This is what is really going on here...

[Indeee]

Every one keeps assuming Irsay forced Ballard to keep Pagano. I don't believe that is true at all. I believe that irsay and ballard collectively agreed to keep pagano knowing Luck wasn't going to play. Yes, maybe they thought there was a slight chance but under it all they knew it was highly unlikely. Also I believe they saw what we all did in years past and that was that pagano wasn't a good HC, however they used this circumstance as a PR move as well. You see pagano was always stating he never had a complete chance to coach based on grigsons medling right? so ballard and irsay killed 2 birds with one stone here once grigs was gone. By allowing Pagano to stay they didn't have to face any backlash of not giving the coach a chance to coach with his guys, without the Meddler blah, blah, blah knowing all along pagano would fail. It may be heartless but oh well. It's a business

 

also there is the fact that Common sense would dictate a question of why would you clean house and start with another coach and staff where the franchise QB wasn't going to play that year. Common sense also dictates that Irsay and ballard knew this team would suffer as there was a 50% turnover rate in players this past year. When have you ever heard of an NFL team having 50% new players in a new scheme do well in first season of new player acquisition with any coach much less one that is not any good?

 

My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup. That's why they didn't try to get a backup QB sooner than they did. If you remember the story that came out, it was New England that called the Colts. This means the Colts had no intention of upgrading a QB, which proves my theory. They only entertained the call and ultimately traded for Brissett as they wanted to get rid of Dorsett anyway and ballard knew that Brissett would become a future asset in a QB starved NFL if not in 2018 but in the future. Also, in another good will move toward the lame duck coach, gotta look like your trying to help the guy succeed.

 

Pagano will not be fired this season, so everyone should just stop yelling for it. it makes no sense to do so as any other coach on this team you could get to interim would yield the same results.... This team is in a full rebuild and will continue next off-season. until then, we have 9 more weeks of bad colts football.. Cheers

 

[JMichael557]

Agree 100%

[BR-549]

Another one that needs locked

[BlueShoe]

@Indeee I agree with some of what you’re saying. 

 

I believe we’re seeing results that Irsay and Ballard calculated as a “possibility”. 

[Indeee]

1 minute ago, BR-549 said:

Another one that needs locked

Locked for what reason junior sample? I wrote this in response to a crud load of posts that seem to be frustrated confusions amongst the forum posters and readers alike. In hopes that most of the speculations would stop and yes I know my post is speculative, however I'm trying to view it as rational and not emotion driven

[BR-549]

1 minute ago, Indeee said:

Locked for what reason junior sample? I wrote this in response to a crud load of posts that seem to be frustrated confusions amongst the forum posters and readers alike. In hopes that most of the speculations would stop and yes I know my post is speculative, however I'm trying to view it as rational and not emotion driven

Its been mulled over and over and over and over and over and over.... get the point

[indy1888]

Agree with a lot of what you say. I do believe a lot of this was planned out.  Irsay had to lie about Luck last winter because people were not renewing tickets and apathy was beginning to set in. Admitting Luck wasnt going to play would have been disaster for the business before the season even began  I believe it's going to be disaster the last half of this season anyway but at least he did get season tickets sold and butts in the seat for half the year.. Firing Grigson needed to happen but it was like pulling teeth to get Irsay to finally do it. Again though, he kinda had to fire someone becuase a lot of the fan base was ticked he kept Pagano. Only thing i disagree with is that i don't think Irsay gave Ballard much choice on Pagano. Irsay stated that Chuck was going to be the coach before he even started looking for a GM.

[ponyboy]

I'm not sure I believe this was a calculated move, but you could include the fact that Irsay wouldn't have to pay for 2 head coaches this year too.  Maybe not a primary factor, but it's little gravy.  Probably still kicking himself over those 4 year extensions only to want out of them after 1 year.

[richard pallo]

Irsay and Ballard kept a secret that Pagano didn't know.  No one in the entire organization will know.  They were never going to play Luck. They are intentionally setting the team up for failure.  Pay all the players and go through the motions so we can screw all the efforts our players put forth, risking permanent injury, looking forward to the return of our best player knowing all along our players were risking everything for nothing. We will set them up for failure too.  They are going to intentionally tank the season so we can fire Pagano at the end of the season.  Brilliant!  Just Brilliant!  

