The state of this franchise

[bluephantom87]

Dating back to the collapse of last season, this team is trending in the wrong direction! If not for the FOOLISH penalty by Chris Jones last week this team would STILL be winless!! Let that sink in. The way Ballard has CHOSE to build this team is NOT sustainable in today's nfl. If mediocrity is your ultimate goal then Ballard and his coach Reich are your guys.

 

Six years in and we're NO closer to winning the division, being a true contender or SB threat than we were when Ballard took over. ( I believe he's right at or below .500 right now) He's had MORE than enough time to address the long term qb situation but continues to play musical chairs with limited "good" guy types instead of moving up in the draft and picking one of the young qbs that have seized the league. The o-line is a mess, we have no LT, no explosive wrs, avg TEs, we're minus a shutdown cb (an aging Gilmore?) and don't have a stud de that can consistently get to the qb.

 

The guys on the team who are getting paid top tier money relative to their positions are a guard, an oft injured lb, a backup rb, a center, a smallish nickel corner and a rt that are ALL of Ballard’s "guys" Don't forget to add Buckner who has been disappearing more and more as time goes on. 

 

Frank and his playcalling have been beat to death. His approach to motivate the team is almost non existent. Repeated game plans are the norm... which leads me to Irsay.

 

I don’t understand why he's made the SAME mistake in back to back hires of a FIRST time gm / hc combo and then make matters worse by STICKING with said pair way too long. As other teams in the afc alone started quickly rising Ballard took the 10 yr approach and now the Jags will pass this team. In fact the Colts are closer to the cellar of the division than they are winning it. Wow!!! I don't like Dan D or Collin C but both are calling the Colts as they see them which is a flaw built team running an outdated non explosive scheme.

[Stephen]

27 minutes ago, bluephantom87 said:

Dating back to the collapse of last season, this team is trending in the wrong direction! If not for the FOOLISH penalty by Chris Jones last week this team would STILL be winless!! Let that sink in. The way Ballard has CHOSE to build this team is NOT sustainable in today's nfl. If mediocrity is your ultimate goal then Ballard and his coach Reich are your guys.

 

Six years in and we're NO closer to winning the division, being a true contender or SB threat than we were when Ballard took over. ( I believe he's right at or below .500 right now) He's had MORE than enough time to address the long term qb situation but continues to play musical chairs with limited "good" guy types instead of moving up in the draft and picking one of the young qbs that have seized the league. The o-line is a mess, we have no LT, no explosive wrs, avg TEs, we're minus a shutdown cb (an aging Gilmore?) and don't have a stud de that can consistently get to the qb.

 

The guys on the team who are getting paid top tier money relative to their positions are a guard, an oft injured lb, a backup rb, a center, a smallish nickel corner and a rt that are ALL of Ballard’s "guys" Don't forget to add Buckner who has been disappearing more and more as time goes on. 

 

Frank and his playcalling have been beat to death. His approach to motivate the team is almost non existent. Repeated game plans are the norm... which leads me to Irsay.

 

I don’t understand why he's made the SAME mistake in back to back hires of a FIRST time gm / hc combo and then make matters worse by STICKING with said pair way too long. As other teams in the afc alone started quickly rising Ballard took the 10 yr approach and now the Jags will pass this team. In fact the Colts are closer to the cellar of the division than they are winning it. Wow!!! I don't like Dan D or Collin C but both are calling the Colts as they see them which is a flaw built team running an outdated non explosive scheme.

I Disagree. Dispite the loss we arent that far away. Pierce has put together two good games. Kwity paye is developing. The tes are getting better. Where ballard messed up was not resigning our guards

[Fluke_33]

Indiana.  Nailed it!

[CoachLite]

Given our owner (whose heart is in the right place, but his head is misplaced), we need a credible GM with complete autonomy and a narrow window. Whoever has had any major role in evaluating coaching should stay as far away as possible.

 

At this point, we have only two (short term) choices: 1. Fire Frank and Strausser immediately and use Fox as an interim, or 2. blow it all up at the end of the season.

 

And I don't care which.

[Moosejawcolt]

We can all agree or disagree. How is one measured in sports when it is all said and done???? Wins and losses. Ballard is below 500 as a GM. Nothing else needs to be said.

[Zoltan]

Did this really need to be on its own thread there are several with the same topic already

[SR711]

The basic problem with this franchise over the past few years (i.e. since Luck retired) is that they 1) try continuously stubbornly go against established tenets in the modern NFL as to what leads to wins 2) hope for low probability solutions for clear obvious holes on the roster instead of aggressively trying to patch those areas with all resources available.  

 

Ultimately, at the end of the day, these things fall at the feet of one Chris Ballard with some on Jim Irsay. 

