Well...on the bright side, looks like we have 3 of the top 45 picks locked up.

[chad72]

Eagles do have two 2nd rounders, maybe we move down from the top of round 2 and get both their 2nd rounders for our early 2nd rounder???  

 

That will give us 3 second rounders. Or we can swap 2nd round picks and gain an extra 3rd giving us two 2nd rounders and two 3rd rounders???

 

We will see how the draft order turns out, long way to go.

[Virtuoso80]

7 hours ago, Deadpool said:

yeah but he isn't going to go and spend 15 million a year on an OL or WR, he proved it already when he didn't go and sign Andrew Norwell who is an established pro bowl guard. He is spending close to the minimum. Don't get me wrong, I hope he does go crazy and spend to add to the line, or add to the defensive side of the ball because quite frankly I think with Grigsons screw ups, Lucks years are being wasted. 

maybe not on the trenches but on the skill players?

[Defjamz26]

On 10/1/2018 at 4:44 PM, NewColtsFan said:

 

I wouldn’t draw any conclusions from 4 games.    Whatever the team is TODAY it’s not unreasonable to expect improvement over the course of the season.   The Colts WILL improve.

 

Plus, after the Patriots game, we have the easy part of the schedule with the Jets, Bills and Raiders.   We might sweep those and hit the break at 4-4.  That’s not a prediction, just saying it’s possible.

 

Lets enjoy the season while we can...

 

Don’t draw any conclusions from 4 games? That’s a quarter of the season. There’s only 16 games. You absolutely draw conclusions from 4 games. 

 

Yo learn the identity of a team after 4 weeks. Strengths and weaknesses. We know the Colts have a suspect receiving core, can’t run the ball, lack O-line depth, and make the mistakes associated with having a young team. Defense is improved. We generate a ton of sacks and our LBs are great. Luck hasn’t lost it.

 

And I wouldn’t call any games easy with what we’ve seen from our team. We will likely move to 1-4 after Thursday. You have a Bills team that upset the Vikings. The Jets can run the ball. Raiders have Lynch who is 3rd in the league in rushing yards and they have receivers that could feast because of how poor our CBS are playing.

 

The Colts have their work cut out for them.

[NewColtsFan]

22 minutes ago, Defjamz26 said:

Don’t draw any conclusions from 4 games? That’s a quarter of the season. There’s only 16 games. You absolutely draw conclusions from 4 games. 

 

Yo learn the identity of a team after 4 weeks. Strengths and weaknesses. We know the Colts have a suspect receiving core, can’t run the ball, lack O-line depth, and make the mistakes associated with having a young team. Defense is improved. We generate a ton of sacks and our LBs are great. Luck hasn’t lost it.

 

And I wouldn’t call any games easy with what we’ve seen from our team. We will likely move to 1-4 after Thursday. You have a Bills team that upset the Vikings. The Jets can run the ball. Raiders have Lynch who is 3rd in the league in rushing yards and they have receivers that could feast because of how poor our CBS are playing.

 

The Colts have their work cut out for them.

 

You might draw conclusions from last years team.    Or the year before, when the defense was old and slow.    Those teams were what they were.

 

But this year’s Colts are one of the youngest teams in the NFL.   The team is learning on the job.   The young players are making mistakes that we hope they won’t be making in the second half.    And Luck should be expected to hopefully get better.  

 

Everything is different with a very young team.    Whatever the team is today,  it’s not unreasonable to think we might be better as the season progresses.   If the team looks in December how it looked in September that would be a huge disappointment, not just to the fans, but to the coaches and front office as well.  

[ClaytonColt]

10 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

But this year’s Colts are one of the youngest teams in the NFL.

I've not looked into it but I keep hearing it.

 

Is that statement actually true and if so is it just by a matter of months or are we talking like our team is 23ish when most of the other teams are 27ish and we are therefore theoretically 4 years behind them in development as a group?

[jameszeigler834]

On ‎9‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 6:28 PM, ColtsBlitz said:

Grant does seem like a decent receiver. Our defense didn’t look very good this game, EXCEPT in sacks. We had 6 which is awesome. Just allowed too many downfield passes to be completed

They had 7 sacks but Watson threw for 375 yards if there is a repeat performance anywhere near that Brady goes for 400 yards.

[NewColtsFan]

6 minutes ago, ClaytonColt said:

I've not looked into it but I keep hearing it.

