Bad 2011 Draft

[MAC]

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.

Have you noticed the recent improvement though? He has been a LOT more effective running up the middle this season than I have ever seen him before.

It was amusing in the last game, to see Caldwell animatedly calling him out for being indecisive. That was a regression to his previous style. The coach (who nobody thinks actually coaches, or has any personality) gave him an earful, and on his next chance he was "the new Donald" once again, making a big play.

I still have high hopes for him.

[Jason_]

Have you noticed the recent improvement though? He has been a LOT more effective running up the middle this season than I have ever seen him before.

It was amusing in the last game, to see Caldwell animatedly calling him out for being indecisive. That was a regression to his previous style. The coach (who nobody thinks actually coaches, or has any personality) gave him an earful, and on his next chance he was "the new Donald" once again, making a big play.

I still have high hopes for him.

I don't know what the commentator was seeing, but I thought Caldwell very clearly said "you gotta measure that, you gotta measure that." I don't think caldwell was saying anything to Brown but rather asking for a measurement, which he got moments later.

[21isSuperman]

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

:yes:

2nd last The dude in last place took CJ with his first round pick

[oldunclemark]

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

Every team gets injuries..Lots.

the Giants have been buried with injuries...

Remember how many Packers were on IR last year...

When you draft 3 young men in their early 20s and all get injured..in the 1st half of the season

that's just bad luck..

Freeney and Mathis have played every games for almost 2 years now, right?

Costanzo, Carter and Ijalana (I can never spell his name) could be all starters next season..

[GoColts8818]

Have you noticed the recent improvement though? He has been a LOT more effective running up the middle this season than I have ever seen him before.

It was amusing in the last game, to see Caldwell animatedly calling him out for being indecisive. That was a regression to his previous style. The coach (who nobody thinks actually coaches, or has any personality) gave him an earful, and on his next chance he was "the new Donald" once again, making a big play.

I still have high hopes for him.

He's been better than his first two years I'll give him that. Still he's breaking his big runs to the outside and there is NOTHING wrong with that. It's the way he's built to play we just need to play him to his strengths and I don't think we do that all the time with him. I just think Carter and Addai are playing better and can go outside as well as inside.

I think the unsung hero for our improved ground game though is the o-line, even a make shift o-line has been better than some lines in recent memory in terms of run blocking. I glad we are getting Castonzo and by the sounds of it Diem back this weekend. I really think if we focus on running the ball and stay with it (IE not getting ourselves down 20 points before halftime) we can grind on teams and set up the play action pass to Garcon, Painter just has to make the throw this week.

Edited November 5, 2011 by GoColts8818

[GoColts8818]

Every team gets injuries..Lots.

the Giants have been buried with injuries...

Remember how many Packers were on IR last year...

When you draft 3 young men in their early 20s and all get injured..in the 1st half of the season

that's just bad luck..

Freeney and Mathis have played every games for almost 2 years now, right?

Costanzo, Carter and Ijalana (I can never spell his name) could be all starters next season..

Nevis can be and should be as well. Four starters out of five players by their second year is not a good draft it's a great draft. Especialy when three of them come at need poistions like DT and OT were for the Colts.

[MAC]

I don't know what the commentator was seeing, but I thought Caldwell very clearly said "you gotta measure that, you gotta measure that." I don't think caldwell was saying anything to Brown but rather asking for a measurement, which he got moments later.

That would make sense and be more fitting with his character. Although I DO give the coaches credit for changing Brown's approach. He has been a different runner up the middle, and better at blocking as well. I recall Caldwell saying in pre-season that "Donald knows what we want him to do" in response to complaints about his performance.

Did I mention that I utterly detest the announcers at most of these games? Wilcox for one recently just kept pumping out blatantly inaccurate nonsense to the point that I was annoying my wife by yelling at him repeatedly, and distracted from the game itself. Most of them are bizarrely uninformed about the Colts (and I assume about the other team). They just fill the space available with any old thought that comes to mind. In this case you are probably right, and now I'm angry with myself for falling for it. How could they have such confidence in what happened that they inform a TV audience that a player is being publicly embarrassed by his coach if it isn't true? I just assumed that they could hear something that I couldn't.

[Jason_]

That would make sense and be more fitting with his character. Although I DO give the coaches credit for changing Brown's approach. He has been a different runner up the middle, and better at blocking as well. I recall Caldwell saying in pre-season that "Donald knows what we want him to do" in response to complaints about his performance.

Did I mention that I utterly detest the announcers at most of these games? Wilcox for one recently just kept pumping out blatantly inaccurate nonsense to the point that I was annoying my wife by yelling at him repeatedly, and distracted from the game itself. Most of them are bizarrely uninformed about the Colts (and I assume about the other team). They just fill the space available with any old thought that comes to mind. In this case you are probably right, and now I'm angry with myself for falling for it. How could they have such confidence in what happened that they inform a TV audience that a player is being publicly embarrassed by his coach if it isn't true? I just assumed that they could hear something that I couldn't.

