Bad 2011 Draft

[Greenoughrunner]

Were we hit with a bug or what. The only one playing is Carter. Anthony is Hurt Ben is hurt(thats his name right) Daves is hurt. And idk the last picks name

[Smitto]

Lol mate doesnt even know the fellers names.. it happens... idk what is going on with the colts when it comes to injuries.

[colts52761]

I like the players we drafted, disappointed they are not on the field.

[joo 2h]

Lol mate doesnt even know the fellers names.. it happens... idk what is going on with the colts when it comes to injuries.

lol, this is funny

This might have to fall under the staff that gets these players ready to play on sunday, The strength and conditioning team, They might lose their jobs after all these injuries

[colts52761]

We have a lot of injuries every year and it doesn't seem like any changes as far as coaching staff.

[Andy]

I think we drafted great players, and when healthy are real good. NEVIS not Daves, is a bull at DT and should be good in the fututre. Castonzo and Ijalana should be good in the future. Great picks unlucky scenarios

[ruksak]

Strength and conditioning training has nothing to do with our injuries. We have bad luck, period. This was our best draft in years, we just got bit.

[doogansquest]

And if we kept up with other teams, we would see that they all have a lot of injuries too. You don't think the Chiefs miss Berry and Charles, for example?

[dn4192]

lol, this is funny

This might have to fall under the staff that gets these players ready to play on sunday, The strength and conditioning team, They might lose their jobs after all these injuries

Or could it be to no offseason workouts and such, a number of teams are having the same issue with injuries.

[rockywoj]

I think it still looks to be an excellent draft, 2011. Just bad luck with injuries is all. I really don't buy into the line that strength and conditioning staff is to blame for injuries, though. I don't think you can stretch and strengthen your way into avoiding knee and ankle injuries. Sh iiiite happens, is all. Colts just seem to be perpetually jinxed when it comes to injuries, at least for the past four years, anyway.

Edited October 31, 2011 by rockywoj

[Thewholefnshow28]

Irsay needs to throw as much money as he can to steal the medial staff from the Phoenix Suns. If they can get Shaq into shape and keep Nash's back issues under control they could do wonders for our team.

The 2011 draft showed signs of being really great with Carter, Costanzo, Ijalana, and Nevis. We have just been unlucky with injuries with the three out of four. Nevis's injury hurts us the most.

[GoDeep]

Good 2011 draft.

[ruksak]

The 2011 draft showed signs of being really great with Carter, Costanzo, Ijalana, and Nevis. We have just been unlucky with injuries with the three out of four. Nevis's injury hurts us the most.

I think the Costonzo/Ijalana injuries were far worse. Nevis and Foster were comparably bad, but Matthews has stepped in admirably. I'm surprised he hasn't got much love here yet. Conversely, nobody has stepped up on the O-line.

[Xfiles]

I think the 2011 draft is going to turn out to be quite productive in the long term......the few drafts before it beg the question however.

[tonychen]

Kinda think they got hurt partly because teams try to push the OL heavily and blitz more since they know Painter will get panic and is not able to take advantage of it. When Manning was here there was too much respect to test our OL's athleticism.

[Smitto]

Strength and conditioning training has nothing to do with our injuries. We have bad luck, period. This was our best draft in years, we just got bit.

I think it does... you cant have bad luck every season, the colts have been dubbed a soft team, arent tough and all that stuff.

[Captain Americolt]

Ruksak, nevis wasnt comparably bad as foster. Heck he was playing the best out of all out dt's this season til he got hurt. But yes mathews has stepped up and played decently well

[number28]

Does every team in the NFL get their share of injuries or The Colts get the most?

[Ramblinwreck7]

Strength and conditioning training has nothing to do with our injuries. We have bad luck, period. This was our best draft in years, we just got bit.

We have to many ankle injuries for it to be "unlucky." We need to adopt a new strategy. I heard a lot of players recommeded Pilates.

[MTC]

This is the best draft we had in ages, if you asked me. Rucker is playing fairly well. Both OL rookies are way better than I expected, Delone Carter is a beast, and Nevis is a monster at the DT position.

[smittywerb]

Strength and conditioning training has nothing to do with our injuries. We have bad luck, period. This was our best draft in years, we just got bit.

Really, bad luck EVERY season? I mean, not just one or two seasons, but EVERY SEASON!

[Jason_]

I think the Costonzo/Ijalana injuries were far worse. Nevis and Foster were comparably bad, but Matthews has stepped in admirably. I'm surprised he hasn't got much love here yet. Conversely, nobody has stepped up on the O-line.