 

Is that statement actually true and if so is it just by a matter of months or are we talking like our team is 23ish when most of the other teams are 27ish and we are therefore theoretically 4 years behind them in development as a group?

I don’t recall the exact numbers....   but I believe I read the Cokts are one if the youngest teams in the league.   I think 4th youngest...   I’ll take a look and see what I can find.   

[NewColtsFan]

26 minutes ago, ClaytonColt said:

I've not looked into it but I keep hearing it.

 

Is that statement actually true and if so is it just by a matter of months or are we talking like our team is 23ish when most of the other teams are 27ish and we are therefore theoretically 4 years behind them in development as a group?

 

Found what I was looking for.    A great link.

 

Not only does it show the age ranking for this year,  it also shows the age ranking for the last 6 years.     And we've gone from one of the oldest,  to one of the youngest.

 

Here's the link:   currently, we are 8th youngest, but with the same age as last year when we were the 5th youngest.    And we are only a fraction away from being the 4th youngest this year.   It's that close.    And glance over at 16, 15, 14 and 13....     wow, were we ever old...

 

https://www.phillyvoice.com/ranking-nfl-teams-age-after-53-man-cutdowns-2018-edition/

[ClaytonColt]

4 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

Found what I was looking for.    A great link.

 

Not only does it show the age ranking for this year,  it also shows the age ranking for the last 6 years.     And we've gone from one of the oldest,  to one of the youngest.

 

Here's the link:   currently, we are 8th youngest, but with the same age as last year when we were the 5th youngest.    And we are only a fraction away from being the 4th youngest this year.   It's that close.    And glance over at 16, 15, 14 and 13....     wow, were we ever old...

 

https://www.phillyvoice.com/ranking-nfl-teams-age-after-53-man-cutdowns-2018-edition/

The change over the years is probably the most interesting bit. That's some turnover of players! 

 

I'm not completely sure how much of an advantage being 25 is when more than half the league are 26 or under though, especially when a lot of the better teams such as Rams, Jags, Eagles, Bears and Chiefs are either younger or a very similar age.

 

Thanks for the link though.

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, ClaytonColt said:

The change over the years is probably the most interesting bit. That's some turnover of players! 

 

I'm not completely sure how much of an advantage being 25 is when more than half the league are 26 or under though, especially when a lot of the better teams such as Rams, Jags, Eagles, Bears and Chiefs are either younger or a very similar age.

 

Thanks for the link though.

 

The advantage comes from what we used to be — old.    The ranks for 14, 15, and 16 were 29, 32 and 29.   We were old and slow.

 

At least we’re young and athletic enough to hopefully compete with other young teams.    We just have to get more talented.    A lot more talent is on the way in 19...

 

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, ClaytonColt said:

The change over the years is probably the most interesting bit. That's some turnover of players! 

 

I'm not completely sure how much of an advantage being 25 is when more than half the league are 26 or under though, especially when a lot of the better teams such as Rams, Jags, Eagles, Bears and Chiefs are either younger or a very similar age.

 

Thanks for the link though.

 

Remember...   the Colts also have 45 year old AV...    his number alone skews our overall team number...    we’re actually much younger...

 

Better days ahead...

 

[coltsva]

I don’t really like the avg age stat. It’s better to look at the age of the key players moving forward. 

 

This is assuming everyone is healthy. 

WR-28,23 Hilton, Pascal or Cain

TE- 28, 25 Doyle, Ebron

OL- 30, 22, 25, 22, 27-AC, Nelson, Kelly, Smith, Good

QB- 29 Luck

RB- 22 Mack 

Hines-21

 

Defense, 

 

DL-31,29,28,23,23- Hunt, Sheard, Autry, Ridgeway, Turay

LB- 23,23-Leonard, Walker 

CB-23,22-Moore,Wilson

S-26,22- Geathers, Hooker

 

That is a lot of young key players. In the next off season I’m sure we’ll be adding more youth to the Dline and Oline. 

[akcolt]

On 9/30/2018 at 3:25 PM, Flash7 said:

Let's see how it plays out with Grant. If I'm not mistaken, he's on a 1-year contract. If he's not retained, then Cain would be his replacement. We would still need to get better at WR.

