Grigson: "Not in my DNA to go after Names...."

[NewColtsFan]

A story from IndyStar that's more about cap space than most anything else....

 

The quote is from the end of the story, but it certainly jumps off the page!

 

The story says IndyStar has done it's own digging and contrary to what NFL.com says about the Colts cap space ($43 Mill)   that IndyStar thinks the figure is $45-46 Mill.

 

To my knowledge, the Colts have not confirmed any figure.

 

Here's your story....    an interesting read....

 

 

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130218/SPORTS03/302180054/1058/SPORTS03

[Tark The Shark]

Good quote at the end.

 

I am not surprised that Grigson would say that. I remember his first press conference saying that he will look at the film and not look at intangibles. If a guy can play, Grigson will go after him. And he has proven that for the most part.

[Flash7]

I read that last paragraph a couple of times, and to me, it appears that he was just saying "It's not in my DNA to go after names" so that he doesn't have to directly talk about any one particular free agent. He probably doesn't mind talking about free agency as a whole, but would not want to get into who they are actually considering, especially not with the media. Just what I took from it, and I could be wrong; however, he definitely went after a "big name" with Vontae Davis.

[shakedownstreet]

he's just saying he isn't dan snyder, who seems to get blindly intoxicated by star free agents

[TKnight24]

"Not in my DNA to go after names"

Mr. Grigson, you don't have to prove that to us. You showed us by signing Jerell Freeman. Honestly, who knew that guy even existed?

I LOVE Grigson's Style. Not afraid to look on this entire Planet for Talent

[Nobody]

he's just saying he isn't dan snyder, who seems to get blindly intoxicated by star free agents

He loves way overpaying projects more than going after big names I'd say.

[MKDK]

I like that finishing quote.

 

What I take from it, is that Grigs don't lock on to a guy just because the player has a big, well known name. The play/tape has to match the price, the price has to be right, and personality comes in to play as well. Grigs wants to find the right guy(s).

[Superman]

He loves way overpaying projects more than going after big names I'd say.

 

?

 

What projects did Grigson overpay?

[Dustin]

?

 

What projects did Grigson overpay?

 

I think he's talking about Snyder.

[MAC]

I read that last paragraph a couple of times, and to me, it appears that he was just saying "It's not in my DNA to go after names" so that he doesn't have to directly talk about any one particular free agent. He probably doesn't mind talking about free agency as a whole, but would not want to get into who they are actually considering, especially not with the media. Just what I took from it, and I could be wrong; however, he definitely went after a "big name" with Vontae Davis.

Nah, the entire quote was “(But) I don’t want to go after a name just because that’s easy. Not in my DNA to go after names.” It seems to me that he's talking about considering players based on ability, not name recognition. The later is important to fans ("I've heard of him therefore he must be good") and certain "media conscious" owners, but I would hope that it's not important to ANY decent good personnel man - particularly since "names" tend to earn more - usually out of proportion to their value.

 

And I'm not sure that I would consider Davis a "big name" myself.

[Nobody]

?

What projects did Grigson overpay?

Snyder did, not Grigs.

[MAC]

Good quote at the end.

 

I am not surprised that Grigson would say that. I remember his first press conference saying that he will look at the film and not look at intangibles. If a guy can play, Grigson will go after him. And he has proven that for the most part.

Did he really say specifically that he wasn't concerned with intangibles? That may simplify the process, but it's pretty irresponsible when you consider that many intangibles (work ethic, leadership, communication skills, intelligence, how attractive his girlfriend is ) are vitally important.

[Superman]

I think he's talking about Snyder.

 

Snyder did, not Grigs.

 

Ah.

[Superman]

Did he really say specifically that he wasn't concerned with intangibles? That may simplify the process, but it's pretty irresponsible when you consider that many intangibles (work ethic, leadership, communication skills, intelligence, how attractive his girlfriend is ) are vitally important.

 

I remember the comment. It wasn't that he isn't concerned with intangibles, but that he wont unnecessarily let so-called intangibles outweigh a player's ability and performance.

[Flash7]

Nah, the entire quote was “(But) I don’t want to go after a name just because that’s easy. Not in my DNA to go after names.” It seems to me that he's talking about considering players based on ability, not name recognition. The later is important to fans ("I've heard of him therefore he must be good") and certain "media conscious" owners, but I would hope that it's not important to ANY decent good personnel man - particularly since "names" tend to earn more - usually out of proportion to their value.

 

And I'm not sure that I would consider Davis a "big name" myself.

Thanks, Mac. I think you're right.

 

I also think MKDK's got it right, as he stated in a few posts above.

[TKnight24]

As more of these types of Threads get created, the more I can't wait for Free Agency to begin

[NewColtsFan]

nt

[Nobody]

nt

Hmmmm?

[Malakai432]

I'm sure if he feels a player would fit the team well it wouldn't matter if they are a big name or a no name. He would probabaly do it all, he's not going to be like "Ahhhhh Charles Woodson is on the chopping block!!! Lets get him!!"

