NewColtsFan

Because Luck’s career wasn’t long enough or successful enough. His career was just 7 seasons long and he actually only played 5.5 seasons. That puts Luck in the Hall of the Very Good. Or the Hall of What Might’ve Been. But not in the Hall of Fame, which is for the Best of the Best. Luck didn’t achieve that. Of course…. As I like to say…. Your mileage may vary.

(Long post ahead…) Not sure if you’re aware…. Prior to the 2022 FA period, (Jan, Feb of 22) there was a graphic posted on the draft/free agent page on this website…. It showed that in the 10 prior years, Jax had spent more money in free agency than any other team in the NFL — $1.4 Billion. That’s billion with a B. And they had nothing to show for it. A bad decade even though they spent a fortune in FA. So pointing to Jacksonville as a franchise that knows what it’s doing because they did well in 2022 will not hold up for those of us who are long time posters. We’ve been talking about this for years. Ballard said when he arrived here…. Indy is NOT a destination location for free agents. The only way to sign the top free agents is to over-pay for them. And Ballard has the data that shows over-paying in FA just doesn’t pay off in the long run. And remember, whatever Ballard does, Irsay has signed off on. So the owner approves. The lack of success during the Ballard era has little to do with the Colts approach in free agency. It has everything to do with the quarterback position. No Andrew Luck has been the Colts biggest issue. Not getting the QB position right has been the biggest issue. A great quarterback covers many issues on the roster. Chris Ballard is not a slow learner. This is an analytics driven organization. He’s got the data to back up his decisions. He’s not always right, he’s made plenty of mistakes. The 2022 season proves that. But on balance, he’s an above average GM. And until Irsay changes his mind, Ballard continues to run the franchise.

I don’t pretend to be an expert about the Indy fan base. So you tell me…. Is the Indy fan base reflected here on this website? I think if you start a thread about Andrew Luck, you get 100 different opinions and most are unfavorable. That’s the view from 1800 miles west.

No. And I’m as big a fan of Andrew Luck as there is, but no. Honestly, I think it would be awkward if he’s ever inducted to the Colts Ring of Honor. Luck would probably get booed.

After the draft, Ballard said there were a couple of linebackers they tried to draft, but they were taken before the Colts could. I strongly suspect the Colts will either claim a LB at the cut down deadline, or the team will make a modest trade. I think LB will be addressed. As for the last four years? I couldn’t care less about 19, 20, and 21. (7-9, 11-5, 9-8). But 2022 was deeply troubling. Shook me to my core as a fan. I’m off the Ballard bandwagon. That said, as a fan who’s been around football for more than 55 years, I never allow myself to think I know more than a GM, even a bad GM, which Ballard is clearly not. I may not always like what my favorite team does, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have legit reasons for what they do.

From your lips to God’s ears! Hope you’re right. We’re getting close. Looking forward to August and getting a much more candid look at AR. Right now, it feels like he’s been hidden in the Witness Protection Program.

I like Colin Cowherd. But his arguments are ridiculous, almost juvenile. He wants the colts to play AR right away but he’s actually making arguments to bring AR along slowly without even knowing it. His view is popular, I just don’t think it’s smart.

That’s fine. To be clear, my post was not aimed at you. It was for everyone in the discussion. But if we’re potentially talking about next year, and he’s still not back, then I think we’d have a different and sad conversation.

Maybe there’s no reason to be frustrated. Maybe there is no reason to have drafted a linebacker. Maybe Shaq will be ready on 9/1. Maybe 10/1. Maybe 11/1. Maybe the people who run the franchise have more inside info than the average fan. I know the news is not good — yet. But the news may not be as bad as it’s being made out to be right now. Just food for thought…..

I don’t see any reason to cut Shaq now. What good does it do to get more salary cap relief when there’s no one really worth the money who is likely to want to join the Colts? Besides…. If he’s not ready to go by Sept 1, he might be ready by 10/1 or 11/1. Cutting him too soon only to have Shaq regain his form for another team would be a bad look for the Colts. Patience is still the key even though it’s hard for all of us in Colts Nation.

This is not encouraging. I’m not as much worried about this season as my expectations are not very high. But if this was going to be a meaningful year, then the Colts would be in trouble. It would be nice if there was ANY encouraging news, but sadly, there’s not. Life goes on.

I think Number 4 is the one that will be hard for AR for his first few years. Making better and faster decisions and learning that skill at the NFL level is as hard as it gets. It’s not something AR will learn in a few weeks or even months. This will likely take years.

Some NFL execs are very concerned that a player is going to get seriously hurt, like a broken neck or paralysis in one of these. These scrums are not like some normal 4th and 1 QB sneak that has been run since the NFL was invented.

