NewColtsFan

Richardson, a top-10/12 QB by the end of his rookie deal? That’s an interesting question. 4 years or 5? I’d say at least 50/50 and maybe better. Perhaps much better. But if he’s not, he shouldn’t be too far off. I’d love to give better odds but there are no real good historical comps. He’s in a league of his own. But by year 4 or 5 the Colts should have surrounded him with more talent and the young talent should have matured and perhaps also re-tooled the O-line as well. Given health, he should be a real force by then. It looks like he’s going to get very good coaching, so AR needs health and lots and lots of experience to be the best he can be. I think we’ll all have a much better answer to your question by the end of the season.

FWIW….. the location is Los Angeles. The stadium is the coliseum, where USC plays. That’s my old stomping grounds. Way back when, SC and UCLA played there, plus the Rams and the Raiders also played there. These days, it’s just USC.

The story, from Bleacher Report, is pointing to a report from ESPN’s NFL reporter Dan Graziano. He’s one of the best in the business, so I’m not worried that anyone is making up anything. But, I think other stories in the last few days are attributing the positive views of AR to Colts coaches. Whether it’s coaches or players, if I’m Ballard I’d be telling my team to tighten things up. Managing expectations is important, especially after the disaster from last year.

For your consideration…. I think you’ve set yourself up for potentially great disappointment. I think if it were as easy to fix AR’s issues as you think he’d have been the easy and obvious first overall pick. But even if they can address his issues better than expected and even if Steichen adjusts his offense for AR as he did for Jalen Hurts, there is still the matter of AR’s inexperience. Less than 1000 career snaps. And there’s no substitute for experience. That means the mistakes he would’ve made in college he’s now going to make in the NFL. AR is going to see defenses he’s never seen before. And the game is going to be sooo much faster. He’s going to need time to learn and experience all the things he didn’t in college. If this all happens, I hope you won’t be too disappointed.

Please don’t take this wrong, I’m not knocking you for posting this. I’m knocking the Colts for letting stories like this get out. At his year end news conference Ballard criticized himself for not managing expectations last year. He should have a lid on this kind of talk at this point. If it’s August and he looks good in pre-season games that’s one thing. But comments like this in May are mostly unhelpful. They raise expectations which is exactly what Ballard said he wanted to avoid this year. The only person who should like this is Irsay if it helps him sell tickets. Otherwise…..

Turns out Tuesday would appear to have been the first day where there were more players than just rookies. I did see a video % if Sam Ehlinger near AR, and he’s not a rookie. But I don’t see any story in the main page that talks about veterans at practice, or their reaction to seeing AR for the first time. Those would be the natural stories to post. So it’s hard to get much of a read on attendance at this practice. Perhaps we will learn more this week?

well…. THIS link — which is NEW — is from George Bremer. The one I responded to — NFL Rookie Watch — was not. Id strongly caution not to read too much into comments this early. It’s just been rookies for a few days. Nothing else.

Do you believe this? Suddenly the organization that doesn’t leak is flooding with leaks. Richardson has yet to do anything in the practice field to get coaches super excited. It’s only been rookies. He’s done nothing against veterans. All these hit take rumors are just rumors. Maybe someday they’ll be true, but I don’t Richardson is there yet. JMO.

There's another very big reason why the 2012 Colts were ranked 32nd leading up to the season opener….. Irsay and Grigson gutted the roster. The Colts were operating with a huge amount of Dead Cap Money. The Colts had a roster full of inexpensive vets who were short term guys. There wasn’t much to point to that said “winning season”. The NFL community remembered Peyton’s rookie year (3-13) and there was little reason to think the Colts were going to be 11-5, or even anything better than 8-8. Props to everyone who made that happen. (Grigson, Pagano, Arians, Luck, and others). I’m just saying it was much more than no Peyton.

I don’t remember the win totals, I joined after the 12 draft. But I do remember the Colts were ranked 32nd in the first post-draft power ranking. Yes, dead last. Pagano had T-shirts made for every player.

