Ballard FA Grievances Thread (Merge)

[jvan1973]

6 minutes ago, AustexColt said:

Ballard's biggest mistake was Autry. 

So was it his greatest sign when he brought him here?

[jvan1973]

3 hours ago, joeb said:

Gave up on him way too quick. One of the best in the league, this year. I can't say I've been overwhelmed with Matt Gay. He definitely changed a few games for us this season.

Didn't age well bud

@OLD FAN MAN what's confusing?

[cdgacoltsfan]

47 minutes ago, AustexColt said:

Ballard's biggest mistake was Autry. 

I remember when Ballard traded Elway for Chris Hinton.

[2006Coltsbestever]

Just now, cdgacoltsfan said:

I remember Ballard didn't draft Elway.

Nah he drafted Jeff George so he should be fired! 

[John Waylon]

2 hours ago, Blueblood23 said:

Jerry Hughes is one.

This post should have been deleted before it was made. 
 

Hughes was a pre-season hero, then once he got opportunities in regular season games he was little more than just a warm body on the field. 

[ArmchairQB]

On 1/20/2024 at 7:16 AM, Indeee said:

I saw the article on news feed, MSN I think. Had that chicks name under it, so.. ??

 

Regardless, the sentiment is exactly what a lot of us have been saying for years and now it seems like outside sources see the same things as well. I don't care if you disagree with what the article said, it's your prerogative to do so should you choose, however just because viewpoints such as this via the article might be unpopular to some, doesn't make it not worth noticing or even discussing. 

 

There are too many in this forum that continue to point to these players improving in miniscule ways as one example, year after year. Rinse and repeat, without REAL results consecutively. Giving a pass for "growth period".

 

It also doesn't help when Ballard tells everyone it was a concentrated effort to play the young guys, as he did in his most recent presser.

 

Those who really like Ballard, will yet again overlook the obvious ( no division titles, 1 playoff appearance ) and stay the course, trusting his process. A process that is more resilient than the energizer bunny.

 

The rest of us can clearly see that from the start, whatever process he was implementing and whatever process was amended over these 8 years, has not worked. 

 

I do not dislike Ballard. In fact, I like him because he's a guy's guy. The kind of guy you wanna have a beer or two with. It's his vision that bothered me and I fully started to understand it somewhere in year two of his reign to the current.

 

He was building this team like it was the 80's Bears, early 90's smash mouth. Putting resources in the wrong spots and for some reason not understanding that the league was heading more towards a high-flying aerial style of offense in the majority.  It was odd to me especially because the Colts had the aerial in the Manning years and it was highly successful, so why go complete 180?

 

Anyway, he is here. If it takes him 9 years to realize where this league is, then so be it. Better late than never.

 

 

I wasn’t meaning to sound overly harsh.  Just that it’s super important to consider and therefore know sources.  Like watching the same story being reported by CNN or FOX.  May be the same story but you know each is skewing the facts to benefit their position.  

[jvan1973]

22 hours ago, Indeee said:

She is also not the writer..Ha!! she is the photographer of the Ballard pic in the original article.

 

MSN, where I got the excerpt from, botched the credit, and in turn, so did I. Some guy on stampede blue wrote the article.

 

When you're in a hurry to jump on a narrative,  the origin of the story doesn't matter

[Scott Pennock]

3 hours ago, Blueblood23 said:

Jerry Hughes is one.

The same Jerry Hughes that was drafted by Bill Polian that Ryan Grigson traded to the Bills for Kelvin Sheppard? 
 

That one?

[Scott Pennock]

1 hour ago, AustexColt said:

Ballard's biggest mistake was Autry. 

And I bet you said he was a “camp body” when he did sign him from the Raiders……lol

 

[NewColtsFan]

4 hours ago, csmopar said:

It is very obvious that a majority of our problem was Frank Reich. Frank wasn’t a completely terrible coach but it’s very obvious after failing to win as a head coach with two different organizations, both with the same complaints about tells us a lot. I often wonder if Ballard had hired say.. Vrabel, would things have been different? 

Of course things would’ve been better, by any objective measure, Vrabel is a better head coach.   
 

But Frank left the Colts with a better than 500 record.  Ballard may be below 500, but Reich was not with the Colts.   And I take nothing bad from his stint with Carolina.   A dysfunctional franchise with the worst owner and a GM that was also fired.   Carolina is now the new Washington when Dan Snyder was the owner. 
 

Frank was a decent HC, but in the end, he wasn’t good enough.   Thats as far as I’m willing to go. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

5 hours ago, csmopar said:

It is very obvious that a majority of our problem was Frank Reich. Frank wasn’t a completely terrible coach but it’s very obvious after failing to win as a head coach with two different organizations, both with the same complaints about tells us a lot. I often wonder if Ballard had hired say.. Vrabel, would things have been different? 

