[Should Painter Start?]

Painter having a 9.5 rating means nothing! The games he played in, they threw him to the dogs.Either with a lot of second or third stringers, or a bad situation. He's a accurate passer and he just needs a shot. Collins gets pressure on him he makes poor reads and does nothing for our team, how could painter be worse than him? I don't see how.

Maybe someone can help me understand. We have had Painter for a few years, watching manning, learning the system, working with the team.

Is this not the situation that we have been grooming him for.Why did he not get his chance. If he is not the guy, and not ready now, then when? Why did we keep him. They apparently have no confidence in him.

I mean heck we could have let him play this year and the worst thing that could have happened was some good draft picks. And we would know for sure if he could run the O.

He has not got a real shot,or some real playing time with the starters.To get comfortable and build some confidence.

Nothing against collins, but it just seems like another puzzling call by front office or who ever makes those calls.

Now we have collins and will play him with no benefit to the future of our team. And at best finish 8-8 and not get good draft picks, and not evaluated our so called back-up for manning.

IMO should have played painter from the start. Sure he missed a wide open garcon against steelers, but with his hands he probably would have dropped it anyway, lol

Manning will not be here for ever. And we need to know what painters got. Colins is done. At best he might be able to win a few games.

Play painter and see what he's got, What do they have to lose?

Props to the D, well done.

[Major Team Needs That Have Gone Unaddressed Were Exposed Today]

Settle down, its week one and week one is always screwy. And most of the time not anything like the way the team will be for the season.

But without manning to make up for our soft run D, and freaking disgustingly horrible ST. The close games that we used to win, we will not.

For me i will never understand ignoring ST, is field position not important? ST have been so bad for so long, with no evidence they have even tried to improve it.

heck they will not even speak the words Special Teams, can't recall ever hearing them speak of it. lol

Anyhow its a long season, so at least give them a few games before ya burn them at the stake.

[Manning says he'll be a Colt his entire career, won't play for another team]

The Colts are a class act from top to bottom. Well Done.

[SPECIAL TEAMS]

Special Teams "low priority in colts country", and has been my biggest concern with the team for years.

Great we got a return guy, but can we block for him? If the past is any indication the answer is sadly NO! Last year at the start of the season we put kick/punt returner after kick/punt returner in.

It did not change from return man to return man. Catch the ball, gets mauled inside the 25 by 4 guys.

On Defensive ST it is no better, way to often they get the ball to the 40 to 50 yard line on us. On both sides of the ball we are starting off with one foot in the grave so to speak. Last year after having a injury plagued season, miraculously made the play-offs, only to lose in the last minute of the game because of a kick return to almost the 50 yard line. Giving the D very little chance to stop them! I'm not going to go over the many many many times our ST have cost us.

But for ST to be so bad for so long, 10 years or more to me is crazy, and IMO the sole reason colts do not have 3 or 4 super bowls.

I really like what i saw from Taj Smith last year, he seems to have a nose for the ball. He made some mistakes but at least he has some fire, and gets to the ball carrier. Not sure if he will be a colt but he is the only one i have seen make any plays on ST in years.

I have great respect for colts, and what they have done. Polian is a master of un-drafted free agents. I think they should use all extra cap room and roster spots to pick up some difference makers on ST. I'm sure there will be some players that will not have jobs that would be cheap and very good ST players if given a chance. Of coarse there are roster spots and money to consider.

ST or lack of ST will continue to cost us big till it is given attention that is needed.

Pros:

Defense having 80 yards instead of 50 to stop other teams

Maybe a kick/punt return for a TD ever now and then.

Manning & Co. starting from the 30 to 50 yard line instead of inside the 20.

Cons?

Beef the "Bleep" out of the ST on both sides of the ball and win another super bowl.

[polian too soft]

I am not a big fan of caldwell, not sure how much control he really has, pretty well set up before he took the job. But it seems like every time he has to make a decision it is a poor one.

On the perfect season issue. Benching manning against the jets i can not question, Rest the starters, no reason to take the chance. And if he got hurt, we all know with out manning we had no chance of super bowl. But i was completely baffled,and confused by the decision to play manning in the snow against the bills for most of first half, very dangerous. You done threw in the towel on the perfect season at home in a dome. To play him in buffalo in the weather made no since to me at all. Other calls and time outs . That even have manning looking at him with stunned amazement at times.

