement of the O-line a priority at the start of his tenure as the Colts GM, Ballard will now find himself surprisingly in danger of succumbing to the same problem that helped get his predecessor fired - failure to adequately fix the offensive line.

It's a lot harder than it used to be to quit a sports writing, or any journalism, job and find another decent job, especially if you're 55+ like Bob.

If you're Ballard and Steichen, you need to try to manage your boss, right? Explain your plan and criteria for Richardson's development to Irsay from the start, then keep him updated on the progress and work/improvement still to be done in practice, individual sessions, and whatever game action he gets. If you're doing that and the owner still overrules the new head coach/quarterback guru on starting QB decisions, Steichen might need to think about other job opportunities.

So if an NFL coach can't design an offense that makes an inexperienced QB who was only so-so in college look good as a rookie starter, that's squarely on the coach? Nope. We don't know for certain if Richardson will EVER be a good NFL quarterback, regardless of what offense he plays in. I sure hope he is and am optimistic that he'll develop as the Colts expect. To say that if he looks bad next year, it's just Steichen's fault makes about as much sense as suggesting that Richardson will be a better first year QB than Peyton Manning was. You know that's what you were suggesting above. It's a little surprising that someone who posts so much on a Colts board didn't know there was a lot more to Manning's first year performance than setting the rookie interception record.

Did you know that Peyton finished third in the NFL in passing yards his rookie season with 3739, second in completions with 326, and fifth in TD passes with 26? He finished second in the voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year behind Randy Moss. Regarding winning only 3 games, the Colts offense ranked #12 out of 30 Peyton's rookie season. The horrendous defense was #29 of 30. You can't put all of that on Peyton. Although I do agree he was a lot better the next season.

He absolutely will be worse than Peyton was as a rookie. Peyton came into the league as one of the best college quarterbacks and passers of all-time. Richardson is nothing like that, having finished 10th in the SEC in passing efficiency last season in his first year as a starter. As a college senior, Peyton was a First-Team All-American, the Davey O'Brien Award Winner, the Johnny Unitas Award Winner, and Best College Player Award Winner.

Suppose they put him out there and he has one of the worst seasons in Colts history because he isn't ready for the speed of decisions he needs to make, makes too many critical mistakes, and isn't consistently accurate? How is that going to help him progress?

The Colts may not be great, but at least I'm saving a bundle. I Kwity Paye for season tickets.

One guy is a career backup and the other is an inexperienced 21 year old who wasn't particularly good at the college level last season. It would help to have the top receivers playing but the likelihood is that the Colts aren't very good at QB right now and probably won't be next season. Right now, you could put Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne out there and our QBs still would be below average. But give Richardson a season or two to develop and who knows?

That's a little concerning that Pittman's injury goes back to last season.

Drops by Cox, Dulin, and Malik Turner. https://1075thefan.com/92649/colts-minicamp-notebook-day-1-ugly-passing-offense-day/

If you're being neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but just realistic, have the Colts done enough to improve the glaring weaknesses, QB and OL, from a 4-win team? People are skeptical because they will have a very raw rookie or a career backup starting at QB behind a suspect offensive line. When have the Colts ever been below average at QB and made the playoffs?

Is this from Confucius or Yogi Berra?

This doesn't really mean anything but shows a contrast to a few of our fans who see Richardson being a top QB in Year One. PFF ranks him dead last among starting QBs ahead of the season https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-quarterback-rankings-all-32-starters-2023-nfl-season

Has it not been evident for some time that Jim may not have both oars in the water? He can do what he wants, but it would be great if he'd reduce his unnecessary public statements and tweets.

They literally crucified him? Seems like I would have heard about that.

Yeah, you're right. My point with the Josh Allen comparison is just to reemphasize that there's a good chance Richardson won't have good stats next season and that's okay.

I'll go with similar passing stats to Josh Allen his rookie year: 2100 yards, 10TDs, 12 INTs, 53% completions. Two seasons later for Allen: 4500 yards passing, 37 TDs, 10 INTs, 69% completions.

Do you think Matt Ryan has a shot at league MVP in taking the Colts to a conference title? Oh wait. Sorry. That was this conversation last summer.

Luck was a 71.3 percent passer his senior year at Stanford (70.7 his Jr year) and 54.1 percent his rookie year with the Colts. As a rookie, he set records for single season passing yards 4,374 and single game passing yards 433. He was one of the most accomplished and touted college QBs of all time. Richardson is not similar to Andrew Luck coming out of college.

Do you mean Ballard is satisfied with Fries and Raimann going into the 2023 season like he was satisfied with Prior and Pinter going into 2022?

He MAY have the best potential in the draft but he's certainly not currently the best QB of the bunch. AR5 finished 10th in the SEC in QB rating last season as his team went 6-7. He rushed for 654 yards, second among SEC QBs, but didn't dominate games on the ground. I don't know how you expect him to immediately lift an NFL team.

I think the Colts are headed for another losing season but am not too concerned about that. Besides watching what unfolds at quarterback next season, I'm very interested in seeing what happens on the offensive line. Like others, I'm a little surprised they haven't added any proven veterans. Here's how the IndyStar put it: Sparano Jr.’s first job as a full-time offensive line coach is to take roughly the same group of personnel and produce entirely different results. https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2023/05/03/colts-how-tony-sparano-jr-plans-to-fix-o-line-with-no-outside-help/70171354007/

Isn't it part of their job to be critical and even highly critical of some of the picks? Even knowing they'll be wrong some of the time?

Foles is just the insurance plan. If they can't draft a QB they want this time, he'll start all season and they'll draft No. 1 next year.