Mathews is a keeper. For a guy who didn't really show much of anything in preseason (imo) and got moved to the PS, he's come in and played very well all things considered. No, he might not ever be an elite starting DT but he will be great to keep around to be used in a solid DL rotation.

[Fatboyslim11]

I think it still looks to be an excellent draft, 2011. Just bad luck with injuries is all. I really don't buy into the line that strength and conditioning staff is to blame for injuries, though. I don't think you can stretch and strengthen your way into avoiding knee and ankle injuries. Sh iiiite happens, is all. Colts just seem to be perpetually jinxed when it comes to injuries, at least for the past four years, anyway.

You ever ask yourself why the Colts seem to have more injuries year after year than most teams? It can't be all bad luck. IMHO, there is something wrong with our conditioning and strength program. I also think it is the type of players we draft, the smaller, less physical types. Really the only time Polian got it semi right in drafting a tough, physical player was Sanders and he was just too small to play so physical for any sustained time. Frankly most of our signees over the past 4 years are marshmellows by the NFL standards of height, weight and physical toughness. The best example is our O line and interior D line and LBers.

[MoM]

Injuries aside, they all look great. Carter looks to be our best pure RB. Nevis, Costanzo, and Ijalana all looked good earlier in the year.

[21isSuperman]

And if we kept up with other teams, we would see that they all have a lot of injuries too. You don't think the Chiefs miss Berry and Charles, for example?

I certainly miss Charles, he was my first round pick in fantasy football....Peyton was my second...

[Fatboyslim11]

And if we kept up with other teams, we would see that they all have a lot of injuries too. You don't think the Chiefs miss Berry and Charles, for example?

Yes, and they have managed to overcome those injuries and now sport a 4-3 record. We can't overcome an injury to one person without becoming the laughinstock of the NFL. While other teams replace their injuried starters with decent NFL players, our starters are generally stiffs to begin with and one they get injuried we replace them with off the street never was or has been type players. Ooh, I can hardly wait to see what Prince Miller brings to the table.

Edited November 2, 2011 by Fatboyslim11

[BIGugly]

I think we drafted great players, and when healthy are real good. NEVIS not Daves, is a bull at DT and should be good in the fututre. Castonzo and Ijalana should be good in the future. Great picks unlucky scenarios

Good call......

[BIGugly]

Yes, and they have managed to overcome those injuries and now sport a 4-3 record. We can't overcome an injury to one person without becoming the laughinstock of the NFL. While other teams replace their injuried starters with decent NFL players, our starters are generally stiffs to begin with and one they get injuried we replace them with off the street never was or has been type players. Ooh, I can hardly wait to see what Prince Miller brings to the table.

Not much. Caldwell is still the Head Coach, isn't he? ?

[Truebluefan85]

I certainly miss Charles, he was my first round pick in fantasy football....Peyton was my second...

Guess we know who's last in your league eh?

:yes:

[SubZero]

I dont think that its a bad draft its just an injury bug. I think the 2010 draft killed us Angerer(2nd rounder), Eldridge(4th rounder), and Conner(7th rounder) are our only good contributer. If we got a good 1st rounder and a solid 3rd rounder then we would have good depth

[Jason_]

I dont think that its a bad draft its just an injury bug. I think the 2010 draft killed us Angerer(2nd rounder), Eldridge(4th rounder), and Conner(7th rounder) are our only good contributer. If we got a good 1st rounder and a solid 3rd rounder then we would have good depth

If there was a single year draft that "killed us" I'd say it was '07:

1 32 32 Anthony Gonzalez Wide Receiver Ohio State 2 10 42 Tony Ugoh Offensive Tackle Arkansas 3 31 95 Daymeion Hughes Cornerback California 3 34 98 Quinn Pitcock Defensive Tackle Ohio State 4 32 131 Brannon Condren Safety Troy 4 37 136 Clint Session Linebacker Pittsburgh 5 32 169 Roy Hall Wide Receiver Ohio State 5 36 173 Michael Coe Cornerback Alabama State 7 32 232 Keyunta Dawson

