NewColtsFan

And to think I was worried about Henry getting 30 carries in this game. He might get 30 carries by halftime!! (Sarcasm). I think!

His very, very, very limited snaps!

Not exactly the start we were hoping for…..

Good luck everyone! And here we go!!

Apparently, you don’t follow the team much. You think the Colts are going to sign JT to a big contract including a signing bonus of over $10 mill and then turn around and trade him? Yeah, that’s not happening.

Wow, I really got screwed up on this one! A double DOH!!! for me! Thnx!

Yup. I think you’re right. That’s what I get for posting at 2am! DOH!!!

Huh? Brents has played this season and played very well. In 4 games he logged 20 solo tackles an interception and a forced fumble. Thats a lot for a corner. And it wasn’t one hamstring. Brents strained the other one as well. Two separate unrelated injuries. But he DID play.

So the Thursday night game are only available on streaming services. The game was said to be very good EXCEPT one huge problem. There was more than 250 yards of penalties assessed. Each team with more than 120 yards. It’s being called the worst game by the refs in many years. For some (many?) it ruined what should have been a great game. Will the league take any steps this off-season so this doesn’t happen again? Let’s hope so.

Sorry…. But the remaining players who are there are not going to publicly side with the head coach who has been fired. They’re going to side with the owner and GM who just did the firing. They're not going to bite the hand that feeds them.

You make an interesting argument here. I don’t get the impression that you think of him as a JAG. Only that you don’t think he’s got special qualities that make him worth retaining. Ok…. But I’d like to offer you a different perspective for consideration. And I’m not trying to be cute or clever with this. Remember back in 2019, Ballard would say of Brissett that he had one elite quality: Leadership. Well, in that same spirit, I’d like to say Zack Moss has one elite quality: Attitude. And what I mean by that, to me Zack Moss appears to play every play like it might be his last as a pro. He doesn’t just run hard, he runs violently and angry. And this is not a new view of Moss for me. I was selling Zack Moss to posters here this summer who were talking about who might be the Colts RB2 this season. Some favored Deon Jackson, some thought the Colts might still sign a veteran free agent before camp started. I was selling Moss. I told posters to look up his 22 season on YouTube and they might like what they see. I like the idea of having a very high level RB2 when Taylor can’t go for whatever reason. Ultimately, you may be right. The Colts might let Moss walk and go with Evan Hull. I think we’ll find out by the end of February.

Ok…. First, I owe you another apology, I thought I’d have written this response several days ago. Things got a little crazy here this week. So sorry. Second, what surprises me on this exchange, and not just you and me but other posters too is that I’m not writing anything new here. I’ve been writing these views for several years and have never received so much push back. Why now? I don’t know, but I respect the views of those pushing back so I’m willing to concede that I could be wrong. But with a number of issues we’re talking about I’m just not sure we’re ever going to truly know for certain or whether we’re all going by our best guesses here. To be clear.., I’ve never said big time talent won’t come to Indy. I’ve said the only way we’re going to get them is to over pay. And I believe both Irsay and Ballard have said so. That appears to be a key issue as a number of people seem to have taken exception to that. The other day @ShuteAt168 found a quote on a Google search. It was Irsay from a few years back saying the Colts had gone after some top tier talent, but dropped out when the price got too expensive. I remember that Irsay quote. But I don’t think it disproves my viewpoints. Are we conflating some key issues here? Are we mashing up our roster building philosophy with the limitations of a small market team? Yes, I think we might be doing some of that. Im 100 percent not insisting I’m right. I’ve received too much pushback to stand my ground on this. But I’ve done a little homework on how the Colts have been doing their business during the Ballard years. I think I’ve uncovered some interesting info that I look forward to sharing. Not sure exactly when is the right time. I think I’d prefer to wait until the season is over and Ballard has had his year ender. But we’ll see. Spoiler alert: I’m going to send you another post tonight. This one about Zack Moss and the discussion we were having. I hope you’ll find it interesting, even if we don’t agree.

He may not have suffered a career ending injury but he said he was in constant pain for four straight years. Isn’t that enough?

The year Ballard let Autry and Houston go was the year that the salary cap went down. The reason? Covid. It wasn’t unreasonable to let them go as they were both over 30. As it turns out, Autry has continued to play at a high level. In hindsight, yes, it was a mistake. But it wasn’t a bad decision on its face. It’s a call most every GM would make.

