Should Ballard change his approach?

[NewColtsFan]

27 minutes ago, Nickster said:

 

I'm pretty sure that the FO or at least Reich have emphasized the running game haven't they?  I thought they have said as much.  I could be wrong.   But man I don't know if I'd pay that much money for any back, let alone Hines, especially when we have other areas of need that seem more pressing than seldom used 3rd down back.  I think Hines' value was inflated with Rivers.  Rivers IMO is the greatest ever in the short passing game, especially to backs.  He made stars out of a bunch of guys.  NE has had a prolific passing attack to backs over the years and never had to pay people like that.   Use/abuse and then draft another RB in the 2nd or 3rd round or later seems to be the way to go these days. 

 

And in a vacuum I like the guy, but if he can't play slot and we aren't going to play two back and we aren't going to have him as a 3rd down back even when he grades way higher than Taylor in Pass pro, like way way higher, then WTH did we resign him?  That seems like organizational dissonance to me.  DO you have another theory? To me there are some head scratching moves.  This is one of them to me.   

 

 

Like I said.  I like Paye but if he can't play the LEO or whatever GB calls it next year, I think we'd be much better off with a rookie contract, very good with great potential LT, but my point is the drafting of Paye and Dayo seems to be the result of failure in past DL moves.  I don't have an issue with Paye giving us 21st pick value.  Like at all.  As a coach, I love that type of guy.  

 

 

Don't disagree there.  I'm usually not an either/or guy.  Bad decision?  Bad plan?  But when you start a season with Sam Tevi, that leaves a lot of question marks.  Tevi was the plan with the Achilles with Fish. 

 

 

He was never the same, but he was still good.  And he was good this year too.  And we could have had him for next to nothing after the injury and they signed an achilles LT and spent a decent pick on an achilles safety the year before so it isn't like they were against signing achilles guys. 

 

 

So if they drafted Blackmon to be a C3 single high FS that seems like a bad decision too when looking at what he seems to do well.  Come up and hit.  the C3 safety has to be great in CF coverage.  this to me seems like dissonance too.  They draft an Achilles big hitting safety and drop the achilles single high guy.  Its schitzo isn't it?  Maybe they didn't like Hooker personally or something, otherwise its strange IMO. 

 

 

I think it's gotta be the boss calling the shots here. Or just a very, very bad decision last year.  Or they have something in place with a guy like ARodge, which I am all for.  The biggest surprise to me with CW is he actually played all 16 this year.  IF he had been out for what was it 4 weeks?  we would be in better shape with the draft pick. 

 

 

Lockstep on this one supe.   I said before the season that this was a developmental year with the 1st two picks and that the hay was basically in the barn as far as roster goes, meaning we won't have much wiggle room with draft picks, trade assets, and FA capital (money plus guys wanting to come here ie. CW ain't a pied piper like Brady was or Rodge or Wilson would be)

When Blackman was drafted, he was coming off a knee injury, not his Achilles.   The Achilles happened this year, in practice. 

[smittywerb]

My only problem with Ballard is he doesn’t have balance.  He’s good in the draft and lack in FA.  The last few super bowls show you need a bit of both (except the rams who just went all out).  He doesn’t really attack FA.  He throws offers out there and then we get outbidded.  That’s fine when you’re building the foundation but at this point the foundation has been built.  We now need to sure up the holes.  Hitting in the draft is great but when you don’t hit and insure yourself with FA those hits become harder.  WR, DE are 2 positions he tried hitting on with the draft and it just hasn’t worked.  It wouldn’t be as bad if he went and got some players in FA. Luckily, this year the WR FA pool is deep and there are DEs out there that can come and provide an impact.  Also, We have the money to do it.

 

get it done ballard

[a06cc]

I personally think he needs to change his approach. Comes off arrogant in the War Room. How about you start drafting players who can play and practice day 1. I’m tired of him wasting picks on players with torn ACL’s. 

[ShuteAt168]

2 hours ago, a06cc said:

I personally think he needs to change his approach. Comes off arrogant in the War Room. How about you start drafting players who can play and practice day 1. I’m tired of him wasting picks on players with torn ACL’s. 