Some people are going to place all the blame on Polian for this but this was actually a good draft in so far as addressing the major team needs. We just ran into a run of bad luck (I swear I'm trying to strike that word from my vocabulary) with Gonzo who turned out to be made of glass, Tarik Glenn retired a year earlier than planned, Pitcock retired due to depression and video game addiction (really?) and Hughes I guess just didn't develop as quickly as they wanted. None of these things could have been predicted so the draft approach was a good one. If Glenn hadn't retired a year earlier than expected, then maybe Ugoh develops as planned and is more physically and mentally prepared to play and doesn't bust. If Gonzo wasn't so injury prone (no way to predict since he didn't have a history of injuries in college) then he is starting over Garcon. I believe both Pitcock and Hughes were projected that year as 2nd round talent and a ton of potential(correction...Hughes had been projected as a 1st round pick for much of the year but his stock fell some going into the draft. He was considered a 2nd/3rd round pick and Colts got him at the bottom of the 3rd round so he was still considered a great value at that position. Pitcock I believe was projected as a late 2nd to early 3rd round pick and they also drafted him at the end of the 3rd round with a compensatory pick. So both were considered very high value picks because of where they were projected going into the draft). If Pitcock had learned to put the controller down or if Hughes had lived up to potential (though I always felt they gave up on him a bit too soon) then we get a couple of 3rd round steals there instead of busts.

You certainly can't go into each draft expecting every player you select to live up to their potential, but that year was particularly horrible considering the only player we got that was a solid contributor was Sessions and he was a 5th round pick. But when you have 4 picks in the first 3 rounds and all 4 of them bust, that's far worse than bad luck, that's a gypsy curse.

Edited November 3, 2011 by Jason

[GoColts8818]

Were we hit with a bug or what. The only one playing is Carter. Anthony is Hurt Ben is hurt(thats his name right) Daves is hurt. And idk the last picks name

Talk about a miss leading title. This class is far from bad, in fact they look to be from top to bottom the most promising draft class we have had in a long time. The issue as you stated here is that they have been killed by the injury bug.

Castonzo looks like a very promising left tackle

Ijalana did very well in the extremely limited action he had

Nevis has been our best DT thus far this season and one could argue with Freeney and Mathis lack of production our best d-lineman in general

Carter has blown away expecations when he was drafted and has me thinking maybe he should be our number one back with Addai becoming a Kevin Faulk third down/passing down's type back.

Rucker has work to do but if most late round picks were NFL ready coming out of college then they wouldn't be late round picks. The fact he's playing says more about the rest of our corners struggling than it does about him IMO.

So they haven't been bad they have been hurt. The good news it sounds like Castonzo might be back this week.

[Jason_]

Carter has blown away expecations when he was drafted and has me thinking maybe he should be our number one back with Addai becoming a Kevin Faulk third down/passing down's type back.

Rucker has work to do but if most late round picks were NFL ready coming out of college then they wouldn't be late round picks. The fact he's playing says more about the rest of our corners struggling than it does about him IMO.

Agreed with everything but especially these 2 points.

[MAC]

I dont think that its a bad draft its just an injury bug. I think the 2010 draft killed us Angerer(2nd rounder), Eldridge(4th rounder), and Conner(7th rounder) are our only good contributer. If we got a good 1st rounder and a solid 3rd rounder then we would have good depth

Considering that you just named three key contributors who are actually STARTING in only their second seasons, you and I apparently have different definitions of a "bad draft".

You are also strangely ignoring the fact that the #1 (Hughes), #3 (Thomas), and #7 (Matthews) picks are all still on the team. It is way too early to call Hughes a bust - and he has shown signs of improvement. Thomas is now starting and - while making rookie mistakes - appears to have considerable talent. Just watching his effort in the past two games leads me to believe that he could develop into a playmaker (as opposed to the UFA corners on the roster who are more concerned with just trying not to get burned too badly), and Matthews has had a couple of recent moments. He is a big boy and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he develops and sticks.

The only truly wasted pick to this point was McClendon. The fact that he couldn't even make the squad in his second year with all of our guard problems is a bitter condemnation.

[John Dee]

I dont think that its a bad draft its just an injury bug. I think the 2010 draft killed us Angerer(2nd rounder), Eldridge(4th rounder), and Conner(7th rounder) are our only good contributer. If we got a good 1st rounder and a solid 3rd rounder then we would have good depth

Go back and look at every NFL teams drafts for the last 20 years. If a team gets 3 "starters" out of any of those drafts then it was an overwhelming success. The draft is a crap shoot. The Colts have been hurt by the misses of late but the problem goes deeper than the draft.

THis years draft is a home run as far as I'm concerned. If not for the "all to common words... injury" this class was on it's way to being "outstanding"

But one thing that has bothered me about the Brown and Hughes picks was the fact that "both" players said they had NO CONTACT WITH THE COLTS PRIOR TO THE PICK. Really? So the front office just looks at some tape... likes what they see... and burn a #1 draft pick on a player that was not even worked out by the Colts. Totally irresponsible.

