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Chris Ballard is named 2018's NFL Executive of the Year

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This is the same award that Ryan Grigson won back in 2012. Congrats to Chris Ballard and all involved within the scouting department.

 

FWIW, Matt Nagy of the Chicago Bears has won Coach of the Year. 

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chad72 Ring of Honor

chad72

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Congrats to Chris Ballard and his team!!! Well deserved!!! Hopefully there is more of this to come.

 

Other teams made the playoffs by giving up a first rounder to Amari Cooper or a first rounder and more for Khalil Mack, but Chris did it mainly using the draft and didn't have to mortgage picks for it.

 

Common denominator for Ryan Grigson and Chris Ballard when they got this award - an aggressive head coach (Bruce Arians and Frank Reich) and a healthy Andrew Luck!!! 

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DougDew Ring of Honor

DougDew

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21 minutes ago, chad72 said:

Common denominator for Ryan Grigson and Chris Ballard when they got this award - an aggressive head coach (Bruce Arians and Frank Reich) and a healthy Andrew Luck!!! 

The similarities are interesting.  And Ballard will now have to start drafting in the 20s too. 

 

He doesn't have as much dead cap money to navigate through, but lets hope he can do better with those later first round picks. 

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shasta519 Ring of Honor

shasta519

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9 minutes ago, Calmack said:

Is this the official one? I know PFWA awards aren't considered the official awards for the NFL. The AP ones are. Just curious. 

 

The AP awards for coach and execs are the most recognized one. But other publications have them as well.

 

This a bit different than All Pro teams...where three publications (AP, Sporting News and PFWA) all have All Pro teams...and they are all equally recognized by the NFL as All Pro.

 

 

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csmopar Ring of Honor

csmopar

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1 hour ago, chad72 said:

Congrats to Chris Ballard and his team!!! Well deserved!!! Hopefully there is more of this to come.

 

Other teams made the playoffs by giving up a first rounder to Amari Cooper or a first rounder and more for Khalil Mack, but Chris did it mainly using the draft and didn't have to mortgage picks for it.

 

Common denominator for Ryan Grigson and Chris Ballard when they got this award - an aggressive head coach (Bruce Arians and Frank Reich) and a healthy Andrew Luck!!! 

and the difference is, Ballard's personality strikes me as one that'll stay humble. whereas Grigson didnt

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coltsfeva Team Captain

coltsfeva

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  Congratulations Chris!

    When they recognized Reggie Wayne, Polian, Pagano and Dungy refered to him as a “teammate” and it made me realize a NFL team includes, the Owner, GM and staff, Coaches, Players,and the Medical and Training staffs.

 As my Father (rip) used to tell me; “ That’s some team you’ve got there”. When I consider the Colts Organization; “team” as a whole, it makes last Saturday sting a little less.

   Our future looks bright with this guy making decisions 

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Jason_ Team Captain

Jason_

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29 minutes ago, Superman said:

Very well deserved. I thought Pace would get it, but Ballard had a great offseason and has his team in great shape. 

 

He's just set the bar very high. 

 

I never thought Pace deserved it over Ballard.  Don't get me wrong, Pace built a very good roster in Chicago also, but his biggest splash move that people kept saying took him "over the top" was the trade for Mack.  Let's be honest though, he wasn't the only one that went after Mack and if another team offered the same two first round picks, then chances are Oakland would have gone for the deal with the team who would be projected to have the higher picks (assuming a non division rival).  So it's not like he did anything "special"...he just won the bidding war.

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Superman Ring of Honor

Superman

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12 minutes ago, J@son said:

 

I never thought Pace deserved it over Ballard.  Don't get me wrong, Pace built a very good roster in Chicago also, but his biggest splash move that people kept saying took him "over the top" was the trade for Mack.  Let's be honest though, he wasn't the only one that went after Mack and if another team offered the same two first round picks, then chances are Oakland would have gone for the deal with the team who would be projected to have the higher picks (assuming a non division rival).  So it's not like he did anything "special"...he just won the bidding war.

 

Compared with Reggie McKenzie, though... 

 

Deserved was never my argument. I think we could make a case for several GMs in any given year, depending on your criteria. But I thought that Pace's flashier moves, including getting payoff for the Trubisky trade which everyone derided a year ago, made him the prohibitive favorite. The Mack trade was kind of the exclamation point.

