Some Perspective on Free Agency

[Luck 4 president]

Every year for the last 3 years Colts fans have wanted Ballard’s head after the first few days of Free Agency due to the lack of big names signing with us. This is the same Ballard who just won Executive of the year. He didn’t win this because of the draft only, but also his FA acquisitions. Check out these rankings released for last year’s signings. We have 2 and 3 with Ebron and Autry, only trailing Brees who shouldn’t count imo because he was a resigning. None of the FAs were big names that we signed but they turned out much better than expected. 

 

Regarding Funchess, 10 million is pretty steep, and I didn’t agree with it at first. After doing some research I think it is a good gamble to make. Funchess didn’t have an amazing year last year. But if you look at his 2017 year there are some interesting stats to note. He only had 3 drops and tied for 6th best in drop rate. He also had the best contested catch % in the league. That was being the 2nd option, but often drawing the top CB. It’s not hard to believe he can replicate or even top that with a better QB and being the 3rd option on the Colts. Also, he is 24. He has yet to hit his prime, and hopefully the best is yet to come.

 

So just let Ballard do his thing. It should be expected by now that he isn’t going for those top FAs, but would much rather sign the moneyball players with chips on their shoulders. I will trust the reigning executive of the year over all these armchair GMs 10 times out of 10.

[Mr.Debonair]

Grigson won the same award. 

[Luck 4 president]

46 minutes ago, Mr.Debonair said:

Grigson won the same award. 

Difference is Ballard signed and drafted people who weren’t hot names. Nelson was a big name, but not at 6. Some “experts” thought Leonard was the worst move in the draft. A monkey could’ve drafted Luck. 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

1 hour ago, Luck 4 president said:

Regarding Funchess, 10 million is pretty steep, and I didn’t agree with it at first. After doing some research I think it is a good gamble to make. Funchess didn’t have an amazing year last year. But if you look at his 2017 year there are some interesting stats to note. He only had 3 drops and tied for 6th best in drop rate. He also had the best contested catch % in the league. That was being the 2nd option, but often drawing the top CB. It’s not hard to believe he can replicate or even top that with a better QB and being the 3rd option on the Colts. Also, he is 24. He has yet to hit his prime, and hopefully the best is yet to come.

 

So just let Ballard do his thing. It should be expected by now that he isn’t going for those top FAs, but would much rather sign the moneyball players with chips on their shoulders. I will trust the reigning executive of the year over all these armchair GMs 10 times out of 10.

 

Signing WRs in FA is expensive, simple as that. If he does well, he gets his full $13mil, & the Colts get a nice comp pick when they inevitably let him walk in free agency, if he ends up being a Ryan Grant type signing, he gets $10mil as opposed to $13mil, & the Colts get a nice comp pick when they inevitably let him walk in FA.

[Superman]

1 hour ago, Mr.Debonair said:

Grigson won the same award. 

 

That's because he had a great first year. He deserved it. It wasn't until 2013 that he started to do dumb stuff.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

16 minutes ago, Luck 4 president said:

Difference is Ballard signed and drafted people who weren’t hot names. Nelson was a big name, but not at 6. Some “experts” thought Leonard was the worst move in the draft. A monkey could’ve drafted Luck. 

I'm not a Griggs fan but....

Griggs teams won 36 games in first 3 seasons including 3 playoff games.

[CheezyColt]

1 minute ago, Superman said:

 

That's because he had a great first year. He deserved it. It wasn't until 2013 that he started to do dumb stuff.

To add to that, the dumb stuff he started doing was because he shifted into "win right now" mode instead of continuing to build the foundation. He failed spectacularly.

 

Everyone clamoring for all the big names and monster contracts, try to remember what the "exciting" offseasons prior ended up leaving us with. We got 3 straight 11-5 years but ultimately never had a solid core and couldn't handle adversity.

 

#LetBallardWork

[Valpo2004]

7 minutes ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

I'm not a Griggs fan but....

Griggs teams won 36 games in first 3 seasons including 3 playoff games.

 

Lets be honest though.  In those first 3 years a lot of key players were players from the Polian era.  

 

Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Antoine Bethea.  Combined that with a good 2012 draft and the Colts did well.

 

After 2012 Grigson just constantly failed to improve the team.  Free agent signings mostly busted save for a few.  Most of the high draft picks busted.  

[Superman]

6 minutes ago, CheezyColt said:

To add to that, the dumb stuff he started doing was because he shifted into "win right now" mode instead of continuing to build the foundation. He failed spectacularly.

 

Everyone clamoring for all the big names and monster contracts, try to remember what the "exciting" offseasons prior ended up leaving us with. We got 3 straight 11-5 years but ultimately never had a solid core and couldn't handle adversity.

 

#LetBallardWork

 

He could have done better in win now mode, though. I think it requires incredible balance and talent evaluation, but you can do both. He just signed bad FAs, drafted poorly, and shouldn't have traded a first for a RB (let alone a bad RB). 

[Superman]

1 minute ago, Valpo2004 said:

Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis

 

He re-signed both of those players in 2012, so they go to his credit.

 

After 2012, he was a trainwreck. I maintain that he deserved Exec of the Year in 2012, though. Same for Ballard in 2018. The question is what he does next.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

That  is some great info on Funchess. I have no reason to believe he isn’t going to put up big numbers for us. The fact we got  him the first day tells me he was the colts number one target as WR. Ballard isn’t stupid. He knows what he is doing.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

5 minutes ago, Valpo2004 said:

 

Lets be honest though.  In those first 3 years a lot of key players were players from the Polian era.  

 

Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Antoine Bethea.  Combined that with a good 2012 draft and the Colts did well.

 

After 2012 Grigson just constantly failed to improve the team.  Free agent signings mostly busted save for a few.  Most of the high draft picks busted.  

 

I dont disagree with you. The more Griggs went the worse he did.

 

But like you said, let's be honest. Most of our current best players, which most are on offense outside of Geathers are from Griggs &  Polian. (Luck, TY, Costanzo, Kelly, Doyle)

[Steamboat_Shaun]

1 minute ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

I dont disagree with you. The more Griggs went the worse he did.

 

But like you said, let's be honest. Most of our current best players, which most are on offense outside of Geathers are from Griggs &  Polian. (Luck, TY, Costanzo, Kelly, Doyle)

 

Seems odd to just leave 2 1st team all-pros & Eric Ebron off of this list.

[jameszeigler834]

1 hour ago, Mr.Debonair said:

Grigson won the same award. 

That is true.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

2 minutes ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

Seems odd to just leave 2 1st team all-pros & Eric Ebron off of this list.

 

I was listing some of our best players that Ballard inherited. Ebron was brought in by Ballard not Griggs.

[Steamboat_Shaun]

42 minutes ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

Ebron was brought in by Ballard not Griggs.

 

I know that, but you said most of our best current players are from the Grigson or Polian era, & that's kinda not true.

[shasta519]

5 hours ago, CheezyColt said:

To add to that, the dumb stuff he started doing was because he shifted into "win right now" mode instead of continuing to build the foundation. He failed spectacularly.

 

Everyone clamoring for all the big names and monster contracts, try to remember what the "exciting" offseasons prior ended up leaving us with. We got 3 straight 11-5 years but ultimately never had a solid core and couldn't handle adversity.

 

#LetBallardWork

 

There wasn't a core because Grigs drafted poorly. He also signed crappy players. I had no problem with the strategy though. DEN won a Super Bowl with FAs available during that time.