Hey…. Now that the schedule is out you should check it out on the website. As you scroll down game by game you’ll see that with each game there’s a link that you can click on with info about how to buy tickets. And it’s customized for where you live. For me near Los Angeles, it wasn’t very helpful. But for you living near Germany I think you might get some very valuable info on the game you want. Hope this is helpful….

Thanks. I appreciate the very thoughtful response. I’ll try to keep my comments as short as possible. I’ve already been admonished this is a Richardson thread and NOT a Grigson. So…. One at a time. You've worked hard to defend Grigson, so I’d say this, what does it say to you that Irsay chose to fire Grigson and not Pagano a year after giving both long extensions? 1. Yes, Irsay hired Pagano, but he did so on Grigson’s strong recommendation. I wasn’t a member of this community when Pags was hired but I followed the story because of my Luck connection. When he interviewed Pagano, Grigson wrote that players will love this guy, that they will run through walls for him. That’s how Pags got the job. 2. The comments from the assistants were anonymous. No coach would risk getting fired making a comment like that about his GM. BTW: which assistant coach became a GM? I don’t know this story. But the comments were reported and posted here. 3. This one is easy. When Grigson squeezed McAfee, Pat was at the height of his career. When Ballard squeezed Hilton, TY was at the end. Big difference. And I’d add this, when Hilton left, Ballard called him one of his all-time favorite players. Someone he both loved and respected. There wouldn’t appear to have been any damage done. As for Reggie: he publicly said he thought Grigson squeezed him in his last contract. (3/16) in 2012. The walk by story was not flattering to Grigson. As you noted, they didn’t talk again until much further down the season. It’s hard to imagine Ballard, or any GM, doing that to a top player, a team leader. As to player retention: I’d simply say this…. Players came and stayed because the Colts were viewed as an ascending team with Super Bowl potential. But the Colts paid handsomely to get good players. As Ballard noted when he arrived, Indy isn’t a destination location. The only way to get good talent was to pay big. It was not sustainable. And Irsay supports this. 4. The Luck story. All teams with a franchise level quarterback face the same financial problem. Only one made it a public issue: Ryan Grigson and the Colts. You keep those type of comments internal. As to Ballard and delayed gratification: he gets buried for that here on this website. It’s one of his most unpopular comments. I don’t think blaming the media works. Grigson got ripped because he’s the only one to ever do what he did. Full disclosure: I was a Grigson admirer until the closet door opened and everything tumbled out. Then, I wasn’t. But I’m glad he can get work in the NFL, even if the 5 year run were temp jobs. But I confess if I were a Minnesota fan I’d be nervous. And I liked his first pick of Jordan Addison. But Grigson’s long term history says Buyer Beware. Appreciate the exchange. Highest respect.

Assuming Richardson shows enough to stay with him for the long haul, I feel confident saying the Colts 1st round pick next year will either be Harrison Jr or an OT or a DE or DT. So a lineman of some type is far more likely than any other position with one notable exception.

NFL.com reporting that Houston has signed guard Shaq Mason for the large sum of 3/36. That’s much larger than most deals done after the draft. I don’t know what Risner is looking for but I think the Mason deal makes it much less likely Risner signs with the Colts. If we sign a veteran guard I’d expect someone far more modestly priced.

Don’t be afraid to actually call the Colts. I’m sure you can find a phone number on-line. Whoever answers might not know right away, but she should be able to find out for you pretty quickly.