[Indeee]

10 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

Irsay and Ballard kept a secret that Pagano didn't know.  No one in the entire organization will know.  They were never going to play Luck. They are intentionally setting the team up for failure.  Pay all the players and go through the motions so we can screw all the efforts our players put forth, risking permanent injury, looking forward to the return of our best player knowing all along our players were risking everything for nothing. We will set them up for failure too.  They are going to intentionally tank the season so we can fire Pagano at the end of the season.  Brilliant!  Just Brilliant!  

If you believe that this scenario is not plausible you are truly naïve and what efforts did you ever think this team would put forth outside of playing the best they could? Did you honestly think this Colts team, with a QB who had surgery 6 months prior to camp and a team of 25 plus new guys had a legitimate chance of really competing to seriously make a playoff push and beyond? The only thing any realistic colts fan expected was to hopefully see improvement in a coaching staff, and a defense that has finished bottom 3 in the last 3 years or so, and possibly win a bad division if the cards fell right and if for some chance this team proved to miraculously be better than anyone could've imagined then it would've been a magical season where we all dance and sing and pull gold out of our backsides. Dude you seriously are naïve if you believe the scenario I posted isn't possible behind the curtain. No one would ever say it, but this stuff happens all the time especially when it comes to gaining an edge. the Pats outright cheat, while others are realistic with what they have and do it inconspicuously. So where I'm not saying they are tanking on purpose you can bet your britches they knew where they might end up and based on needing a lot more pieces than we acquired this offseason, you bet they calculated this season to try to benefit this team for years to come.

[WoolMagnet]

I saw the title of this thread and i thought "uh oh, here we go.  This outta be good."  I was not disappointed.

you need to be writing CSI scripts Indee.

you're a natural.

 

[Corndog]

37 minutes ago, ponyboy said:

I'm not sure I believe this was a calculated move, but you could include the fact that Irsay wouldn't have to pay for 2 head coaches this year too.  Maybe not a primary factor, but it's little gravy.  Probably still kicking himself over those 4 year extensions only to want out of them after 1 year.

I could see that being part of the equation, he's already paying 2 GMs.  He should be kicking himself over the extensions, no one wanted to see that, yet he did it anyways and it clearly backfired.  

 

Considering, a lot of us expected to be a down season(although not quite as bad as what it has become), I think Irsay may have felt it was a good time to test Pagano.  See if he could get anything out of this team and he hasn't.  Ballard is a first time GM, so he wasn't going to fight Irsay on getting his own coach this season and probably even less so after evaluating the team.  The interesting part is Pagano would complain that Grigson was meddling in picking starting line ups, but now we can see why he did it.  Not backing Grigson, it was the right move, but he knew that Pagano was terrible at evaluating talent.  Ballard has left it alone, to keep the harmony and at the same time, give Pagano enough rope to hang himself.  

 

At the end of the day, it was better Ballard didn't bring in his own coach.  This season was most likely going to rough regardless and the last thing you want is a first year coach struggling because of the lack of talent.  Next year will be a much better starting point.  Not quite championship caliber, but good enough to contend for the division. 

[Superman]

1 hour ago, Indeee said:

Locked for what reason junior sample? I wrote this in response to a crud load of posts that seem to be frustrated confusions amongst the forum posters and readers alike. In hopes that most of the speculations would stop and yes I know my post is speculative, however I'm trying to view it as rational and not emotion driven

 

From my perspective, this could have gone in one of the other dozen threads on the same topic. New threads for everyone's take on the matter gets tiresome to me. I feel threads are for discussion of topics. If there's already a thread on the topic, add your take to that thread. Your posts here are good, I just feel like they could have gone in one of the existing threads.

 

JMO. Everyone doesn't have to agree with me about what is new thread worthy. And this is not coming from me as a mod, or from the mod team. 

[ColtsBlueFL]

7 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

From my perspective, this could have gone in one of the other dozen threads on the same topic. New threads for everyone's take on the matter gets tiresome to me. I feel threads are for discussion of topics. If there's already a thread on the topic, add your take to that thread. Your posts here are good, I just feel like they could have gone in one of the existing threads.

 

JMO. Everyone doesn't have to agree with me about what is new thread worthy. And this is not coming from me as a mod, or from the mod team. 