If it was a star however he feels would excel for the Colts I'm sure he would give it a nice hard look though. No reason to become team nightmare like the Eagles with wasteful spending though.

[NewColtsFan]

Hmmmm?

 

I had posted too early....   was asking you a question, and then, after I posted, I found out that others had asked the same question and you had answered it...

 

I was trying to delete my post...     'nt' means 'no text'...

 

Sorry for the confusion....

[luckyblue]

Names may not be in his dna, but in the upcoming free agency there will be some available names that can definitely upgrade our team. With the Colts being 45 million under the cap, Grigson has a perfect opportunity to get some high quality free agents names, and if he decides not to, I think it would be a big mistake! There are 2 players if they became free agents, would love to go to the Colts, that being Paul Kruger and Ed Reed, because of their close connection to Pagano! I feel both of them would make a major impact on the Colts defense, something we desperately need to address! Our Draft picks are thin, since we lost our second round pick in the Vontae Davis deal and were drafting alot lower this year, so I think getting some names in free agency is critical to our success in 2013!

[GoColts8818]

I doubt he's saying he wouldn't sign a name if he felt like it could help the team.

 

I think what he's saying is that he's not going to sign someone just because he's a big name.  I wouldn't read too much into that most GMs if you put them on truth sermon would say something similar to that.  We as fans have a tendency to remember what big name players did and look at that rather than look at reasons why that player is on the free agent market and what they are likely to do in the future. 

 

With that said I do think Grigson would rather have two or three players who are solid to pretty good players vs. one big name player for the same amount of money. 

[shakedownstreet]

ironically there will be outcries if we haven't signed a big name 1 minute into free agency 

[SilentHill]

ironically there will be outcries if we haven't signed a big name 1 minute into free agency 

 

We probably will sign a big name, but this article suggests that it will be because of a fit on the team, and not because of the name. There is no correlation between the two

[throwing BBZ]

So he is blaming the Freeney Fiasco on Irsay. OK

[SilentHill]

So he is blaming the Freeney Fiasco on Irsay. OK

 

 

There is a Freeney Fiasco?

[Gavin]

I dont see how anything in that article could indicate that he is blaming the Freeney situation or lack thereof now on Irsay

[GoColts8818]

So he is blaming the Freeney Fiasco on Irsay. OK

He didn't say that and nothing close to it.  Freeney already had a contract from Polian.  That contract was back loaded due to Freeney agreeing to push money back in the past to help us with the cap in early years of that deal.  I am sure had Polian stayed GM Freeney was never going to see the last year of that contract.  I am sure Polian probably thought they would be able to either cut him and go with Hughes by that point or extend Freeney to free up the money last year. 

 

However, when Polian was fired things changed.  Grigson came in and was left with the last year of Freeney's contract and at first tried to shop it if you believe reports and didn't find a deal that he liked.  So then he had three choices, release Freeney, extend Freeney without knowing if he could work in a 3/4 defense knowing that if he didn't that they would end up taking a cap hit down the road from having to release him because he didn't fit the new system, or let Freeney play out the last year of the contract in a year the Colts were using to clean up their cap mess anyways.   I am sure Grigson figured had Freeney worked in the 3/4 worst case they would use the franchise tag to work out a new deal if they needed to or if he didn't they could just let him walk and take no future cap hits.  He elected to do the later. 

 

So I don't think it was a fiasco it was a plan to make sure we had the most money we could possibly have going into this off-season.  It was hardly a case of Grigson seeing Dwight Freeney and going "Oh my Gosh it's Dwight Freeney I have to make sure this guy is the highest paid player in the NFL this year!"  It was Grigson doing what he thought was best for us long term to manage the last year of Freeney's deal. 

[shakedownstreet]

how did this turn into a thread about freeney 

[Tark The Shark]

Did he really say specifically that he wasn't concerned with intangibles? That may simplify the process, but it's pretty irresponsible when you consider that many intangibles (work ethic, leadership, communication skills, intelligence, how attractive his girlfriend is ) are vitally important.

 

I am pretty sure he said that at his first press conference.

 

But I could have misunderstood what he said, and I thought that was very telling about what kind of players he was looking for.

[Restored]

Staying on course.. I expect a few mid level or maybe just one big time f/a to be signed to really help kick start build the monster year 2.

[Jules]

I am almost now expecting the Colts to go after a big name.......

 

[southwest1]

A story from IndyStar that's more about cap space than most anything else....

 

The quote is from the end of the story, but it certainly jumps off the page!

 

The story says IndyStar has done it's own digging and contrary to what NFL.com says about the Colts cap space ($43 Mill)   that IndyStar thinks the figure is $45-46 Mill.

 

To my knowledge, the Colts have not confirmed any figure.

 

Here's your story....    an interesting read....

 

 

http://www.indystar.com/article/20130218/SPORTS03/302180054/1058/SPORTS03

Thanks for this post NCF! I ran out of likes. I just am growing tired of Grigson's elusiveness. Say what you want about former GM Bill Polian, but at least he answered questions & you could read his responses & figure out where his head was at in terms of voids to fill in the draft & free agency. Grigson tells the fan base absolutely nothing. It's so irritating...Grrr!

