Nelson and the OL getting rave reviews

[csmopar]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000977832/article/offensive-line-of-the-week-colts-drive-marlon-macks-career-day

[Mr.Debonair]

As they should!! They opened up some huge holes for Mack and Hines. Also gave lucky time in the pocket

[CanuckColtsFan]

Its been a lot of good news since the big win. Mike Mitchell honoured, Jack Back, Tyquan at practice. Now the Oline getting their dues. A win can change a lot. I myself was getting cranky after the Jets loss.

 

 

 

[gspdx]

OK - one win doesn't make us contenders, but the vision is starting to come into focus.  Still a long way to go.  

 

I am very happy about how the o-line, through all of the injuries already, is starting to come together.  Patience is key here as I am sure they will still show some inconsistency.  

 

So far Ballard is impressing me!  I like his plan and I think so far he is doing more good than bad.  It all starts in the trenches and the o-line is beginning to look like a group that can be counted on.

 

Build through the draft and augment with FAs when we are ready to make a run. Don't over pay.  

 

I think this year is going about as good as I could have expected.  The wins aren't all there yet but the coaches have the team prepared to compete every week.  Another year under Ballard/Reich and hopefully a solid draft this upcoming off season and who knows!

[cbear]

Not surprising IMO.  From day one, even through the struggles, you could see what was happening.  I think they are around a top 10 line now and if progress continues, I still believe this will be a "great" online. 

[Barry Sears]

Isn't it wonderful to see some love for a Colts OL for a change?

[Case]

I love Nelson’s playing style and his attitude. After EVERY play he runs over to help a teammate up. Literally every time. When we score, he runs downs and pats the guy on the helmet. 

 

Perfect pick by Ballard. 

[rockywoj]

4 minutes ago, MightyLucks said:

I love Nelson’s playing style and his attitude. After EVERY play he runs over to help a teammate up. Literally every time. When we score, he runs downs and pats the guy on the helmet. 

 

Perfect pick by Ballard. 

To the bolded, ESPECIALLY given the trade that Ballard was able to engineer, but still get Nelson.  Perfectly played.

[NewEra]

53 minutes ago, MightyLucks said:

I love Nelson’s playing style and his attitude. After EVERY play he runs over to help a teammate up. Literally every time. When we score, he runs downs and pats the guy on the helmet. 

 

Perfect pick by Ballard. 

I noticed that from day one. He was the guy to always run over and help the rb Or our guys up. I love that.

[WoolMagnet]

2 hours ago, MightyLucks said:

I love Nelson’s playing style and his attitude. After EVERY play he runs over to help a teammate up. Literally every time. When we score, he runs downs and pats the guy on the helmet. 

 

Perfect pick by Ballard. 

It's infectious too.

Its not hard to see the love and trust among players and coaches, even with the losses.  Even as a fan, viewing from afar, it is hard to imagine this is the same organization as it was just a few years ago.   A totally different feel.

  The biggest diffrrence i see is a clear, CONFIDENT plan Throughout the whole game.  I just dont see the "deer in headlights" look in the eyes of our players and coaches anymore.

everyone seems to be on the same page and confident about it.

Even our rookies!

[Tombstone]

4 hours ago, gspdx said:

OK - one win doesn't make us contenders, but the vision is starting to come into focus.  Still a long way to go.  

 

I am very happy about how the o-line, through all of the injuries already, is starting to come together.  Patience is key here as I am sure they will still show some inconsistency.  

 

So far Ballard is impressing me!  I like his plan and I think so far he is doing more good than bad.  It all starts in the trenches and the o-line is beginning to look like a group that can be counted on.

 

Build through the draft and augment with FAs when we are ready to make a run. Don't over pay.  

 

I think this year is going about as good as I could have expected.  The wins aren't all there yet but the coaches have the team prepared to compete every week.  Another year under Ballard/Reich and hopefully a solid draft this upcoming off season and who knows!

The key word you stated in there was compete.  The losses they had are easier to digest when they competing.  Every loss they had they were in it and that included the Pats game.... 

[BullsColtsFan1]

They've looked great! I hope they can keep it up.  They should be able to have success Sunday at Oakland.

[NannyMcafee]

Don’t be surprised if the colts have a stretch of wins in the near future with the oline leading the way. 

[rock8591]

Fans are vastly unqualified to grade a GM, coach, or a player to see if he's playing well.