Theres rarely, if ever, a time where a roster spot isn’t needed. Empty spots get filled.

I hope you’re right, but it’s not hard to forecast Derrick Henry running the ball 30+ times right where Grover Stewart used to be. He might go for 150+. I guess I’m saying I’m not nearly as confident as you are.

Appreciate the post. I’ll have a more detailed post about how the Colts do their business in the weeks to come…. Perhaps after the season ends, we’ll see how it plays out.

Huh?

Understood about the Luck mention. No worries. As for Young, what he had going for him was being Alabama’s starting quarterback for about two and a half years. So he had great success in the hardest, most competitive conference. And while he didn’t have great physical tools, evaluators felt he had an advanced level of NFL knowledge…. A superior mental game. If I remember correctly, stories I read said evaluators weren’t really worried about height, but they were concerned about his body holding up to brutal NFL life. Then he showed up weighing more than anticipated…. 204 instead of 194. Those 10 additional pounds seemed to calm any concerns. Finally…. On the Young topic, I wouldn’t call him a bust yet. (Not that you have) I always say give a rookie 3 season before passing any judgement. I almost always root for QBs to succeed. It’s the hardest position to play in team sports AND the hardest to evaluate. I hope quarterbacks eventually figure it out. Sorry if I rambled here….

Sorry to interrupt…. I’m going to touch on a separate topic hoping it will help you in the future. I’m totally sincere here. Almost every NFL player has a wiki page. Even players who didn’t get invited to the combine. Even players who went to the combine, but didn’t get drafted. Theres about 75 of those players every year. Anyway, all NFL players wind up making a Wikipedia page, and those pages include their combine results. You mentioned Luck didn’t work out. Turns out, he did. And his combine results are on his wiki page. Click on it and go to the section that’s typically labeled professional. It’s after sections called early life and college. So in his professional section, you can easily scroll down and find the players combine results. You’ll see that Luck tested through the roof. Better than most expected. All of his combine marks are there. Again, most of the NFL players all of us are talking about today have a wiki page. Their test results can be found there. For future discussions, I hope you find this helpful.

Sorry…. I was responding to your comment about making the trade at the trade deadline. So I’ll try again. Giving up a pick AND signing a big contract at the trade deadline is rarely worth it. The Buckner deal was done in March. as was the deal that eventually brought us Quentin. That’s the window when you get as close to 100 cents on the dollar as possible. Trade deadline deals are where you get pennies on the dollar.

Giving up a high draft pick AND paying a huge contract is rarely worth it. There were 15 trades made at the deadline. Only one involved a team with a losing record where they gave up a high pick and then signed the player to a big contract. Chicago and Sweat. The same Bears team that did the same last year trading for the Pittsburg WR. And that would up costing them the 33rd pick in the draft. So there’s good reason losing teams don’t do it. It’s very expensive and not smart. Im sure DE will be our shopping list in free agency and the draft.

Maybe Jones wasn’t ready before. Maybe he’s ready now. Isn’t that possible?

Huh? What did Grigson do in FA that Ballard hasn’t? Grigson had one year (2013) where he spent more than normal in FA and he never did it again. It did not go well. The only thing Ballard does in FA that many people here hate is that he won’t spend enough on expensive free agents. Thats it. And he’s got the analytics to back up his decision. Ballard has had success with FA spending on very good FA. Justin Houston (2/24). Denico Autry (3/17) Stephon Gilmore (2/20) Pierre Desire (3/21) and now Ebukam (3/27) are some examples on the defensive side of the ball.

I’ll take another crack at this…. I’ve never said top free agents won’t come to Indy, I’ve said they’ll come, but the Colts have to overpay to get them. Look at the quote you found from Irsay. That they bid on top free agents, then dropped out at a certain point. I think that matches up with what I’ve been saying. The Colts have to pay more than they think is reasonable for top talent. And I don’t think Irsay needs to say Indy isn’t a desired location for free agents over and over. No need to rub it in the fans faces each time. Easier to say they’ve bid on players and got out at a certain price. Doubt all you want, believe what you will, but this still matches up to what I’ve said.