Anyhow the colts are not perfect, but i do think polian has done an excellent job. And we would be hard pressed to find anyone better. Look at the lions, they are just starting to recover from the Matt Millen calamity. We could do alot worse.We are almost to the point of being spoiled here in indy with polian in front office,and manning at QB.

Some valid points made.We just might be a 8-8 team without #18, or worse. The fact is, we do have him, and the team was built around him. It is hard to win in the NFL. And the colts under polian have done that through the test of time. Granted largely because off #18. But he has not done it alone, great pass protection, marvin harrison, reggie wayne,and dalls clark, to list a few.

And to have that many opportunities to go to the play-offs is nothing short of amazing.

Polian broke down three reasons why he thought the Patriots find success in the draft.

“I would say, three things,” “Number one, they have done a phenomenal job trading. They really have gotten great value for players that either they can live without or don’t fit their system any longer.

“Number two,” he continued, “they have identified the value of picks, almost as though you would value a stock. And they’ve gotten a lot of good players at a low cost. And third, they’ve given themselves repeat ammunition to continue to do that, because they accumulate picks. They don’t use them all in a given year and so they have ammunition to do it again the following year. It feeds on itself.”

“It’s a great strategy,” Polian said. “And the fact of the matter is, they have great players that people want and it works. We’ve watched it carefully, and it’s great. They do a great job. And they’ve rebuilt that team by doing it.“

Polian is not blind, dumb, or complacent. He just has his own way of doing things. Take a long look around the league at other teams, and i hope you can see just how lucky we are to have him.

If you could not tell i like polian.) Looking forward to another fun season.

[polian too soft]

, Polian was hired as President to try and turn the team around. Polian opted not to keep QB Jim Harbaugh, who had led the team to the AFC Championship game following the 1995 season. Instead, he decided to build through the draft as the Colts would have the number 1 overall pick for 1998, and 2 of the most hyped quarterbacks would be coming out of college. As the '98 draft approached, much hype surrounded the first and second picks, as most people assumed they were going to be Ryan Leaf and Peyton Manning. Then NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue made the announcement, "With the first overall pick of the 1998 draft, the Indianapolis Colts select quarterback, University of Tennessee, Peyton Manning." Even though the Colts finished 3-13 under Polian's first year as president, there were obvious signs of improvement.

Many Colt fans watching the draft live no doubt anticipated the selection next of the still-available Ricky Williams. But Polian shocked almost everyone by drafting Edgerrin James instead.James would win the rushing title in both his rookie and second seasons by nearly 100 yards and 200 yards resepectively, vindicating Polian's choice. Following the 2005 season, Edgerrin became a free agent and the Colts chose not to sign him to a deal or place the franchise tag on him. This left many Colt fans scratching their heads. However, in the 2006 NFL Draft, Polian drafted possibly the next great Colt runner with the 30th pick in LSU's Joseph Addai. While many talented runners were taken ahead of Addai in Reggie Bush, Laurence Maroney, and DeAngelo Williams, Joseph Addai led all rookie runners with 1,081 rushing yards and did so without making a regular season start, playing behind Dominic Rhode.

Despite his penchant for quality drafts, the key to the Colts success may come from Polian's ability to sign free agents, specifically undrafted rookie free agents who would become key contributors. Under Polian's watch, the Colts have signed undrafted or waived rookies such as Jeff Saturday, Dominic Rhodes, Terrence Wilkins, Raheem Brock, James Mungro, Gary Brackett, Ben Utecht, Ryan Lilja, and Melvin Bullitt. Polian also signed Nick Harper and Mike Vanderjagt as free agents from the Canadian Football League.

Polian has rarely signed established free agents away from other teams through big money contracts. He has said that the Colts have no interest in the annual sweepstakes for veteran free agents.

If he see's a player he wants, he will get him. If not he will sit on his hand's as you call it. Colts fan from the day we had a team, and we were down right awful before he got here.If you do not remember those days then you are lucky. The colts are in the best of hands.