 

Yet, I concur.  ;-)

[Superman]

1 hour ago, Indeee said:

Common sense also dictates that Irsay and ballard knew this team would suffer as there was a 50% turnover rate in players this past year. When have you ever heard of an NFL team having 50% new players in a new scheme do well in first season of new player acquisition with any coach much less one that is not any good?

 

The Colts in 2012 come to mind.

 

Quote

My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup. That's why they didn't try to get a backup QB sooner than they did.

 

I disagree. This season has been an opportunity for Pagano and his staff to show what they can do, like you said in the first paragraph. They've come up short.

 

The QB evaluation is Exhibit A. It seems that Pagano and staff got behind Tolzien, felt he was going to be the guy, and treated him as such throughout the offseason. It didn't take two quarters for that decision to be exposed as a colossal mistake. To me, the QB situation falls on Pagano and Co. If they didn't like Tolzien, they would have been vocal about it, they would have given Morris more a shot, etc. They all thought Tolzien was good enough, and they were all obviously wrong.

[NewColtsFan]

13 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

The Colts in 2012 come to mind.

 

 

I disagree. This season has been an opportunity for Pagano and his staff to show what they can do, like you said in the first paragraph. They've come up short.

 

The QB evaluation is Exhibit A. It seems that Pagano and staff got behind Tolzien, felt he was going to be the guy, and treated him as such throughout the offseason. It didn't take two quarters for that decision to be exposed as a colossal mistake. To me, the QB situation falls on Pagano and Co. If they didn't like Tolzien, they would have been vocal about it, they would have given Morris more a shot, etc. They all thought Tolzien was good enough, and they were all obviously wrong.

 

Furthering your point....

 

When Free Agency came and went,  and Tolzein was still the back-up,  that had to be on Pagano and the staff.

 

They had to have told Ballard that Tolzein was at least serviceable in the short term.    And back in March/April,   I think that's what the feeling was about Luck....     that he'd miss a short amount of time.

 

There's no part of me that thinks that back then,  they knew that Luck would be out for the season and still stuck with Tolzein.      That'd be suicide.      If they were going to do that,  then why trade for Brissett at all?

 

Ballard says the trade for Brissett happened via back-channel....   their scout talking to our scout.    On that level,  I don't think it matter which team called the other.     We felt the need to upgrade the position ASAP and made the move.      So much for a deliberate tank of the season.     If we were tanking, then we'd have stayed with Tolzein.

 

 

[Superman]

1 minute ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

Furthering your point....

 

When Free Agency came and went,  and Tolzein was still the back-up,  that had to be on Pagano and the staff.

 

They had to have told Ballard that Tolzein was at least serviceable in the short term.    And back in March/April,   I think that's what the feeling was about Luck....     that he'd miss a short amount of time.

 

There's no part of me that thinks that back then,  they knew that Luck would be out for the season and still stuck with Tolzein.      That'd be suicide.      If they were going to do that,  then why trade for Brissett at all?

 

Ballard says the trade for Brissett happened via back-channel....   their scout talking to our scout.    On that level,  I don't think it matter which team called the other.     We felt the need to upgrade the position ASAP and made the move.      So much for a deliberate tank of the season.     If we were tanking, then we'd have stayed with Tolzein.

 

Yup. Tolzien is on the coaching staff, 100%.

 

Irsay even said they had eyes for another QB. If the staff had said 'we can't win with Tolzien,' Ballard would have gotten them another veteran QB. We're $20m under the cap as it stands. They could have made Jay Cutler work, if they wanted. 

 

And it's possible they all thought Luck would be back by now, but still, even a month of Tolzien would have been a disaster. 

[dw49]

21 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

Yup. Tolzien is on the coaching staff, 100%.

 

Irsay even said they had eyes for another QB. If the staff had said 'we can't win with Tolzien,' Ballard would have gotten them another veteran QB. We're $20m under the cap as it stands. They could have made Jay Cutler work, if they wanted. 

 

And it's possible they all thought Luck would be back by now, but still, even a month of Tolzien would have been a disaster. 

 

 

It's just (IMO) so doubtful that there was any intent on tanking the 2017 season by keeping what you think is an incompetent coach and having a terrible starting QB. First of all , there was no way for them to know when Luck would be back and secondly they traded for Brissett and started him week 2.  I'm sure teams have tanked at certain points in seasons but to think Irsay and Ballard tanked 2017 in August  is (IMO) ridiculous.