 

Fans want to see TD passes to WRs, sacks by DEs. Anything that doesn't look like Madden (OL play, safety and cornerback play, guard play, TEs, FBs, long snapper play, etc), they couldn't care less about.

 

That's why folks who slam the Nelson pick just show themselves to be stupid.

[gspdx]

13 hours ago, rock8591 said:

Fans are vastly unqualified to grade a GM, coach, or a player to see if he's playing well.

 

Fans want to see TD passes to WRs, sacks by DEs. Anything that doesn't look like Madden (OL play, safety and cornerback play, guard play, TEs, FBs, long snapper play, etc), they couldn't care less about.

 

That's why folks who slam the Nelson pick just show themselves to be stupid.

 

I am very happy with the Nelson pick, but I have never played Madden so what do I know!

[Myles]

2 minutes ago, gspdx said:

 

I am very happy with the Nelson pick, but I have never played Madden so what do I know!

I wanted Nelson at #3.     I was really pleased to get him at #6.  

[jimmy g]

29 minutes ago, gspdx said:

 

I am very happy with the Nelson pick, but I have never played Madden so what do I know!

Only video game I've ever played was Pong, on a black and white tv......

 

My wish is that Nelson plays in Indy at an All Star Level for a decade!!!!!

[Hoose]

All the critics of the Nelson pick......where are they now? 

Great choice that has been key to shoring up the team’s biggest weakness. 

[CanuckColtsFan]

I don't feel like there were many critics of the Nelson pick. They are just always posting about it. Its probably like 5% but they won't clam up. 

[SteelCityColt]

2 hours ago, Hoose said:

All the critics of the Nelson pick......where are they now? 

Great choice that has been key to shoring up the team’s biggest weakness. 

 

I wasn’t a critic per say but I could see value in trading down from #6 if we got a good offer.

 

Nelson is no doubt very talented, but is hard to get overly excited because O line play is so hard to judge for the majority of people. It doesn’t pop off the screen and I doubt half the people that pass absolute judgement on it haven’t ever gone back and watched the All 22.

 

 I do think draft picks are over valued and while you want a game changer from your first rounders it can oh so easily be a swing and a miss. Nelson was a very safe pick.

[Coffeedrinker]

46 minutes ago, SteelCityColt said:

 

I wasn’t a critic per say but I could see value in trading down from #6 if we got a good offer.

 

Nelson is no doubt very talented, but is hard to get overly excited because O line play is so hard to judge for the majority of people. It doesn’t pop off the screen and I doubt half the people that pass absolute judgement on it haven’t ever gone back and watched the All 22.

 

 I do think draft picks are over valued and while you want a game changer from your first rounders it can oh so easily be a swing and a miss. Nelson was a very safe pick.

nelson was a safe pick but that is not the only reason he was drafted.  No matter the prefered draft method, Nelson fit the bill.

 

SteelCity, I quoted you on this but the rest does not pertain directly to you or your post, just a general comment on my thoughts on drafting Nelson. 

 

The funny thing is CB fooled me, with the comments he made about starting guards being found in the later rounds, I did not think there was anyway he would draft Nelson, so I guess his ploy worked... at least on me.

 

Drafting for need:  The Colts needed olineman... they had Vuj and Mewhort at guard and most people knew Mewhort had a degenerative knee issue so didn't figure he could be counted on.  So a guard is there ready to be drafted.

 

BPA - Since we don't have the teams scouting reports all we can go on is the myriad of draft sites/information available on the internet.  All sites had Nelson as the best guard in the draft, some had him as the best overall lineman in the draft and a couple sites I saw had him at the #2 overall best prospect behind Barkley.

 

Day one impact player - That was the consensus of Nelson before the draft and he's proven in the games.  Those that claim a guard is not an impact position don't understand line play.  yes a guard is 1 of 5 but that 20% is important, think of a RB with great vision, great power, great agility but only 80% speed?  Or a WR who runs perfect routes, speed to take the top off a defense, can out-leap any CB but only catches 80% of the catchable balls.  Now you can see how important that 20% is to the line.  Now people could say you can fill that 20% with other guards and that's true.  However, when you have a chance to get, by all indications, the best player at that position and not only that, the best player that has been available at the position for years and a good chance that no one that good will be coming along in the foreseeable future, you have to pick that guy regardless of "draft value".