From 2018 upto the final 2 games of 2021, Frank was 37-26 with a playoff win. Something happened in those last 2 games in 2021 and in 2022. It was drastic whatever it was.

[NewColtsFan]

14 minutes ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

From 2018 upto the final 2 games of 2021, Frank was 37-26 with a playoff win. Something happened in those last 2 games in 2021 and in 2022. It was drastic whatever it was.

The last two games of ‘21,  I think Wentz and 3-4 OL and maybe some def players were hit with Covid.  
 

In 22, things unraveled in a hurry….   There was a Thursday night game vs Denver early in the season.  I think the Colts won 12-9.   But on that short week, the Colts changed three starting O-linemen.  That rarely happens in a conventional week, but to happen in a very short week is almost unheard of.  
 

So I think there were extraordinary things happening and I don’t know how much can be blamed on Frank? 

[GoColts8818]

5 hours ago, Shadow_Creek said:

that seems to be a on going trend with Ballard after releasing talented players smh

They didn’t release him.  He was a free agent.  
 

no one was complaining about Gay when he was drilling 50 yarder after 50 yarder to beat the Ravens, something Chase is not great at.

 

worth remembering he was hurt with a hip injury when his struggles started, I am not a genius but I would be willing to bet the two were related as he was automatic before that.

 

Also please tell me what super talented player he released that has gone on to do great things else where?  He’s lost some due to free agency but you can’t keep everyone.  

3 hours ago, Blueblood23 said:

Jerry Hughes is one.

That’s on Grigson he was long gone before Ballard got here.

[shasta519]

On 1/19/2024 at 7:47 PM, Goatface Killah said:

The conversation is about free agency.

 

I understand its very hard for you to follow any kind of actual conversation considering you have a clear agenda, but at least give it a good effort.

 

If you gave me the number 1 overall pick in the draft with a generational QB sitting there for me, I could win a playoff game also. Absolutely nothing impressive about that, at all.

 

I misread that...that's my bad.

 

"You have a clear agenda" says the Ballard white knight who probably posts 100x more than me and always shows up on every thread that is critical of Ballard. Talk about pot meet kettle.

 

And it's very easy for me to have a conversation. I have my opinions and I support them. It's just difficult for you and your ilk because you don't like hearing those opinions (often times facts) and prefer to stick to excuses. 

[Goatface Killah]

1 hour ago, shasta519 said:

 

I misread that...that's my bad.

 

"You have a clear agenda" says the Ballard white knight who probably posts 100x more than me and always shows up on every thread that is critical of Ballard. Talk about pot meet kettle.

 

And it's very easy for me to have a conversation. I have my opinions and I support them. It's just difficult for you and your ilk because you don't like hearing those opinions (often times facts) and prefer to stick to excuses. 

I actually dont post very often at all. 

 

Do you have anything to say about any of the points I made regarding Ballard being active in free agency?

 

 

[conklincolt]

On 3/14/2022 at 10:02 PM, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

He's just doing his job to keep the Colts Irrelevant. 

and they have been,5-6 years now

 

[Hawkeyecolt]

On 1/21/2024 at 7:39 PM, GoColts8818 said:

They didn’t release him.  He was a free agent.  
 

no one was complaining about Gay when he was drilling 50 yarder after 50 yarder to beat the Ravens, something Chase is not great at.

 

worth remembering he was hurt with a hip injury when his struggles started, I am not a genius but I would be willing to bet the two were related as he was automatic before that.

 

Also please tell me what super talented player he released that has gone on to do great things else where?  He’s lost some due to free agency but you can’t keep everyone.  

That’s on Grigson he was long gone before Ballard got here.

And most of Gay’s misses were over 50 yards. Most were probably over 55.  Gay made the most FG’s in a single season of his career. I assuming next season the Colts will have a more dynamic offense and have to try less 55+ yard FG’s. 

[BeanDiasucci]

On 3/14/2022 at 11:29 PM, tvturner said:

The Colts have the 4th most wins in the NFL since 2000

They're down to 5th now. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/most-wins-by-a-nfl-team-since-2000

[Yoshinator]

Since this is the Ballard Grievance thread, I'm going to post this here. If Ballard isn't aggressive in FA this with a new QB in AR and a new Coach in Steichen that is probably going want certain players, then he needs to be fired before the draft and Ed Dodds should be promoted to GM and Morocco Brown to assistant GM immediately. 