[Jason_]

2 hours ago, Indeee said:

Locked for what reason junior sample? 

 

This made me lol

[Sumo63]

Don't  over think it.....bottom line, the only thing Pags is actually good at is keeping his job.  And he's very, very good at it.......if he could scheme on the field the way he does in the conference room, we'd already have the multiple Lombardis we desire.  I think Mr. irsay either didn't find a suitable replacement, or maybe he didn't want to make a hasty decision in a single off-season on a GM and HC, or maybe he just wanted fresh eyes on Chuck .....he's been trying desperately, and admirably  (imo), to keep some sort of continuity here.  In any case, this year has confirmed what we've known for the past few, Chuck Pagano as HC is a fraud. The colts will move on in 2018 and be better for it.

[Thorolf]

I really don't want to admit it , but your arguments seem quite logical . This scenario seems to answer so many questions and explain so many glaring mistakes that have been made.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            As someone else said , if this much scheming and planning had been used in our actual game planning we might have had a decent chance this year . Instead it now seems that we will have to wait until at least next year if we wish to have hope again. I only hope that we will be able to start fresh in 2018, with all of the Machiavellian schemes and subterfuges at an end.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           *sigh*           

[csmopar]

7 hours ago, Superman said:

 

From my perspective, this could have gone in one of the other dozen threads on the same topic. New threads for everyone's take on the matter gets tiresome to me. I feel threads are for discussion of topics. If there's already a thread on the topic, add your take to that thread. Your posts here are good, I just feel like they could have gone in one of the existing threads.

 

JMO. Everyone doesn't have to agree with me about what is new thread worthy. And this is not coming from me as a mod, or from the mod team. 

this is exactly why i said we needed a "conspiracy season thread" the other day.  just move all these posts into those, same with the Fire such and such and why do we suck threads.  Make one mega thread, merge them all. 

[DaColts85]

Lets add to the conspiracy.  One key point you left out in the OP, maybe there is a coach that was not available last year that will be this year.  Who knows why he was not available but they are ready to take over this coming off-season!  Just to add to the theory....

[lollygagger8]

THIS THREAD 

[OLD FAN MAN]

11 hours ago, Indeee said:

Locked for what reason junior sample? I wrote this in response to a crud load of posts that seem to be frustrated confusions amongst the forum posters and readers alike. In hopes that most of the speculations would stop and yes I know my post is speculative, however I'm trying to view it as rational and not emotion driven

every one should a chance to say something on here no one has to read anything if they dont like it

[OLD FAN MAN]

10 hours ago, Superman said:

 

From my perspective, this could have gone in one of the other dozen threads on the same topic. New threads for everyone's take on the matter gets tiresome to me. I feel threads are for discussion of topics. If there's already a thread on the topic, add your take to that thread. Your posts here are good, I just feel like they could have gone in one of the existing threads.

 

JMO. Everyone doesn't have to agree with me about what is new thread worthy. And this is not coming from me as a mod, or from the mod team. 

i like to read all new threads, if the colts keep losing there may not be many threads to read, fans will lose interest and wont post

[King Colt]

The OP uses the word rebuild and I don't see that comparing number of new players on the Colts compared to other teams. Also, I can't buy in to the OP saying "My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup." I don't know of any team that would go into a season with the idea of failing as their strategy for 16 games.

[Defjamz26]

This conspiracy theory is s hard buy. I don't think it was as calculated as you're making it seem. But I do think the decision to retain Pagano was based on more than Irsay's faith in him. I think he gave him the benefit of the doubt and figured he would get a chance to show how he could do without  Grigson over him. And Pagano has failed the test miserably. Irsay now has  the smoking gun he needs to let him 

 go. We could argue that there was enough proof in 2015 and 2016, but this season was his true "prove it" year.

 

Thats why part of me says let Pagano finish out the season. Let's see how bad it gets (although the Jags game is pretty low). Let him dig his grave as deep as he wants to dig it. Leave no room for doubt.

[NewEra]

We suck this year, you know why?!?

 

Aliens!!

[indy1888]

2 hours ago, King Colt said:

The OP uses the word rebuild and I don't see that comparing number of new players on the Colts compared to other teams. Also, I can't buy in to the OP saying "My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup." I don't know of any team that would go into a season with the idea of failing as their strategy for 16 games.