When you’re The Smartest Guy In The Room you have to prove it with reaches like this—a pick that gave zero help to a team that needed a boost in several areas. 

[CoachLite]

I don't think Ballard needs to radically change his approach. Maybe tweak and adapt it somewhat. It seems he's had to make some compromises he probably shouldn't have made. Most folks aren't aware how complex that job is. Being a GM is an impossible task, but some people don't know that and do it well anyway.

[DougDew]

Having not read the article:

 

I would say that the need for a horse farm (Colts LOL) to have reliable utilitarian workhorses is very important, but, if you devote thoroughbred race horse capital to acquiring the best workhorses ever, it creates a lot of self-imposed headwinds to overcome when its time to find the race horses that will win you races.

[masterlock]

On 2/14/2022 at 12:30 PM, TheBlueAndWhite said:

I think he should stick to it, slow and steady wins the race man... I get fans are frustrated but I think we can do some great things if we just focus on updating our coaching philosophy a little bit. 

Slow and steady can also be a recipe for perpetual mediocrity if you fail to recognize and fix major problems (e.g., the QB position). Major problems require major fixes. 

[BlackTiger]

On 2/14/2022 at 12:28 PM, NannyMcafee said:

Worth the read and perspective that is more thought out than 90% of the posts on here. 

you thought this was a well thought out article describing how we should just stay the course?

 

The moves the colts made in 2021 were pretty bad, going after Fisher and wentz were both mistakes imo. the only + from that fa class was reed.

 

stay the course or not was a vague click bait title, they may need to make some changes if we ever want to win anything 

[NannyMcafee]

3 hours ago, BlackTiger said:

you thought this was a well thought out article describing how we should just stay the course?

 

The moves the colts made in 2021 were pretty bad, going after Fisher and wentz were both mistakes imo. the only + from that fa class was reed.

 

stay the course or not was a vague click bait title, they may need to make some changes if we ever want to win anything 

 

I wouldn't put words in other people's mouths. Read each word individually and it will help you understand the entire sentence. 

[Nickster]

10 hours ago, DougDew said:

Having not read the article:

 

I would say that the need for a horse farm (Colts LOL) to have reliable utilitarian workhorses is very important, but, if you devote thoroughbred race horse capital to acquiring the best workhorses ever, it creates a lot of self-imposed headwinds to overcome when its time to find the race horses that will win you races.

Quarter horses are considered the best in the world.  They can work, they can rodeo, they can jump, but they ain’t gonna win any track races.  I think we have a bunch of good quarterhorses, some outstanding ones, but don’t have good enough thoroughbreds.  

[Boondoggle]

This roster is really close.  It's missing some things but a strong FA period and draft has the potential to put them over the top to contending.  There are a lot of teams who would kill to have this roster.

 

Keep building.  Stick to the plan and let's see what Frank can do with a better group.

 

One thing's for sure though, at least from my perspective: it's playoffs or bust for him this year.  He asked for Wentz and he and Carson are going to be tied to the hip good or bad based on the result of the 2022 season.  If they can get him playing like he was that year he got hurt during their Super Bowl run, they'll be in business.  Otherwise...  Probably gonna be a regime change.

[CanuckColt]

Balllard needs to change his draft strategy and pick much earlier the skill-position players who touch the ball...Polian's old adage.

[Defjamz26]

I don’t think he necessarily needs to change his approach, but he does need to execute better. Every GM is allowed to have whatever approach they want, but you have to execute. The Rams had their unique strategy that finally payed off on in the form of a Super Bowl Win.

 

Its fine to not spend in FA and build through the draft, but that means you have to hit on those draft picks. Because if you’re not hitting on certain positions in the draft and then not spending money for high tier players in FA, you’re not making any progress.

 

Part of executing better will start with having better contingency plans. This team was Ill prepared to deal with the departure of Castonzo and has not had answers at corner, DE, or WR for years. We have players that leave and we don’t have any drafted players who can step in and fill the void, which leads us to a lot of last minute bandaid fixes (Fisher at LT, Funchess at WR, Rhodes at CB, Wentz at QB, etc…).