NOTE: Long post ahead…. The issue you’re not seeing is this…. This discussion was over whether or not Grigson can be viewed as a good judge pf talent. The three jobs he had between the time he was fired by the Colts and the time he was hired by Minnesota were all temporary jobs, not staff jobs. He was paid to come in and give his opinion for consideration. His was not the final voice in any decision. His Wiki profile refers to those three titles as NFL Executive, NFL Consultant, NFL Advisor. 5 years, three temp jobs. As you yourself noted, the NFL has some boys club mentality to it, and Grigson has made friends. I’m glad he found work. But those jobs don’t prove he’s a good judge of talent. It proves he’s got friends. If he does a good job in Minnesota THAT will prove he’s better at his job this time around than he was with the Colts. As to his time with the Colts, in another post you listed all the good players that got hurt. The problem is, the same thing happened to the other 31 GMs too. They had good players who got hurt. Under Grigson, the roster got older and less talented, less athletic, less skilled. That’s in part how the team went from 11-5 three straight years to 8-8 in back to back seasons. The roster deteriorated around Luck. You can point to Luck’s injury in 15 but not 16. And to your point about fans being unfairly critical of Grigson, I’m actually shocked you went there with Grigson because of the following….. 1. He was HATED by his own hand picked head coach. Do you not remember the marriage counselor that Irsay brought in to try to patch things up? Unprecedented in NFL history. 2. He was HATED by the assistants. Do you not remember the quotes from anonymous assistants that said Grigson was ordering the staff to start/play Trent Richardson to help save RG’s reputation? 3. He was HATED by the players. When Grigson pushed Pat McAfee into a contract stalemate Irsay ordered him to get the deal done. Reggie Wayne talked about walking down hallways and Grigson would walk past right past him as if he didn’t exist. 4. He literally publicly blamed his franchise quarterback and his big second contract as the reason there wouldn’t be enough money to spend on free agency to improve the team. Who does that? It’s one thing to think it, but who says that publicly? None of these four stories goes to his ability to judge talent. But it goes to your claim that fans aren’t being fair to Grigson. I think that’s completely false. I think you’re being way too kind to him. I don’t rule out that he might do a better job this time around, maybe he’s learned from his mistakes? But he couldn't possibly do worse.

As of early May….. Id say 6 or 7. I think it’s possible to have more, but I think it’s much less likely. It'll be interesting what we all think after the pre-season in the 2 week window before the regular season starts. About 4 months from now.

No, I wouldn’t say that at all, at least, not from the Colts. But Brown was the first to find AR. Happened back in August of 22 BEFORE Richardson started his only season for Florida. It was pre-season practice. And in his current job, he has flexibility to go where he wants in search of the most unique and special talent. And it’s being shared that Brown went to see him often. He was raw and Brown wanted to see his progress (or not) in person. If there’s any spin happening, I don’t think it’s from the Colts. It might be from the story from Stampede Blue. I think the Colts are giving Brown credit for finding a raw unpolished Diamond before most anyone else did. Simply a pat on the back.

You keep writing that sentence…. “There is evidence that Grigson has skill as an evaluator of talent.” Yet, oddly enough, you do not offer any of that evidence. No names. Not from the draft or from free agency. Posters here are asking you. What? Evidence?

No need to be sorry. It’s all good.

What are you confused about? Odds are there is ZERO guaranteed. You sign him to the most years you can (3) in case he unexpectedly turns into something and becomes a keeper. And if he doesn’t, he can be cut with no impact to the salary cap. Win-win for the Colts and the kid.

Im not exactly sure what you’re looking for from me? Do I agree with Fluke about Grigson? 100 percent no. Which surprises me a little, because that poster and I agree far more than we disagree. I can go into a very long and detailed case, I don’t think it’s very hard to make the opposite case. But I want to make sure that’s what you’re asking. So I’ll hold off until I understand what you’re looking for.

Other than taking Raimann last year in the 4th round (it was actually pick 77 in R3) I pretty much agree with most everything in this post. Hope people will read it with an open mind.

For whatever it’s worth… NFL.com has reported Tennessee tried several times to trade into the first round but couldn’t find a team willing to trade down. Those teams wanted to draft the players they took and not risk losing them. So the Titans were happy to find Levis available at 33 where they could make a deal with a team.

You think Grigson is a good talent evaluator? Ryan Grigson?!? The guy who used to be the Colts GM?!? Based on…….. what exactly? Asking for several million Colts fans?