 

Then we had two rookies named All Pro, and there came to be more and more recognition from the media that this young core was going to be supplemented with an extra high second rounder and $100m in cap space in 2019, and I started thinking 'maybe Ballard will get it.' 

 

And I think we could easily argue that when you combine 'who had the best offseason' with 'who's team is in great shape moving forward,' Ballard comes out ahead of Pace. But there's no predetermined criteria, and I never thought it was any kind of lock that Ballard would get it or that it was a slam dunk decision, like others did.

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richard pallo Ring of Honor

richard pallo

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Congratulations to Chris!   Very well deserved.  Everybody is already looking forward to another great off season.  We have these picks and all this cap space.  People are really excited about all of this cap space.  Just like they were last year.  It's being mentioned everywhere.  Now we have the most cap space and people are really excited all over again.  Everyone is really looking forward to seeing which players will actually become FA's and who you are going to sign.  Here's hoping you have a chance to bring some game changers to our team.  

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Jason_ Team Captain

Jason_

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49 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

Compared with Reggie McKenzie, though... 

 

Deserved was never my argument.

 

Oh I know.  :)   I was just giving my thoughts on Pace vs. Ballard in terms of this award and merely quoted you because you were the first to bring him up.

 

I pretty much expected it to be a very close race between Pace and Ballard.  

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DougDew Ring of Honor

DougDew

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3 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

 

Common denominator for Ryan Grigson and Chris Ballard when they got this award - an aggressive head coach (Bruce Arians and Frank Reich) and a healthy Andrew Luck!!! 

Just one other observation about the similarities.  Ballard retains the aggressive HC that helped get him the award.  That should give us even more confidence that the future should be brighter.

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crazycolt1 Ring of Honor

crazycolt1

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2 hours ago, J@son said:

 

I never thought Pace deserved it over Ballard.  Don't get me wrong, Pace built a very good roster in Chicago also, but his biggest splash move that people kept saying took him "over the top" was the trade for Mack.  Let's be honest though, he wasn't the only one that went after Mack and if another team offered the same two first round picks, then chances are Oakland would have gone for the deal with the team who would be projected to have the higher picks (assuming a non division rival).  So it's not like he did anything "special"...he just won the bidding war.

I have no clue if there was another team that offered two first round picks but it didn't hurt that Mack went to the NFC either.

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Kyle Practice Squad

Kyle

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4 hours ago, DougDew said:

The similarities are interesting.  And Ballard will now have to start drafting in the 20s too. 

 

He doesn't have as much dead cap money to navigate through, but lets hope he can do better with those later first round picks. 

The closest comparison we have to ballard drafting late 1st round was when he picked early 2nd round.  He picked Leonard and Smith.  When Grigson picked early 2nd round, he picked Fleener...   

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dw49 Active Roster

dw49

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5 hours ago, Calmack said:

Is this the official one? I know PFWA awards aren't considered the official awards for the NFL. The AP ones are. Just curious. 

 

Did you know Leonard won the PFWA award for defensive rookie of the year ? I'm tending to think as you are.. the AP ones are the most prestigious ones ?

 

https://coltswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/16/indianapolis-colts-darius-leonard-defensive-rookie-of-the-year-pro-football-writers-america-pfwa/

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jvan1973 Ring of Honor

jvan1973

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6 hours ago, Calmack said:

Is this the official one? I know PFWA awards aren't considered the official awards for the NFL. The AP ones are. Just curious. 

There is no AP executive of the year award.   This is the only one I'm aware of

21 minutes ago, dw49 said:

 

Did you know Leonard won the PFWA award for defensive rookie of the year ? I'm tending to think as you are.. the AP ones are the most prestigious ones ?

 

https://coltswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/16/indianapolis-colts-darius-leonard-defensive-rookie-of-the-year-pro-football-writers-america-pfwa/

 

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oldunclemark Walk On

oldunclemark

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5 hours ago, TheMarine said:

I thought we'd split the Exec & Coach awards w/ the Bears, and wouldnt have been truly surprised if it went both to one or the other

That's exactly what I thought..

 

 I thought Ryan Pace of the Bears had a career year drafting and signing free agents...

..and Frank Reich kept the ship on course when we were 1-5

 

Either way would have been worthy

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