 

Ballard does a good job overall of drafting, but he and the staff have to start executing better if the Colts are to become a consistent contender. Don’t change the approach. Get better results. They should should see where they’re approach it flawed and fine tune it a bit.

[Moosejawcolt]

23 hours ago, CanuckColt said:

Balllard needs to change his draft strategy and pick much earlier the skill-position players who touch the ball...Polian's old adage.

Yes he needs to change his approach. Draft better players and stop striking out lol. I think if his Dline picks would have worked out , this team looks a lot different. Some of those picks could have been used on skill players. Go back and actually evaluate every one of Ballard's moves in the draft and free agency. U come away thinking he has not really done that well. I mean go back all  the way to going into the season with Tolzien as your starting qb. It's not good. 

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

Yes he needs to change his approach. Draft better players and stop striking out lol. I think if his Dline picks would have worked out , this team looks a lot different. Some of those picks could have been used on skill players. Go back and actually evaluate every one of Ballard's moves in the draft and free agency. U come away thinking he has not really done that well. I mean go back all  the way to going into the season with Tolzien as your starting qb. It's not good. 

I hate to be the one to break it to you….   The year Tolzein played most was 2016, the year BEFORE Ballard became our GM.    Tolzein came back the next year at Pagano’s urging.   Ballard traded for Brissett a week before the 2017 season started.   So he got two weeks to get up to speed, and then started the next 15 games. 
 

Ballard has already said he’s not changing his approach.   He believes games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage.   And he’s right, not that you’d know it.  And for what it’s worth, the Colts weren’t trying to put a great team on the field in 2017.   Yes, we tanked that season to build for the 2018 season.  And that season turned out pretty good. 

[EastStreet]

1 hour ago, Moosejawcolt said:

Yes he needs to change his approach. Draft better players and stop striking out lol. I think if his Dline picks would have worked out , this team looks a lot different. Some of those picks could have been used on skill players. Go back and actually evaluate every one of Ballard's moves in the draft and free agency. U come away thinking he has not really done that well. I mean go back all  the way to going into the season with Tolzien as your starting qb. It's not good. 

There's so much I could unwrap in this... 

 

But I'll try to be nice and just call out a few things.

 

• To the bolded.... what does that actually mean. Given the situation, it was clear at the time Luck was coming back. So what did you expect at QB? Draft a QB? That's stupid. Spend big on FA QB, was never going to happen. You'd do far better questioning JB's raise and extension in 2019 than mentioning Tozien in 2017. 
• Draft wise, I agree 2017 was a fail. But it was his first year, and on a short start. It was also a bad roster to start with. I could go into extreme detail about scheme and coaching changes, but I won't. I'll just say I can understand why it was fail. That doesn't absolve Ballard, but it was somewhat understandable. A lot of stuff was broken. The level of broken-ness was one reason why 2018 was such a success. 
• On the DL. Yes plenty of delayed gratification and injury bad luck. I'd say overall having Defo, Autry, and Houston together was a pretty good threesome had it not been for scheme. Basham, probably abandoned too early (not saying he's a star). Turay was pure injury bad luck. Lewis was promising prior to injury aside from the delay. Banogu so far a fail. But overall, a different scheme would have killed it with Defo, Autry, and Houston. Flus's did not. Yes, Flus is on Ballard, but also partly on McD, which is also on Ballard. We should have some answers now that Flus has more control. 

 

Overall, Ballard has not been a top 5 problem. QB (especially Luck's timing), injury in general and injury timing (Luck, Campbell, Turay, Funch, and many more), OL this year, soft D and reliance on turnovers, and simply the team stepping on their own ducks (Jax in general, and several 2H collapses) which equates to coaching, are far more the issue. 

 

I am not, and never will be, a Ballard worshiper. Not a hater either. Should he tweak things. Sure. Is he a top 3 problem, not sure. Probably not. 

[SteelCityColt]

So from this, and other, topics I've come to the conclusion all of Ballard's decisions should be driven by Twitter rumours posted on the forum. Imagine fans making all the decisions, what could go wrong...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/26/what-happened-to-myfootballclub-ebbsfleet-united

 

I believe something similar has also been tried in Arena Football. What the experience seems to show is fans are too apathetic and interestingly still voted to leave team selection etc. up to the professional manager. 