 

Depends on if by failure you mean simply losing games, or failure as in there was no real player development, no coaching improvement, etc.  The Colts knew all along they were going to fail to win, thats why Irsay was preaching "patience".  Thats a code for "we are going to fail at winning games this year". That was reality. Some people bring up the trade  for Brissett as a counter to the idea that the Colts  wanted to stink.  Brissett might win 2 games all year, you really think he makes a difference?  He won 2 games more then Tolzein would have in all likelihood. The rest of the team is garbage. I think the trade for Brissett was more to the future as a backup to Luck. They didn't want Dorsett anyway. That move, just like this whole offseason and season has really been about the future.

[richard pallo]

1 hour ago, Defjamz26 said:

This conspiracy theory is s hard buy. I don't think it was as calculated as you're making it seem. But I do think the decision to retain Pagano was based on more than Irsay's faith in him. I think he gave him the benefit of the doubt and figured he would get a chance to show how he could do without  Grigson over him. And Pagano has failed the test miserably. Irsay now has  the smoking gun he needs to let him 

 go. We could argue that there was enough proof in 2015 and 2016, but this season was his true "prove it" year.

 

Thats why part of me says let Pagano finish out the season. Let's see how bad it gets (although the Jags game is pretty low). Let him dig his grave as deep as he wants to dig it. Leave no room for doubt.

I agree that I think Irsay wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt without Grigson and having a healthy Luck.  The Luck thing didn't work out so he and Ballard will have to figure out how to factor in missing Luck for most likely an entire season.  I don't think it's totally cut and dry as a prove it year without Luck.  I think most people would agree that if he had a healthy Luck to start the season there is a high probability we would be in 1st. place in the division.  Although it certainly doesn't look good for him right now I think it would take a miraculous turn of events to keep him at this point.  I think Irsay was prepared to move on last year but couldn't get the guy he wanted.  I have a feeling he is going to get him this year.  

[Flash7]

Maybe you guys can help put together a timeline of events. Sometimes that helps to piece together the puzzle.

 

Luck had surgery early in January. On January 21, Grigson was fired and it was announced that a search for a GM would be underway. Also, it was announced that Pagano would be retained as the coach for this year. So It’s unlikely that Irsay and Ballard had a grand conspiracy since he was not in the picture yet.

 

It is possible that Irsay wanted to see what Pagano was capable of without Grigson and that’s why he was retained. In addition, Luck had surgery and Irsay knew that his recovery period could’ve been 6-10 months, (given no set backs).  Perhaps he wanted to replace Pagano and put “feelers” out there and no coaches were willing to commit without a healthy Luck. That’s why we heard the Gruden rumors, but ultimately kept Pagano.

[tfunky14]

18 hours ago, Indeee said:

Every one keeps assuming Irsay forced Ballard to keep Pagano. I don't believe that is true at all. I believe that irsay and ballard collectively agreed to keep pagano knowing Luck wasn't going to play. Yes, maybe they thought there was a slight chance but under it all they knew it was highly unlikely. Also I believe they saw what we all did in years past and that was that pagano wasn't a good HC, however they used this circumstance as a PR move as well. You see pagano was always stating he never had a complete chance to coach based on grigsons medling right? so ballard and irsay killed 2 birds with one stone here once grigs was gone. By allowing Pagano to stay they didn't have to face any backlash of not giving the coach a chance to coach with his guys, without the Meddler blah, blah, blah knowing all along pagano would fail. It may be heartless but oh well. It's a business

 

also there is the fact that Common sense would dictate a question of why would you clean house and start with another coach and staff where the franchise QB wasn't going to play that year. Common sense also dictates that Irsay and ballard knew this team would suffer as there was a 50% turnover rate in players this past year. When have you ever heard of an NFL team having 50% new players in a new scheme do well in first season of new player acquisition with any coach much less one that is not any good?

 

My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup. That's why they didn't try to get a backup QB sooner than they did. If you remember the story that came out, it was New England that called the Colts. This means the Colts had no intention of upgrading a QB, which proves my theory. They only entertained the call and ultimately traded for Brissett as they wanted to get rid of Dorsett anyway and ballard knew that Brissett would become a future asset in a QB starved NFL if not in 2018 but in the future. Also, in another good will move toward the lame duck coach, gotta look like your trying to help the guy succeed.