Pinter, French…. And I think the Colts also claimed someone off the Cowboys roster who can play center.

So I did a search…. And it appears there wasn’t nearly enough interest in voting it down from enough teams. One report said only 9 teams were clearly no votes. And the competition committee reportedly had zero interest in supporting even taking a vote either way. So it’s legal for 2023, and the league says they will monitor any injuries that occur from this. Look for all 32 teams to use Tush Push a LOT! It may only last one year, this will probably get revisited again next March.

Back during an off-season owners meeting, the buzz was it should be banned. Then, much to the surprise of most everyone, it wasn’t. The thought back then was to do it for safety reasons. That someone on defense was going to get seriously hurt. But I never heard the reasons why that wasn’t outlawed. I’ll try and do some research and see if I can find out….

Look at the post above yours.

Sorry. Mixed him up with Tim Couch. Thanks.

So? It’s not like we’ve surrounded him with a team that other quarterbacks haven’t had. With all that he has, he’s going to have plenty of long tough days at the office. The cast the Colts have given AR may help him, but that only goes so far. There are growing pains ahead. Learning at the NFL level instead of college isn’t ideal. It’ll be much harder. That’s why I don’t think AR gets his second contract after 3 years. I think it’ll come when Luck’s second contract came — after his 4th year. And I don’t think it’ll be for 5 years. I think it’ll be for 3-4 years. Safer for both sides. I think there’s a bumpy road ahead.

Fragile? Derek Carr? Formerly of the Raiders? Huh? In his 9 years, all as a starting Quarterback, Carr has missed a grand total of four games. Just four. And two came at the end of this last season, when he was benched the last two games in a contract dispute. So, no, Derek Carr is not brittle. In fact, he’s the exact opposite of that. Perhaps you got him confused with his older brother David Carr? He was drafted first overall a long time ago by Cleveland when the Browns were especially bad. And poor David was the most sacked quarterback in the NFL for a number of years. Got the heck beat out of him. He was often injured, but even he wasn’t viewed as brittle. He was viewed as used and abused by a badly run franchise.

Answering your question about the cap…. After the cap went down for two years due to Covid, it has been trending back up and is about to explode thanks to lots much more new media money. 2022: $208.2m. +10m from 21. 2023: 224.8. +16.6 from 22. 2024: 256m. +31.2 from 23. 2025: 282. +26.0 from 24. 2026: 308m. +26.0 from 25. NOTE: Info from OverTheCap.com

All that you say is true. Except what you don’t say. AR has less than 1000 snaps of experience. And there’s just no short cut for that. So he’ll be leaning on the job. He’ll be making mistakes at the NFL level. Look at the 21 class of QB’s. That was supposed to be a good one. 1. Lawrence has had 1.5 disappointing seasons before the light went on midway thru last year. 2. Wilson. Not mature enough plus injuries. Two disappointing seasons. 3. Lance. Injuries plus inexperience. Two disappointing seasons. 11. Fields. Disappointing passer, brilliant runner. Very poor supporting cast. Mixed reviews, but said to be very good this off-season. 15. Mac Jones. Best rookie year of any rookie QB in this class. But disappointing 2nd year when Belichick screwed up and gave him TERRIBLE o-coordinator support. This year, Jones has O’Brien and is expected to improve. So how is it that all 5 of these players have had disappointment in their first two years, yet you and many others here think Richardson won’t have his share of struggles? I think history says AR says he will. Honestly, I think history SCREAMS he will struggle some. Look, I hope I’m wrong and that AR surprises to the upside. I’d be thrilled! But I haven’t seen, or read anything that gives me reason for such optimism.

Can we assume you meant AFC North? Or the South?

If it helps….. All of our starting OL, with the exception of Fries, profiled as above average athletically coming out of college. The just need to be healthy, and they need to be coached up better. But they should be athletic enough.

Honestly, I don’t know, and I don’t much care. But I’ll say this, whenever it happens I don’t think AR will become the highest paid QB as most top QBs inevitably becomes. And that’s because all of these other QBs were/are much MUCH further along than AR. Richardson will be learning how to play quarterback they way everyone else learned in college but AR didn’t. So when it’s time for Richardson to get his second contract, I think he’s more likely to get a good contract like the Giants gave Daniel Jones (4/160-ish) but not a great contract that the other promising young QBs are getting or going to get. So, maybe AR takes a shorter contract 3-4 years at roughly 40-45m per. These are ballpark numbers. But it’s hard to see Richardson having so much success his first 3-4 years that he’s going to get a huge mister deal. It’d be great if it happens, but as of today, I don’t see it.