 

That being said, I'm proud to announce in Gameday Chat for the 2022 season we'll be introducing a new feature where members can vote on each and every play call pre-snap in rolling instant polls, with the results relayed to Frank directly be carrier pigeon. There will also be a special chat for the draft, where again fans can vote on who the Colts should select with each and every pick. Sadly I've been unable to confirm if Rocky is available to announce the picks.

[PrincetonTiger]

1 minute ago, SteelCityColt said:

So from this, and other, topics I've come to the conclusion all of Ballard's decisions should be driven by Twitter rumours posted on the forum. Imagine fans making all the decisions, what could go wrong...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/oct/26/what-happened-to-myfootballclub-ebbsfleet-united

 

I believe something similar has also been tried in Arena Football. What the experience seems to show is fans are too apathetic and interestingly still voted to leave team selection etc. up to the professional manager. 

 

That being said, I'm proud to announce in Gameday Chat for the 2022 season we'll be introducing a new feature where members can vote on each and every play call pre-snap in rolling instant polls, with the results relayed to Frank directly be carrier pigeon. There will also be a special chat for the draft, where again fans can vote on who the Colts should select with each and every pick. Sadly I've been unable to confirm if Rocky is available to announce the picks.

I have visions of my coaching days

[jvan1973]

21 hours ago, Moosejawcolt said:

Yes he needs to change his approach. Draft better players and stop striking out lol. I think if his Dline picks would have worked out , this team looks a lot different. Some of those picks could have been used on skill players. Go back and actually evaluate every one of Ballard's moves in the draft and free agency. U come away thinking he has not really done that well. I mean go back all  the way to going into the season with Tolzien as your starting qb. It's not good. 

Tolzien wasn't the starting qb ,  Luck was.    Funny how you left that out

[Superman]

23 hours ago, Defjamz26 said:

Part of executing better will start with having better contingency plans. This team was Ill prepared to deal with the departure of Castonzo and has not had answers at corner, DE, or WR for years. We have players that leave and we don’t have any drafted players who can step in and fill the void, which leads us to a lot of last minute bandaid fixes (Fisher at LT, Funchess at WR, Rhodes at CB, Wentz at QB, etc…).

 

Ballard does a good job overall of drafting, but he and the staff have to start executing better if the Colts are to become a consistent contender. Don’t change the approach. Get better results. They should should see where they’re approach it flawed and fine tune it a bit.

 

To your point about executing better, the Colts intended to either draft a LT prospect, or sign a veteran after the draft. They wound up taking Paye, which I agree with. Then they seemed to have their pick between Eric Fisher at $8m, or Charles Leno at $4m. They paid Fisher, coming off an Achilles, double what Leno took from Washington, and Leno was objectively better, while Fisher struggled in pass pro. A different decision there might have influenced several elements of our offense, all season. 

 

And my thing is, while I see the advantage of their preferred strategy, the goal is still to win and contend for a SB. And we see other teams contending with different strategies. Those have different positives and negatives, but it's obvious that there's more than one way to skin a cat. And if your preferred strategy is not working, for whatever reasons, what do you do? Things change regularly, an organization that can adjust to a changing environment will always be relevant. Better yet, anticipate coming changes and get ahead of them. Sadly, the Colts have spent the last five years reacting, and not doing a great job of overcoming. Especially not as it relates to the ultimate goal.

 

There's resilience, and there's stubbornness, and sometimes there's a great deal of overlap. The Colts might be more stubborn than resilient. 

[compuls1v3]

3 hours ago, Superman said:

 

To your point about executing better, the Colts intended to either draft a LT prospect, or sign a veteran after the draft. They wound up taking Paye, which I agree with. Then they seemed to have their pick between Eric Fisher at $8m, or Charles Leno at $4m. They paid Fisher, coming off an Achilles, double what Leno took from Washington, and Leno was objectively better, while Fisher struggled in pass pro. A different decision there might have influenced several elements of our offense, all season. 

