Does Anyone Miss Polian?

[masterlock]

I know he could be stubborn and had his flaws, but it's hard to argue that he wasn't the best talent evaluator and general manager/club president the Colts had ever seen, at least until he started to turn things over to his son Chris towards the end. He didn't like to spend money on free agents and believed in building through the draft. Ten years of excellence and 2 Super Bowls is not easy.

 

I'd say Grigson could learn a few things from him, especially when it comes to trading away draft picks. Building through free agency is fine in moderation, but it will eventually lead to cap problems.

[GOCOLTS_ROLLTIDE]

Nahh... I'll pass

[grmasterb]

We had cap problems at the end with Polian, who too often overpaid to keep our free agents.

[a06cc]

Give it a break! We lost 4 times this season. Ryan's teams in his first 2 years have looked a lot better than a Polian team

[Dustin]

LOL

[SkyBane]

Bill Polian was far too conservative in his approach. It can be argued Grigson has been too far in the other direction, but weve only seen him for 2 years, he still has plenty of time to reign it in a bit.

I dont think anyone here misses Polian. He burned far too many bridges with the fanbase, and way overpayed players just to keep the guys he drafted in house and completely tuned out free agency and trades, which was as much the cause of the decline of the Manning era as busted draft selections.

[CanuckColt]

No, no, no, no.  That is taking things to ridiculous extremes.

Grigson over NaPolian.

[BOTT]

I know he could be stubborn and had his flaws, but it's hard to argue that he wasn't the best talent evaluator and general manager/club president the Colts had ever seen, at least until he started to turn things over to his son Chris towards the end. He didn't like to spend money on free agents and believed in building through the draft. Ten years of excellence and 2 Super Bowls is not easy.

 

I'd say Grigson could learn a few things from him, especially when it comes to trading away draft picks. Building through free agency is fine in moderation, but it will eventually lead to cap problems.

Most of the free agents Grigson signed can be cut with little repercussion if they don't work out.

And while I hated the TRich trade, I'm sure Bill signed off on the Ugoh trade.

[Balzer40]

Is this question meant to be some sort of try at humor? If it's not, then....I give you this...

 

 

[NewEra]

No, but I miss BA now!

[MTC]

I miss Ron Meeks.

[BOTT]

I miss Ron Meeks.

Cruel

[21isSuperman]

I don't think GM/talent evaluation is the issue.  I think we have plenty of talent on the team, but (for what could be a variety of reasons) the on-the-field product doesn't match the talent level.  It could be due to bad schemes, bad coaching, etc., but I don't think talent evaluation is the issue

[beavis]

I think there is a big difference between missing him and respecting what he did.  I respect the heck out of what Polian did for us and at the same time find it very interesting seeing what Grigson does for us.  So to answer the question, no I do not miss him.

[bestQBever]

Is this a joke? 

[ConBro]

 

[PrincetonTiger]

No

[husker61]

i always liked bp and think he is one of the best gm's of all time. he made some bad draft picks, but a lot of great ones. the colts wouldn't be where they are if he didn't. i have always said he payed too much to keep older free agents, but i think the owner may have had a lot to do with this. i also think it was a bad decision to hand things off to his son, that's all on him. i didn't like dungy and his small fast defense. say what you want, but gm's have to get players that fit the schemes of the coaches. did bp or irsay want to stick with dungy? i don't know, but i think that was a big mistake.

 

at the end of the day, he has made losing teams into winning teams everywhere he has been the gm. you can put bill parcells in that same category.

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

Yes he did a great job, but I like Grigson too, I am not so sure about the Richardson deal though?

[cmgww]

Is this a serious topic? Do you not all remember 2011? The house of cards fell apart. Polian's repeated failures were masked by Manning, and without him we saw what happened. Am I bummed about the recent regression? Sure. But seriously, a "missing Polian yet?" thread...jeez you people really need some perspective

[James Harden]

naahhhhh

[cmgww]

What's next. A "miss Caldwell?" thread? ??

[Day at the Hilton]

Yes I miss him very much. He was like a father to me, Sike!

[1959Colts]

No

[#12]

Does Anyone Miss Polian?

