FA/Draft strategy

[Lucky Colts Fan]

You could argue that there's no wrong strategy to acquiring free agents and drafting players, as long as everything works out and you win games.  That's the bottom line.

 

When it comes to the reality of the people we're talking about, these guys are already on the margins of society.  They're bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic than just about everyone you know.

 

Let's consider how rare some of these guys actually are.  It could be argued that there are less than 20 humans on Earth that can successfully play QB in the NFL at this moment.  That's a rarity.  Another rarity is finding a man that is over 6 feet tall, over 300 pounds, and is athletic enough to be a successful Lineman in the NFL.

 

Common sense says that athletic guys that are 6'0" or shorter, and 200 lbs or less would be much more common.  So wouldn't it make sense to build a football team from biggest to smallest?  Athletic big men are more rare than athletic small guys, so go after the big Linemen first, then find smaller guys that can be successful behind those Linemen.

 

You could argue that the big men are even more important than the QB, and an elite QB can't operate behind a bad Line. (See: The Colts the last few years)  A team as Lucky as the Colts are already ahead of the curve since they have an elite QB.  Even a team with no QB would be wise to build the trenches first, then find the athletes that can flourish behind dominant lines.

[AZColt11]

I think you're probably correct that the OL is more important, or at least 50-50 with the QB.  I think most teams would prefer to build the line first and add the QB later BUT it was just circumstances when the Colts drafted in 2012.  They had this "next Elway" guy sitting there and he was too good to pass on.  Besides, not that many OL are good enough to be the #1 overall pick so they would have been better off trading down in 2012 if they weren't taking Andy.  But yeah, ideally we would have already had the OL solidified.  The true crime is that Grigs didn't address it properly until 2016.

[DaColts85]

I agree with what you said and so would a lot of GM's.  What you stated is the long winded version of saying You build in the trenches to win games, as Ballard already said.  He wants to have a solid line on both sides of the ball, aka "big athletic men".  Our largest benefit to this is we can do this while already having a solid Franchise QB (which I would say is possibly more important than you stated since we road Luck's back to some solid seasons).  Let's hope Ballard works out and makes the smart moves.

[SaturdayAllDay]

14 hours ago, Lucky Colts Fan said:

You could argue that there's no wrong strategy to acquiring free agents and drafting players, as long as everything works out and you win games.  That's the bottom line.

 

When it comes to the reality of the people we're talking about, these guys are already on the margins of society.  They're bigger, stronger, faster, and more athletic than just about everyone you know.

 

Let's consider how rare some of these guys actually are.  It could be argued that there are less than 20 humans on Earth that can successfully play QB in the NFL at this moment.  That's a rarity.  Another rarity is finding a man that is over 6 feet tall, over 300 pounds, and is athletic enough to be a successful Lineman in the NFL.

 

Common sense says that athletic guys that are 6'0" or shorter, and 200 lbs or less would be much more common.  So wouldn't it make sense to build a football team from biggest to smallest?  Athletic big men are more rare than athletic small guys, so go after the big Linemen first, then find smaller guys that can be successful behind those Linemen.

 

You could argue that the big men are even more important than the QB, and an elite QB can't operate behind a bad Line. (See: The Colts the last few years)  A team as Lucky as the Colts are already ahead of the curve since they have an elite QB.  Even a team with no QB would be wise to build the trenches first, then find the athletes that can flourish behind dominant lines.

The other big issue surrounding offensive lineman these days is progression. Lots of o lineman are coming from spread systems in college and arent learning proper blocking techniques at a young age. Couple that with the lack of actual practice time for them (only 14 contact practices allowed per season) and all of a sudden good young offensive lineman are a rare thing to find these days. That is why we are seeing more first round flops along the line.