Yeah, some of the commentators are just horrible. Dierdorf was horrible in the Cleveland game. He kept talking about how great Payton Hillis was and how he was destroying the Colts defense. My favorite quote was "he's always gonna lean forward and get you an extra 3-4 yards every play" (I'm paraphrasing) and I was thinking, "really genius, because right now Hillis is averaging 2.7 ypc"

[MAC]

Yeah, some of the commentators are just horrible. Dierdorf was horrible in the Cleveland game. He kept talking about how great Payton Hillis was and how he was destroying the Colts defense. My favorite quote was "he's always gonna lean forward and get you an extra 3-4 yards every play" (I'm paraphrasing) and I was thinking, "really genius, because right now Hillis is averaging 2.7 ypc"

Some of them are just blowhards regardless, but it's mostly the lack of knowledge that drives me nuts. I don't WANT to have more insight than the announcers, I want to learn from them.

For years I've had this idea in the back of my head, that perhaps the NFL should use three man teams for each game. A play by play guy, and a color guy representing each team. The color guys would follow "their" teams around, broadcasting each game they play. You'd always have an informed perspective from both sides of each event on the field. I can't imagine that they would do it because of the crossover between networks, but it would be a massive improvement (unless your team's color guy happened to be a *).

[jwilli69]

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.

I do not think anyone is saying that Carter is Walter Payton but Carter does appear to have skills. Addai has played some good ball and ran hard at the begining of the year but injuries have slowed him back down...again! Donald Brown is just frustrating as heck to watch. One play is good and then the next play he forgets how to play football and looks like a rookie.

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.

What I like about Carter is his patience at the right time and his running skills at the line. I see some moves that Edge had when here. He runs into the line and then kinda glides and spins into the right hole to get the yards that were not there. He runs hard and leans into the defenders. He is not the fastest player of the 3 backs but I will take a 7 yard run more consistantly done than a 20 yard run every third game. Is Carter our potential Terrel Davis RB for Peyton's last few years of football and stronger running game as opposed to the finnesse runing? IDK, but I like what I have seen out of this kid over anything I have seen out of Brown.

As for the draft, this has been a very seemingly good draft and added at least 2 2 solid playmakers in the trenches and possibly 3 if Ijalana actually pans out for the team. IF, and this is a very big IF, Pollack can actually transition over to the center position and anchor that spot, this oline is one gaurd away from being formidable in the NFL for whoever is running the offense. Add one more playmaker or immovable force in the DT spot along side a productive and active Nevis and this defense becomes 10 times better as well as maybe the coaches quit playing 10 yards off the WR's all the time. Good news is, we will be drafting high next year so we should get a few playmakers to get the makeover this team needs to compete in the next few seasons for PM.

[Gonzo]

I actually really like Donald Brown as a runner. He's so fast when he can slash into the right hole. It's when he doesn't have the ball that worries me. That man has turned missing a block into an artform, and that probably has more to do with him not seeing the filed then anything.

[AlanNC]

When have we had a good draft in the past 7 years?

[Jason_]

Some of them are just blowhards regardless, but it's mostly the lack of knowledge that drives me nuts. I don't WANT to have more insight than the announcers, I want to learn from them.

For years I've had this idea in the back of my head, that perhaps the NFL should use three man teams for each game. A play by play guy, and a color guy representing each team. The color guys would follow "their" teams around, broadcasting each game they play. You'd always have an informed perspective from both sides of each event on the field. I can't imagine that they would do it because of the crossover between networks, but it would be a massive improvement (unless your team's color guy happened to be a *).

That would be a really cool idea. I think you'd like Mike Mayock's (does college games) commentary. He might be a little dry but I love the way he explains things and evaluates players. I believe he's one of the top draft guru's up there with Mel Kiper so it's interesting hearing him breakdown what a player does right and what he does wrong. He's a joy to listen to so long as he doesn't get going on an offense being "on schedule" in regards to yards gained per down. Once he gets started it gets kind of annoying but he doesn't do it all the time. lol

I couldn't tell you what network he's affiliated with but the last 2 games I heard him call were both Notre Dame games.

[Captain Americolt]

2nd last The dude in last place took CJ with his first round pick

I took peyton manning, regie wayne, and jamaal charles

[GoColts8818]

When have we had a good draft in the past 7 years?

If we hadn't had a good draft in the past seven years we would have started losing a long time ago. Clearly we've had weaker drafts that past three years or so which is why it's showing up right now (missing Manning several other key players isn't helping either). Let's just not go over board with it.

[MAC]

That would be a really cool idea. I think you'd like Mike Mayock's (does college games) commentary. He might be a little dry but I love the way he explains things and evaluates players. I believe he's one of the top draft guru's up there with Mel Kiper so it's interesting hearing him breakdown what a player does right and what he does wrong. He's a joy to listen to so long as he doesn't get going on an offense being "on schedule" in regards to yards gained per down. Once he gets started it gets kind of annoying but he doesn't do it all the time. lol

I couldn't tell you what network he's affiliated with but the last 2 games I heard him call were both Notre Dame games.

I've never seen Mayock call a game, but I love his draft work. I always watch the NFL networks coverage of the draft. I'm sure that Kiper is knowledgeable as well, but I find him a little too self absorbed. Or maybe its just the distracting hair helmet.

[OLD FAN MAN]

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

coaches need to tell our tiny players not to tackle anyone, cause those big guys might hurt them