 

And my thing is, while I see the advantage of their preferred strategy, the goal is still to win and contend for a SB. And we see other teams contending with different strategies. Those have different positives and negatives, but it's obvious that there's more than one way to skin a cat. And if your preferred strategy is not working, for whatever reasons, what do you do? Things change regularly, an organization that can adjust to a changing environment will always be relevant. Better yet, anticipate coming changes and get ahead of them. Sadly, the Colts have spent the last five years reacting, and not doing a great job of overcoming. Especially not as it relates to the ultimate goal.

 

There's resilience, and there's stubbornness, and sometimes there's a great deal of overlap. The Colts might be more stubborn than resilient. 

Definitely agree with reacting then being proactive, especially with the Castanzo situation.  It will be interesting to see how the Campbell situation pans out, because I truly believe that ship has sailed, unfortunate as it is.  Also, with QB, Rivers wasn’t a long term answer either.  In don’t remember what the alternatives were at that time.

[DougDew]

This link was placed in another thread.  Thought I would post it and my comment here:

 

https://www.espn.com/blog/indianapolis-colts/post/_/id/27220/chris-ballard-and-indianapolis-colts-at-crossroads-with-heart-of-offseason-approaching

 

Something from that article.  The writers were talking about how the final four playoff teams had "game changing" playmakers at important positions.  

 

Ballard's quote on the matter, OTOH, seems like he does not see the value.  Maybe he's right, but the quote is kind of telling about how he views roster building.

 

“I mean you have to be good on the O-line and D-line, you have to be,” Ballard said. “You have to get good quarterback play. Then the rest of your playmakers have to do their jobs".

[Nickster]

On 2/21/2022 at 7:56 PM, Superman said:

 

To your point about executing better, the Colts intended to either draft a LT prospect, or sign a veteran after the draft. They wound up taking Paye, which I agree with. Then they seemed to have their pick between Eric Fisher at $8m, or Charles Leno at $4m. They paid Fisher, coming off an Achilles, double what Leno took from Washington, and Leno was objectively better, while Fisher struggled in pass pro. A different decision there might have influenced several elements of our offense, all season. 

 

And my thing is, while I see the advantage of their preferred strategy, the goal is still to win and contend for a SB. And we see other teams contending with different strategies. Those have different positives and negatives, but it's obvious that there's more than one way to skin a cat. And if your preferred strategy is not working, for whatever reasons, what do you do? Things change regularly, an organization that can adjust to a changing environment will always be relevant. Better yet, anticipate coming changes and get ahead of them. Sadly, the Colts have spent the last five years reacting, and not doing a great job of overcoming. Especially not as it relates to the ultimate goal.

 

There's resilience, and there's stubbornness, and sometimes there's a great deal of overlap. The Colts might be more stubborn than resilient. 

Wordsworth was the father of English Romanticism and a passionate believer in French revolutionary principles and held on to those principles long after the evidence seemed to clearly indicate that it wasn’t working.  Seems this may be what’s going on here.  

 

Later on he “yielded up his convictions” in despair.

 

I think somewhere in that continuum is where a lot of us are, lol.  Between fanatic belief and sober reality.

 

of course that was life and death this is just the football team I pull for.

[Mr.Debonair]

No in Ballard you must trust. Anything less is unacceptable

[Moosejawcolt]

On 2/20/2022 at 9:17 PM, NewColtsFan said:

I hate to be the one to break it to you….   The year Tolzein played most was 2016, the year BEFORE Ballard became our GM.    Tolzein came back the next year at Pagano’s urging.   Ballard traded for Brissett a week before the 2017 season started.   So he got two weeks to get up to speed, and then started the next 15 games. 
 

Ballard has already said he’s not changing his approach.   He believes games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage.   And he’s right, not that you’d know it.  And for what it’s worth, the Colts weren’t trying to put a great team on the field in 2017.   Yes, we tanked that season to build for the 2018 season.  And that season turned out pretty good. 

 

[Four2itus]

48 minutes ago, Moosejawcolt said:

 

Starter in the game or the main starter over the season? Also, I would like to know what rounds the Vet FA/trade were drafted at.