 

Pagano will not be fired this season, so everyone should just stop yelling for it. it makes no sense to do so as any other coach on this team you could get to interim would yield the same results.... This team is in a full rebuild and will continue next off-season. until then, we have 9 more weeks of bad colts football.. Cheers

 

Really...a Conspiracy theory.....is this best you got.......Hey the last JFK files are to be released soon..

[jskinnz]

18 hours ago, Indeee said:

Every one keeps assuming Irsay forced Ballard to keep Pagano. I don't believe that is true at all. I believe that irsay and ballard collectively agreed to keep pagano knowing Luck wasn't going to play. Yes, maybe they thought there was a slight chance but under it all they knew it was highly unlikely. Also I believe they saw what we all did in years past and that was that pagano wasn't a good HC, however they used this circumstance as a PR move as well. You see pagano was always stating he never had a complete chance to coach based on grigsons medling right? so ballard and irsay killed 2 birds with one stone here once grigs was gone. By allowing Pagano to stay they didn't have to face any backlash of not giving the coach a chance to coach with his guys, without the Meddler blah, blah, blah knowing all along pagano would fail. It may be heartless but oh well. It's a business

 

also there is the fact that Common sense would dictate a question of why would you clean house and start with another coach and staff where the franchise QB wasn't going to play that year. Common sense also dictates that Irsay and ballard knew this team would suffer as there was a 50% turnover rate in players this past year. When have you ever heard of an NFL team having 50% new players in a new scheme do well in first season of new player acquisition with any coach much less one that is not any good?

 

My point is this entire season has been a calculated setup. That's why they didn't try to get a backup QB sooner than they did. If you remember the story that came out, it was New England that called the Colts. This means the Colts had no intention of upgrading a QB, which proves my theory. They only entertained the call and ultimately traded for Brissett as they wanted to get rid of Dorsett anyway and ballard knew that Brissett would become a future asset in a QB starved NFL if not in 2018 but in the future. Also, in another good will move toward the lame duck coach, gotta look like your trying to help the guy succeed.

 

Pagano will not be fired this season, so everyone should just stop yelling for it. it makes no sense to do so as any other coach on this team you could get to interim would yield the same results.... This team is in a full rebuild and will continue next off-season. until then, we have 9 more weeks of bad colts football.. Cheers

 

 

Here are my theories.

 

1) With regards to Ballard and Pagano - Ballard was hired so late into the off season that the preferred head coaching candidates were already hired by other teams.  Ballard was hired on January 29th while the other head coaching jobs filled no later than January 13th.  Shanahan was technically hired in February but he was already slated for the 49ers.  

 

More importantly the assistant coaching pool had become pretty shallow as well so maybe they felt like they would not have been able to put together the staff they needed.  I think they decided at that point they were better off with the status quo for the year.  

 

2) With regards to Luck - I think they honestly thought he would be ready sooner than he has been.  It has either taken him longer than expected or there has been a set back of sorts.

 

My two cents...

 

[hoosierhawk]

1 hour ago, jskinnz said:

 

Here are my theories.

 

1) With regards to Ballard and Pagano - Ballard was hired so late into the off season that the preferred head coaching candidates were already hired by other teams.  Ballard was hired on January 29th while the other head coaching jobs filled no later than January 13th.  Shanahan was technically hired in February but he was already slated for the 49ers.  

 

More importantly the assistant coaching pool had become pretty shallow as well so maybe they felt like they would not have been able to put together the staff they needed.  I think they decided at that point they were better off with the status quo for the year.  

 

2) With regards to Luck - I think they honestly thought he would be ready sooner than he has been.  It has either taken him longer than expected or there has been a set back of sorts.

 

My two cents...

 

Most likely scenario in my opinion. May not have turned out to be the best decision however. Sorry to say but I don't think the coaching staff is capable of sound talent evaluation and Tolzien is just one example.

[Jason_]

On 10/24/2017 at 9:44 PM, Indeee said:

Every one keeps assuming Irsay forced Ballard to keep Pagano

 

It's not an assumption...it's exactly what Irsay said when he started the GM search.  He said very clearly that Chuck would be the coach in 2017 and that the new GM would have to be on board with that, but that the new GM would be given the choice in 2018 to either keep Chuck or replace him.