 

 

Things might be bad, but let's not get crazy.

[Nobody]

[Ja'Crispy]

[Jason_]

Yeah Grigson should definitely be fired.  Hey who was the executive of the year last year? We should go after that guy!

[Coltsince4]

As if things are not bad enough you had to bring up that name didn't you? NOT ONE BIT.....

[Brad Nichter]

I like Grigson, but he'll be in the same scenerio as Polian once Luck renews his contract.

[Coltsince4]

Now that I think about it what ever happened to the guy around here from long time ago that had colt Parrott anybody know what happened to him???

[Bird dog]

I can't stand Bill Polian! How is it he is on ESPN?

[husker61]

I like Grigson, but he'll be in the same scenerio as Polian once Luck renews his contract.

 

right on the money!

[Jason_]

I like Grigson, but he'll be in the same scenerio as Polian once Luck renews his contract.

 

Not necessarily.  Polian and even Irsay were as much to blame as Manning's contract if not moreso.  Irsay waving his huge checkbook around trying to make various guys the highest paid at their positions (something we saw very recently after his bragging about the Cherilus contract...which has me concerned that this trend will continue) and then Polian overpaying for mediocre talent like Gary Brackett and handing out huge contracts to guys who had not proven that they could stay healthy etc etc.  

 

If Grigson spends wisely and can somewhat temper Irsay's ego then they'll still be able to field a complete and competitive team after Luck's rookie contract expires.

[Pombi9]

Grigson has his flaws sure. But removing Polian was 100% necessary.

[coltsfanatic24]

Not one bit... all the years we were bad against the run but he didn't draft 1 DT or MLB in the 1st round. Year after year he drafts offensive players when the defensive was the problem. The Colts 2007 draft has to be the worst draft in NFL history. David Harris was one of the best run stopping MLB's in the draft that I thought we were gonna get but we took Anthony Gonzalez instead. Gary Brackett was playing out of position was too small for MLB, was more of a OLB in Tampa 2. That draft set us back for years we were winning games because of the greatness from Peyton but anytime we played a physical team in the playoffs we loss.

[CanuckColtsFan]

No, but I miss BA now!

I always liked BA. Most of our fans didn't give him enough credit. I'll say it one more time, Pagano is A defensive specialist , we need an experienced oc.

[Jules]

Oh dear, this forum needs some medication at times.

 

Last year all I read was how Bruce Arians had the suckiest play calling that would kill Luck and turn him into Big Ben 2.0 and his body would not last till age 26.

 

This year I hear that Pep Hamilton sucks and is too conservative and Luck is going to become Alex Smith 2.0.

 

 

Last several years Bill Polian was the devil and now some like him again. Pagano used to be everyone's hero and now everyone thinks he is a soft cupcake.

[braveheartcolt]

Let me think....

[Jason_]

Not one bit... all the years we were bad against the run but he didn't draft 1 DT or MLB in the 1st round. Year after year he drafts offensive players when the defensive was the problem. The Colts 2007 draft has to be the worst draft in NFL history. David Harris was one of the best run stopping MLB's in the draft that I thought we were gonna get but we took Anthony Gonzalez instead. Gary Brackett was playing out of position was too small for MLB, was more of a OLB in Tampa 2. That draft set us back for years we were winning games because of the greatness from Peyton but anytime we played a physical team in the playoffs we loss.

 

I actually agree somewhat with quite a bit of this.  However, to the bolded, that was more on Dungy than Polian.  Dungy installed his defense and Polian drafted players that would fit that defense.  The same thing happened to Minnesota several years while Dungy was the DC there.  They had several power house offenses but the defense was "small but fast".  They'd be fine for the most part during the regular season but then get to the playoffs and teams like the Giants and Cowboys would run down their throats leading to a lot of one and dones.  

 

So yeah Polian does share some blame as well because he could/should have worked with Dungy to adjust the defensive philosophy or brought in someone to run a more physical style of defense.  The only time Dungy's defense was ever "dominant" was in Tampa and that's because they spent the majority of their cap money and high draft picks on defense.  indy had already invested too heavily in offense to be able to spend the same kind of money on defense.