[BIGugly]

Go back and look at every NFL teams drafts for the last 20 years. If a team gets 3 "starters" out of any of those drafts then it was an overwhelming success. The draft is a crap shoot. The Colts have been hurt by the misses of late but the problem goes deeper than the draft.

THis years draft is a home run as far as I'm concerned. If not for the "all to common words... injury" this class was on it's way to being "outstanding"

But one thing that has bothered me about the Brown and Hughes picks was the fact that "both" players said they had NO CONTACT WITH THE COLTS PRIOR TO THE PICK. Really? So the front office just looks at some tape... likes what they see... and burn a #1 draft pick on a player that was not even worked out by the Colts. Totally irresponsible.

Exactly....

[mz1888]

This years draft has been a our best class in years. The first four rounders have played despite almost all getting hit with the injury bug...

[Ramblinwreck7]

Talk about a miss leading title. This class is far from bad, in fact they look to be from top to bottom the most promising draft class we have had in a long time. The issue as you stated here is that they have been killed by the injury bug.

Castonzo looks like a very promising left tackle

Ijalana did very well in the extremely limited action he had

Nevis has been our best DT thus far this season and one could argue with Freeney and Mathis lack of production our best d-lineman in general

Carter has blown away expecations when he was drafted and has me thinking maybe he should be our number one back with Addai becoming a Kevin Faulk third down/passing down's type back.

Rucker has work to do but if most late round picks were NFL ready coming out of college then they wouldn't be late round picks. The fact he's playing says more about the rest of our corners struggling than it does about him IMO.

So they haven't been bad they have been hurt. The good news it sounds like Castonzo might be back this week.

Get over Delone Carter people!

Sure, he has looked good, but he is averaging the least yards per carry out of the 3 running backs that we used. Joseph Addai is definitely the starter and our best running. Donald Brown is a better outside runner than Carter. This year, I would only use Carter as a short yardage and between the tackles runner.

Remember last year when Donald Brown had the huge game against Jacksonville and that was pretty much it? People called him a bust by removing that game from his stats and saying that he only averaged like 2.5 ypc or something like that. Well what about Carter? Take away his game against the Saints and he has a pretty low ypc as well.

I'm not saying that Carter is a bad running back, what I'm saying is quit overating Delone Carter. If you go by ypc, Brown has been our best running back this year at 4.8 ypc with Addai just behing him at 4.4 ypc.

Edited November 3, 2011 by Ramblinwreck7

[GoColts8818]

Get over Delone Carter people!

Sure, he has looked good, but he is averaging the least yards per carry out of the 3 running backs that we used. Joseph Addai is definitely the starter and our best running. Donald Brown is a better outside runner than Carter. This year, I would only use Carter as a short yardage and between the tackles runner.

Remember last year when Donald Brown had the huge game against Jacksonville and that was pretty much it? People called him a bust by removing that game from his stats and saying that he only averaged like 2.5 ypc or something like that. Well what about Carter? Take away his game against the Saints and he has a pretty low ypc as well.

I'm not saying that Carter is a bad running back, what I'm saying is quit overating Delone Carter. If you go by ypc, Brown has been our best running back this year at 4.8 ypc with Addai just behing him at 4.4 ypc.

When you are talking about a guy who is being used as the short yardage guy like Carter is you have to account for that when you look at his YPC. By the very nature of his job he's YPC is going to be lower because he's being used to get that hard yard or two. So of course his YPC is going to be down some.

With that said Carter's YPC is still 4.1. 4.8 or 4.4 is not really that much better than 4.1. If Brown was really our best running back he would be starting over Carter right now. He's not. I agree Brown is best at running to the outside (which is why it frustrates me to watch him come in and be ran up the middle like he was in the Titans game).

The reason I said I would start Carter is that he has shown he has more talent than most people thought he had coming out of college and is coming off two very good games in terms YPC 8.9 and 5.1 respectfully. I also think it plays to our strengths a little bit. It let's us rest Addai some who has proven he needs to split the carries with someone because he can't stay healthy and let's us use Addai more as the passing back. I really don't think being the starter for the Colts means that much at running back because we split the carries, remember Addai ran for 1,000 yards his rookie year and was not the starter. Frankly the way we run our offense if we used Addai as the "passing" running back (what I mean by that is playing him when we are in a pass formation) he's going to get most of the snaps anyways.

As for Brown, till he proves he can pass block or learns to run up the middle he's just going to be the odd man out unless someone is hurt.

[Malakai432]

I like Castonzo, Carter, Nevis & Lefeged (even though his return game is obsolete, I blame it primarily on the blockers). Lefeged has potential to be a decent backup SS atleast also I think he just needs to get more playing time @ SS.