 

 

[ClaytonColt]

2 hours ago, Hoose said:

All the critics of the Nelson pick......where are they now? 

Great choice that has been key to shoring up the team’s biggest weakness. 

The critics of the Nelson pick never said he was a poor player, in a lot of cases they acknowledged quite the opposite.

 

The critics of the pick generally said that having an elite guard didn't necessarily help you to win lots of m games. Since we're running at a .286 record there will probably be a better time to have this discussion.

[NewColtsFan]

3 hours ago, Coffeedrinker said:

nelson was a safe pick but that is not the only reason he was drafted.  No matter the prefered draft method, Nelson fit the bill.

 

SteelCity, I quoted you on this but the rest does not pertain directly to you or your post, just a general comment on my thoughts on drafting Nelson. 

 

The funny thing is CB fooled me, with the comments he made about starting guards being found in the later rounds, I did not think there was anyway he would draft Nelson, so I guess his ploy worked... at least on me.

 

Drafting for need:  The Colts needed olineman... they had Vuj and Mewhort at guard and most people knew Mewhort had a degenerative knee issue so didn't figure he could be counted on.  So a guard is there ready to be drafted.

 

BPA - Since we don't have the teams scouting reports all we can go on is the myriad of draft sites/information available on the internet.  All sites had Nelson as the best guard in the draft, some had him as the best overall lineman in the draft and a couple sites I saw had him at the #2 overall best prospect behind Barkley.

 

Day one impact player - That was the consensus of Nelson before the draft and he's proven in the games.  Those that claim a guard is not an impact position don't understand line play.  yes a guard is 1 of 5 but that 20% is important, think of a RB with great vision, great power, great agility but only 80% speed?  Or a WR who runs perfect routes, speed to take the top off a defense, can out-leap any CB but only catches 80% of the catchable balls.  Now you can see how important that 20% is to the line.  Now people could say you can fill that 20% with other guards and that's true.  However, when you have a chance to get, by all indications, the best player at that position and not only that, the best player that has been available at the position for years and a good chance that no one that good will be coming along in the foreseeable future, you have to pick that guy regardless of "draft value".

 

CD....

 

This is a very strong post with a number of interesting points.    I'd like to add to them if I may...

 

I put several passages into bold that I'd like to address....

 

First....    you were not alone on being fooled by Ballard.    I thought he put out a great smoke screen (realized after the fact) about quality guards being available in the 3rd and 4th rounds.   So, I was expecting Smith with our top pick and was pleasantly stunned when Nelson's name was announced.    Well played by CB.    So well played,  that I was doubly stunned when we picked Smith at 37.    Didn't see that one coming too.     And he called Smith the last starting guard available...   I took that to mean starting as a rookie.    I have no doubt some other guards taken later will emerge.    That was a very good class of guards overall.

 

Second point....    in reviews right after the draft,  a column from NFL.com noted that several teams had Nelson as the number one OVERALL player on their board.   #1.     I was again, pleasantly surprised.    But that's the type of regard some NFL people held the guy.    I don't pretend to follow all the sites,  but I didn't see one that didn't have QN as the top overall llineman in the draft.     This second point is not directed at you,  you understand his value.    But to those who,  TO THIS DAY,  don't think we made a wise pick at #6.     Go figure....

 

Good post....

[HarryTheCat]

3 hours ago, SteelCityColt said:

 

I wasn’t a critic per say but I could see value in trading down from #6 if we got a good offer.

 

Nelson is no doubt very talented, but is hard to get overly excited because O line play is so hard to judge for the majority of people. It doesn’t pop off the screen and I doubt half the people that pass absolute judgement on it haven’t ever gone back and watched the All 22.

 

 I do think draft picks are over valued and while you want a game changer from your first rounders it can oh so easily be a swing and a miss. Nelson was a very safe pick.

I find myself watching the O-line play a lot more this year than in years past. It's not flashy, like a 10-yard run or a 20-yard completion, but it's a thing of beauty the way it's being played as a tight unit now. And it's not just the left side. Glowinsky and Smith are getting it done too. 

[IinD]

We need some new GOOD homegrown talent on the Oline for once. 

 

Not crowning them, but you can see the talent they saw in Q and Smith. If Ballard can pull that off again next year (or at least one legit guy) we could actually have a very good oline. It's been bad for to long honestly.