TE Position

[Archer]

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis woulda been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

[Vexed]

Man I hated losing Hentges as well but surprisingly not so much with Ebron and Travis. I hope they do pick up another all around tight end ( block/receiving) as these guys keep the defense guessing. When Ebron trotted onto the field everyone in the stadium knew what was going to happen.

[MPStack]

8 minutes ago, Archer said:

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis woulda been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

No, the Colts appeared solid at TE the beginning of the season. Now they don’t! 
I wouldn’t be surprised if they draft one in 2020. 
 

 

[WoolMagnet]

2 minutes ago, MPStack said:

No, the Colts appeared solid at TE the beginning of the season. Now they don’t! 
I wouldn’t be surprised if they draft one in 2020. 
 

 

Agreed.  But on 2nd look, its only Ebron missing.  And he wasnt much of a weapon this year.  
 Losing Hentges was dimilar to losing Cain.  We had injuries, had to bring a guy up, and we risked Hentges and Cain and lost them.

  And i agree about TE in draft.

when i saw Skai Moore brought up, i figured because Skai was gonna get grabbed to another teams 53.

[chad72]

The thing is, getting rid of dead weight like Quincy Wilson and Geathers, will eventually happen and we can be more prudent with our roster decisions. Also, we will be getting rid of Hoyer or Kelly as well. That is also the price for drafting well for depth. Your depth, as the year goes on, will be a starter due to injuries for someone else. Re-stocking the quality depth is what the draft is for. Ebron will most likely be someone else's problem with his drops and drive killers, IMO.

[Fisticuffs111]

I don’t know if I would say strangely, just that I also wished we would’ve kept Hentges. Not because I think he’s a future All Pro or anything, but I do think he has the potential to carve out a solid career.

[Hoose]

I think you can count on a new TE on the team====one who can stretch the field a bit. That is a missing ingredient to the Colts offense. I suspect Ebron is history,  so whether its a FA or the draft, its gonna happen. And needs to. 

[Archer]

47 minutes ago, Hoose said:

I think you can count on a new TE on the team====one who can stretch the field a bit. That is a missing ingredient to the Colts offense. I suspect Ebron is history,  so whether its a FA or the draft, its gonna happen. And needs to. 

Yeah, I think we can expect one in the draft.  I like the sound of Ian Bunting, and he’s been on the PS all year.  But he’s more of a big blocker, so a move guy should be in order...

[LockeDown]

I wanted Hentges as well but remember FR was so excited to get Ebron because he was a mismatch. He knew he wasn’t a blocker. So maybe FR isn’t interested in the Hentges type.

[John Waylon]

Brissett doesn’t use TEs as well as Luck did. 
 

By far. 
 

By really far. 
 

By so far the dog would starve to death dragging his food bowl between the gap. 
 

Hentges played well in the pre-season but he was never going to be more than a solid TE2. Which we already had when they put him on the PS. 
 

Travis is JAG. 

[ColtsLegacy]

Lack of Mo in the passing game is annoying. Would have been nice to have given him some chances during this lost season to see if there might be anything there for the future. Now, we kind of have to take Mo as a blocker with limited receiving ability (which may or may not be the actual case).

[Jackie Daytona]

5 hours ago, Archer said:

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis wou been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

Guys like Hentges and Travis are generally a dime a dozen.   I'd bet we probably aren't sweating it if someone keeps them on their roster through next season.

[NewColtsFan]

6 hours ago, Archer said:

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis woulda been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

No, I don’t think Ballard has handled any position strangely.   The players we lost were being moved to the practice squad.  The roster is a numbers game..  these are guys who may have long term potential, but Ballard’s number one priority is to the 53-man roster.

 

If we happen to lose guys because their either already on, or being moved to the practice squad, there’s nothing we can do.   This happens to all good teams.   They find talent, and they lose talent to claims like this.   We stole Kenny Moore from the Pats.  We stole Mark Glowinski from Seattle.   We didn’t squander anything.   This is how the system is set-up by the NFL. 
 

Hey, it happens. 

[Smonroe]

1 hour ago, John Waylon said:

Brissett doesn’t use —- as well as Luck did. 
 

 

Fill in the blank with any position.  

[John Waylon]

16 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Fill in the blank with any position.  

[Architects08]

Use some of that Cap space to get Hunter Henry or Austin Hooper. 

[GoColts8818]

14 hours ago, Archer said:

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis woulda been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

I think injuries are a big part of why he did things the way he did.  He didn’t want to cut Hentges but had too because he needed the roster spot.  Same with Travis.

41 minutes ago, Architects08 said:

Use some of that Cap space to get Hunter Henry or Austin Hooper. 

I’d love Hooper but I read that the Falcons are pretty confident they will be able to keep him.

[CurBeatElite]

14 hours ago, Archer said:

Does anyone else think Ballard has handled the position strangely this year?  Tried to pass Hentges to the PS, and lost him.  He seemed to have a bright future - strange move to risk him.  Ross Travis woulda been a good guy to bring to camp next year, but we waived him right before the last game (claimed by Jets).  I like Doyle and Cox, but we squandered some possibilities for quality depth...

 

Hentges went undrafted for a reason.  We can only keep 53 on the active roster, it was either try to stash him on the PS or try to keep him and likely lose someone else who we'd have to try to stash on the PS.  We started the season fairly deep at TE, so it made perfect sense for Ballard to try to stash Hentges on the PS (rather than keep 5 TEs on the 53 and losing a OL/LB/DB/etc. to another team).

 

I'm sure we'll address TE this offseason (frankly, we'll have to with Ebron entering free agency).  I think guys like Hentges and Travis are very replaceable with other undrafted free agents or free agent signings.  I know Reich likes to have a 2 TE scheme available to him, so I'd bet if we don't resign Ebron we'll seriously look at signing a fairly high-profile TE or addressing the position in the first half of the draft rather than going to UDFA route.

 

For the record, Hentges has 8 receptions all year (4 of which came in week 17 and 2 in week 16 after the Redskins' season was done).  It's not like he went on and drastically improved one of the worst teams in the league.  

 

8 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

No, I don’t think Ballard has handled any position strangely.   The players we lost were being moved to the practice squad.  The roster is a numbers game..  these are guys who may have long term potential, but Ballard’s number one priority is to the 53-man roster.

 

If we happen to lose guys because their either already on, or being moved to the practice squad, there’s nothing we can do.   This happens to all good teams.   They find talent, and they lose talent to claims like this.   We stole Kenny Moore from the Pats.  We stole Mark Glowinski from Seattle.   We didn’t squander anything.   This is how the system is set-up by the NFL. 
 

Hey, it happens. 

 

Ballard said before the draft something like "You know you're doing a good job as GM when guys you cut between 75 and 53 man rosters go play on other teams."  

 

Ballard is doing a way better job in this regard than Grigson (who was keeping garbage guys on the 53 for his ego's sake, e.g., Adongo).  We had several players who we had to cut or move to the PS who wound up on other teams' 53 man rosters.  This is actually a good thing, a clear indicator that Ballard is building a deep/competitive roster (unfortunately, injuries screwed some of that up this year, but it is better than it's been in the recent past with Grigs ahead of the ship).  

 

Off the top of my head, Hentges, Cain, Ross and Jackson Barton all were moved from our 53 to our PS and claimed by another team and stuck around there.  I'm probably missing a few... but that is a good sign.

 

7 hours ago, Smonroe said:

Fill in the blank with any position.  

 

Luck was able to mask deficiencies at other positions better than almost any QB in the league (if not better than everyone).  That said, the injuries to the WR and TEs this year left Brissett with worse options than Luck ever had to deal with at any point of his pro career.