We might want to pump the brakes on spending an early pick on a WR or looking in FA. We have only played a 1/4 of the season and Luck needed time to shake off some rust. We could still see someone emerge from the group behind TY.  We have young guys there maybe one or two who just need the opportunity.  Grant is the only guy who had played regularly prior to this season.  

 

I have said since we signed Grant he would be the best WR to line up across from TY since Reg retired. He does things that don't show up on the stat sheet like blocking. He could earn a contract.  We are still waiting for Rogers to breakout. This season is the first he sees significant time and he just caught 8 balls on 11 targets Sunday.  I want to see more of Pascal like that kid.  We can't forget this years draft picks Cain and Fountain. Hopefully Fountain develops and we see him by seasons end.  Both guys should be in camp next year.  We traded for Johnson the drop wasn't a good start but he's another guy who's an unknown. 

 

We will have a much better idea by the end of the year what we have in these young guys. We may be surprised. 

[PureLuck]

Grant and Pascal actually are both in the TOP 5 of qualifying receivers in run blocking according to PFF, Grant being No. 1 with a 89.9 grade... While PFF certainly has its flaws, that's encouraging to see and could translate to some good runs once we can get past the line of scrimmage in the run game ^^ - TY on the other hand is one of the worst run blockers in the league, so there's that ;) - I'm also on board of the "wait and see"-train concerning the WR spots, if noone emerges, I have no doubt that Ballard will address the need in the offseason, either through the draft or through free agency.

 

Interesting fact: If you take Vinny out of the equation, we actually are the youngest team in the NFL tied with the Bengals at 25.2 years.

[ClaytonColt]

4 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

Remember...   the Colts also have 45 year old AV...    his number alone skews our overall team number...    we’re actually much younger...

 

Better days ahead...

 

Does it? 

 

If we replaced AV with an average aged kicker we're still probably in the 25 year range.

 

When a middle of the road team is 26 is that really a difference. Are we really having onto the difference a couple of months here or there.

 

The NFL seems to be a young persons game. Does the difference between 25.2 and 26 really mean anything? 

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, ClaytonColt said:

Does it? 

 

If we replaced AV with an average aged kicker we're still probably in the 25 year range.

 

When a middle of the road team is 26 is that really a difference. Are we really having onto the difference a couple of months here or there.

 

The NFL seems to be a young persons game. Does the difference between 25.2 and 26 really mean anything? 

 

Remember...   I said younger not better when we replace AV.     I think younger is better than older, but you have to have enough talent.   We are not there yet.   We need much more.   

 

And at some point, in addition to the draft,  Ballard will start spending more considerably in the draft.   

 

When all all those young picks are joined by better veteran talent the Colts  will be seriously competitive again...

 

At least,  that’s the hope.....

 

[Defjamz26]

9 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

You might draw conclusions from last years team.    Or the year before, when the defense was old and slow.    Those teams were what they were.

 

But this year’s Colts are one of the youngest teams in the NFL.   The team is learning on the job.   The young players are making mistakes that we hope they won’t be making in the second half.    And Luck should be expected to hopefully get better.  

 

Everything is different with a very young team.    Whatever the team is today,  it’s not unreasonable to think we might be better as the season progresses.   If the team looks in December how it looked in September that would be a huge disappointment, not just to the fans, but to the coaches and front office as well.  

I get what your saying. It’s a young team so they can learn from their mistakes and progress as the season goes on. I don’t disagree. However I think we won’t see the true results from the growth of the young players until next year. They need a full offseason to absorb everything. Plus whether rookies, vets, or 2nd year players, this was a new scheme for everyone.

 

Penalty’s and mental mistakes should slow down as the season progresses. However, some of the issues facing the team are not going to fix themselves over the course of the season. That’s not necessarily on youth. Not being able to run the ball, the OT tackle issue, etc... are problems that will not disappear until the offseason when Ballard will hopefully addresses  them.

 

So I guess it’s more accurate for me to say that we already know PART of the Colts identity. While I don’t think there will be as many penalties and silly errors as the season progresses, I can’t imagine that by November we’re going to be running the ball down teams’ throat and Clark or Raven are going to become the tackles we need. Even once we get certain guys back, I don’t think everything justs  rights itself. There’s still major flaws in this team that most of us saw coming in the offseason.

 

We shall see what the Colts do in the second quarter of the season though. By that point we’ll know exactly who we are and it’ll be easier to know where we’ll be picking in the draft.