 

Don't even wait for the draft. I don't care how good Ballard is at it at this point. If he sacrifices FA when we have our franchise QB and Coach and there's no more excuses, pull the plug. Cut the head off the snake. At this point we need to be spending on a few elite players on defense. Get Pittman back and spend on defense in FA before the draft. Get Xavier McKinney. Sign an elite EDGE like Burns or Allen. Then you can build around these guys in the draft like a good GM does. 

 

Ballard said he'd be aggressive in his presser, let's put your job on the line and see if you tell the truth. Put your job where your mouth is Ballard. At least give the illusion you care about this team. 

 

There's a reason I have more fun playing Madden as the GM of the Colts than enjoying the real-life experience, and that reason is Chris Ballard.

[NewColtsFan]

4 hours ago, Yoshinator said:

Since this is the Ballard Grievance thread, I'm going to post this here. If Ballard isn't aggressive in FA this with a new QB in AR and a new Coach in Steichen that is probably going want certain players, then he needs to be fired before the draft and Ed Dodds should be promoted to GM and Morocco Brown to assistant GM immediately. 

 

Don't even wait for the draft. I don't care how good Ballard is at it at this point. If he sacrifices FA when we have our franchise QB and Coach and there's no more excuses, pull the plug. Cut the head off the snake. At this point we need to be spending on a few elite players on defense. Get Pittman back and spend on defense in FA before the draft. Get Xavier McKinney. Sign an elite EDGE like Burns or Allen. Then you can build around these guys in the draft like a good GM does. 

 

Ballard said he'd be aggressive in his presser, let's put your job on the line and see if you tell the truth. Put your job where your mouth is Ballard. At least give the illusion you care about this team. 

 

There's a reason I have more fun playing Madden as the GM of the Colts than enjoying the real-life experience, and that reason is Chris Ballard.

Odds are both Allen and Burns will either be re-signed or tagged.   Why would their teams not bring them back?   Those players are key building blocks.  
 

As for everything else, I’d say odds are you’re going to be disappointed.  

[richard pallo]

4 hours ago, Yoshinator said:

Since this is the Ballard Grievance thread, I'm going to post this here. If Ballard isn't aggressive in FA this with a new QB in AR and a new Coach in Steichen that is probably going want certain players, then he needs to be fired before the draft and Ed Dodds should be promoted to GM and Morocco Brown to assistant GM immediately. 

 

Don't even wait for the draft. I don't care how good Ballard is at it at this point. If he sacrifices FA when we have our franchise QB and Coach and there's no more excuses, pull the plug. Cut the head off the snake. At this point we need to be spending on a few elite players on defense. Get Pittman back and spend on defense in FA before the draft. Get Xavier McKinney. Sign an elite EDGE like Burns or Allen. Then you can build around these guys in the draft like a good GM does. 

 

Ballard said he'd be aggressive in his presser, let's put your job on the line and see if you tell the truth. Put your job where your mouth is Ballard. At least give the illusion you care about this team. 

 

There's a reason I have more fun playing Madden as the GM of the Colts than enjoying the real-life experience, and that reason is Chris Ballard.

I think it’s safe to say Burns and Allen won’t be making it to FA. McKinney , on the other hand, is a reasonable target worth going after.

[Yoshinator]

1 minute ago, richard pallo said:

I think it’s safe to say Burns and Allen won’t be making it to FA. McKinney , on the other hand, is a reasonable target worth going after.

I'm guessing we'll go after Gilmore again and bring him back and go after an EDGE like Greenard in FA. That'll be the Ekubam type signing this year. 

[Yoshinator]

11 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Odds are both Allen and Burns will either be re-signed or tagged.   Why would their teams not bring them back?   Those players are key building blocks.  
 

As for everything else, I’d say odds are you’re going to be disappointed.  

I'm a Colts fan. I'm used to disappointment ever since Manning left. Even Luck was a bust for what he was expected to be. Nothing new. Thank God for fantasy football and Madden or I would go crazy. 

[richard pallo]

8 minutes ago, Yoshinator said:

I'm guessing we'll go after Gilmore again and bring him back and go after an EDGE like Greenard in FA. That'll be the Ekubam type signing this year. 

I would be surprised if Gilmore resigned.  Given his age he still might view us as not being close enough to a Super Bowl.  I would rather sign a safety.

[Yoshinator]

26 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

I would be surprised if Gilmore resigned.  Given his age he still might view us as not being close enough to a Super Bowl.  I would rather sign a safety.

It depends on how he feels about AR and if he feels we can make the playoffs based on this season. I think we could get him on a 1 year deal veteran option. I would like McKinney as well. That would set us up for the draft well in the secondary.