 

"Grigson’s first year with the Colts was all about terminating contracts for aging and/or oft-injured players, slashing the payroll, basically starting over. That resulted in him building a roster with one hand tied behind his back.

 

Terminating the contracts of Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark, Gary Brackett, Joseph Addai and others resulted in the Colts carrying nearly $38.5 million in so-called “dead money,’’ bonuses paid but not yet applied to the salary cap."

 

Grigson had nothing to do with letting Peyton Manning go. That ball was entirely in Jim Irsay's court. Ryan played zero role in that salary cap decision whatsoever. 

[jvan1973]

So he is blaming the Freeney Fiasco on Irsay. OK

What fiasco? Grigson didn't sign him, and cutting him would have saved only 5 million. His leadership was worth that much

[Dan]

I read that last paragraph a couple of times, and to me, it appears that he was just saying "It's not in my DNA to go after names" so that he doesn't have to directly talk about any one particular free agent. He probably doesn't mind talking about free agency as a whole, but would not want to get into who they are actually considering, especially not with the media. Just what I took from it, and I could be wrong; however, he definitely went after a "big name" with Vontae Davis.

 

He did go after a biggish name with Vontae, but I don't see how that's really fully appropriate - he's not saying he'll go out of his way to avoid big names, just he'll not be blinded by name value over ability. 

[lollygagger8]

I'm so glad Grigson is in control now. He may be elusive, but at the end of the day the job gets done.

 

If Na'Polian was still here, he'd just tell us more Marv Levy quotes and keep overpaying players.

[theanarchist]

Nah, the entire quote was “(But) I don’t want to go after a name just because that’s easy. Not in my DNA to go after names.” It seems to me that he's talking about considering players based on ability, not name recognition. The later is important to fans ("I've heard of him therefore he must be good") and certain "media conscious" owners, but I would hope that it's not important to ANY decent good personnel man - particularly since "names" tend to earn more - usually out of proportion to their value.

 

And I'm not sure that I would consider Davis a "big name" myself.

I think what he meant was I'm not going to sign Jake Long for 70 million if I can get a Phil Loadholt for half that and get just as much production. He isn't gonna sign a guy based on reputation.

[theanarchist]

He didn't say that and nothing close to it.  Freeney already had a contract from Polian.  That contract was back loaded due to Freeney agreeing to push money back in the past to help us with the cap in early years of that deal.  I am sure had Polian stayed GM Freeney was never going to see the last year of that contract.  I am sure Polian probably thought they would be able to either cut him and go with Hughes by that point or extend Freeney to free up the money last year. 

 

However, when Polian was fired things changed.  Grigson came in and was left with the last year of Freeney's contract and at first tried to shop it if you believe reports and didn't find a deal that he liked.  So then he had three choices, release Freeney, extend Freeney without knowing if he could work in a 3/4 defense knowing that if he didn't that they would end up taking a cap hit down the road from having to release him because he didn't fit the new system, or let Freeney play out the last year of the contract in a year the Colts were using to clean up their cap mess anyways.   I am sure Grigson figured had Freeney worked in the 3/4 worst case they would use the franchise tag to work out a new deal if they needed to or if he didn't they could just let him walk and take no future cap hits.  He elected to do the later. 

 

So I don't think it was a fiasco it was a plan to make sure we had the most money we could possibly have going into this off-season.  It was hardly a case of Grigson seeing Dwight Freeney and going "Oh my Gosh it's Dwight Freeney I have to make sure this guy is the highest paid player in the NFL this year!"  It was Grigson doing what he thought was best for us long term to manage the last year of Freeney's deal. 

I think you are right on. Grigson's was stuck between a rock and a hard place with Freeney. The team ate his huge cap #. Grigson made some really good low cost free agent moves which put the team in position to make the playoffs even with the inability to spend a lot of $ in free agency last year. It worked out.

[oldunclemark]

Ryan Grigson made some decisions last season that tried out very well...

Now he needs to make some changes in the offensive line

...that has been our No.1 area of weakness for 2 or 3 seasons..

He can be afraid to completely overhaul it...

...This should be his speciality...his accelerated area of expertise.

I think we can be very confident that he can build an offensive line..

But he has to do it..and with money to spend...now is the time

[Superman]

What fiasco? Grigson didn't sign him, and cutting him would have saved only 5 million. His leadership was worth that much

 

Cutting him would have saved $14m. I don't think his leadership and impact combined was worth that much. We could have signed grabbed a couple high level linemen with that cap space.

 

I wasn't a proponent of releasing Freeney last season. I know a lot of people were. From a PR standpoint, keeping him was a noble thing for the team to do, but I don't think it was smart. Could have traded him for a mid or low pick, could have extended him to a reasonable contract, or just released him and bolstered the roster in other areas. I think keeping him with a $14m base salary was a mistake. At least they're not compounding that mistake by offering him another big contract.