John Waylon

He was not still injured. The day training camp opened Ballard said that he was healthy and that there would be no need to put him on the PUP. He had surgery in March with a recovery time of 8 weeks. 8 weeks from March is June. If he was still recovering at the first of September he should probably be looking for a different line of work. He hid behind the “injury” to engineer this holdout because it gave him 4 extra weeks to entrench himself without facing any fines for doing so. 💯

Exactly like I said. I’ve said from the jump that if he showed up and played this season Irsay would have 1000% given him close to 15M annually. I’ve never had any doubt. None whatsoever. I’m still mad we had to go this route to get there. This whole %show was entirely unnecessary, and we could have absolutely used Taylor in these first 4 games instead of him holding in or out or sideways or whatever this was. But now it’s time to move forward and actually get back to work. Welcome back, now let’s not do this again. Ever.

I don’t know that he could have done anything short of committing aggravated mayhem to evade any questions about this situation. Even if he had returned and run for 300 yards and 15 TDs in the game the questions still would have largely been about the contract situation. I’m very disappointed in how he (and Irsay as well,) have handled this as well. He’s always been presented as the kind of guy who wouldn’t do something like this, and he even acknowledged that he was under contract and would honor is back in the spring. This agent that he’s picked up is just a % disturber and nothing more. Everything was going until that guy entered the picture. Once he entered the equation this whole thing got stupid quick. Personally I tend to wonder if the way things have gone down has been part of the reason he was so awkward yesterday during the presser. This agent came in and made a mess of %, maybe Taylor just doesn’t know how to handle himself at this point. Again, all indications prior to this agent change over the summer was that this sort of behavior was entirely out of the ordinary for JT. Maybe bringing this agent in turned out differently than he was expecting and now he’s trying to navigate entirely unknown and uncomfortable territory to him. Right now I’m less worried about all the front-facing stuff like press conferences and the stuff that winds up in the media. I’m more concerned with them getting things sorted out behind closed doors and getting him worked into this new off new under Steichen.

I wasn’t singling you out, that has been a theme in the thread throughout the day and I just feel it’s a bit misguided. His availability was going to be required. He fulfilled that requirement today. I don’t think it’s something he enjoyed or was particularly looking forward to, and so he just got it out of the way instead of letting it hang over him until it actually was required. Now he can get back to practice and get ready to go. He can fully focus on that until his next required availability.

I think people are getting too hung up on this. It was inevitable. He was going to have to do it sooner than later and maybe he decided he wanted to just get it out of the way and get back to work. If this is the part of the process he’s dreading the most (which doesn’t seem all that unlikely,) might as well rip the bandaid off and move on. Where do we go from here?

I’ve expressed more than once what a matchup nightmare I think Woods and Richardson can become. I just hope he gets back sooner than later.

Even if so, these first 4 weeks have been a real encouraging way of enticing him to stick around and let the Colts get to a point where they HAVE to make him an offer. If this whole ordeal had taken place in say Chicago he would probably be less inclined to get back and get to the end of the deal because that offense is an inept mess in a nosedive, and the whole franchise seems to be following suit. My point was, at the very least we’ve demonstrated that this is a viable spot for an RB to come in and be part of a competitive team. Taylor is the kind of guy who wants a contract in a good situation, not just the highest dollar amount contract he can get from whoever offers it. He wants to win, too. He’s a competitive guy. Showing that we are in fact a competitive team could have only had a positive impact on his outlook.

I certainly don’t think it’s hurt. Back when this all first started to get out of control there was a narrative out there that he didn’t want to play with Richardson, or a running QB ETC… But I certainly think it’s within reason that seeing the way Richardson has blossomed and seeing the way Moss has had success running the ball has helped paint a little more accommodating picture for Taylor. This isn’t the 2022 Colts offense again, or somehow worse. I absolutely think we’ve done a very good job of “selling” that there is still some real opportunity here over these first 4 weeks.

I’m still mad and I want them to figure their % out. But… I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited.

This has been my instinct all along as well. This thing got so stupid and ugly so quick my whole outlook on it has been a solid “I’ll believe it when I see it” and “I’m just ready for them to sort their % out like adults because this is * stupid.”

A couple of weeks ago some friends of mine played the Ryman Auditorium. Before the show I went over to Broadway to Roberts. I was wearing my Richardson jersey, and suffice to say many of the Titans fans I encountered couldn’t help but say something. They were definitely shook by the 5 in their back yard.

Yeah, most of the Panthers fans I’ve seen are straight up not having a good time. I’d like to offer them some words of encouragement, but somehow I don’t think “it gets worse” is the kind of encouragement they’re going to appreciate right now.

Well the grace period for officially ignoring this %show has come to a close. Now we start the next new chapter. It was a wonderful sabbatical while it lasted…

It just doesn’t have quite the same charm that “suck for Luck” did…

Well we have plenty of corners to spare…

Well, today should serve as a good reason why teams should think those decisions over a little more thoroughly. If the offense had started at their own 10 and driven to that point? Maybe. But they had sputtered after a turnover. That 3 points would have won the game in regulation.

Plenty of positives from him today. Some stuff that definitely needs work, but absolutely an encouraging outing.

I don’t consider it hindsight. I questioned it in real-time. We have one of the highest paid kickers in the league and he just hit from 50+ a record setting amount of times. That was not the time to call a 7 yard play with the offense. It was not operating smoothly at that time.

I did not love the call to do for it on 4th and 7. What would that FG have been? Even with the earlier miss I would have probably taken that over the 4th down attempt. It just wasn’t the right call there at that time for me.

It was tough to see him that wide open. Like, of all the dudes to lose on that offense, they lose him? Ouch.

Cool.

Yeah, I hate that it happened like that, but I told a buddy of mine who is a Ravens fan that I don’t remember the last time a big no-call in a key situation benefitted us like that but it sure seems to happen for the other team a lot so I wasn’t upset to be on that side for once. Ultimately, it wasn’t that single call that cost Baltimore that game, and even my Ravens fan of a friend admitted as much.

That’s certainly a…. curious…. ranking, but oh well. I’m not shook by it.

Our defensive front should certainly make some noise against the Rams offensive line next week. They did not do a great job of protecting Stafford tonight.