 

Ballard is above average at drafting, but lacks any ability to self reflect, change his inherent conservative approach or learn from history (this franchises and others in the league) to make the necessary (sometimes difficult, risky) moves that need to be made to turn this franchise back into upper echelon.  

 

 

 

 

[CoachLite]

Both Grigson and Ballard were and are ideologues, and that isn't good in football.

[ShuteAt168]

And there are still fans on this board giving Ballard a pass because of Luck. Hell, Dallas loses its franchise QB and puts together a plan for an unknown QB and wins three straight! Ballard has had five years! The only thing that matters is getting a franchise QB. That’s it. The rest, as evidenced by the league, can fall into place pretty quickly with a good GM and coach. 

[HitmenSports]

We have a coach that can not win within his own division. Offensive line that is horrible and an unmotivated team that starts very slow. Under Reich we start every season 1-4. We can’t beat our division foes. And get basic quarterback play. I’m ready for a change and stop running the ball up the middle

[#12.]

Still gotta find a QB.  When everything goes wrong, as has been the case for most of the past 6 games, a young, an elite QB, like we had in Luck or Manning, will still find a way to pull out many of those games.  When you have Brissett, Wentz or old versions of Rivers and Ryan, you have no margin for error.  With Luck in his prime, this team, as constructed, is probably conteding in most seasons.  With a franchise QB, what Ballard is doing is good enough, but you have to find one.

[Moosejawcolt]

Let's be clear on this. We can blame this and that and make excuses. This is coming right from Ballard's mouth and it reflects in his drafting . He values the D and O line. The D line is okay and the O line is an absolute mess. For that alone he is a failure and even more when one considers the assets poured into both lines.

[bluephantom87]

26 minutes ago, Stephen said:

I Disagree. Dispite the loss we arent that far away. Pierce has put together two good games. Kwity paye is developing. The tes are getting better. Where ballard messed up was not resigning our guards

?? We have played all 3 division foes and have not beat a single one of them. So it is safe to say we will not win the division again this year under this regime but what's new? The afc south is considered by many to be one of if not the weakest division in football and I don't think it's too much to ask of one of the supposed "best" (cough) gms in the league to win at least ONE division title or carry a record better than 1 game below .500? 

 

You point out a ROOKIE wr and a second yr de... Ballard has been here SIX YEARS and like I said before we are NO closer now to winning the weak division or a SB then we were when he first took over. The Colts are an avg team at best. One who can pull off an upset or two but doesn't have the the OVERALL TALENT at the PREMIUM positions nor the coaching staff to compete for a Lombardi.

[bluephantom87]

36 minutes ago, ShuteAt168 said:

And there are still fans on this board giving Ballard a pass because of Luck. Hell, Dallas loses its franchise QB and puts together a plan for an unknown QB and wins three straight! Ballard has had five years! The only thing that matters is getting a franchise QB. That’s it. The rest, as evidenced by the league, can fall into place pretty quickly with a good GM and coach. 

 

As I stated in another post that when Ballard was first hired he was asked about his first priority in protecting Luck and his response was it's NOT about one man. What?!!! So in Ballard's world the qb is a pluggable piece. I don't know if I've ever seen a FIRST time gm who hasn't WON or PROVED anything be so arrogant in his flawed approach to building a team than Ballard. Oh wait Grigson was right before him.

[SR711]

15 minutes ago, bluephantom87 said:

 

As I stated in another post that when Ballard was first hired he was asked about his first priority in protecting Luck and his response was it's NOT about one man. What?!!! So in Ballard's world the qb is a pluggable piece. I don't know if I've ever seen a FIRST time gm who hasn't WON or PROVED anything be so arrogant in his flawed approach to building a team than Ballard. Oh wait Grigson was right before him.

 

A lot of the "accolades" thrown at Ballard was from the local media putting the cart before the horse because he was affable in press conferences, polished and had a homely disposition which was a stark contrast to his predecessor.  

 

You are 100% correct, that as a 1st time GM he had accomplished nothing to warrant that level of blind trust and there were red flags in his comments and roster/franchise building approach, moves from the early stages. 

 

Heck, a lot of folks around here love to rip Reich and absolve Ballard of any blame seem to forget that Reich was only hired as HC because Chris Ballard's 1st choice in Josh McDaniels which was also his 1st major decision as GM of this franchise, which came after years of preparation (remember the highly publicized "binder" Ballard had put together through his time in different stops), weeks of interviews, discussion was a spineless tool who backed out at the last minute leaving the franchise in a bad spot requiring the owner to get involved in order to salvage something  

[coltsfan_canada]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

I Disagree. Dispite the loss we arent that far away. Pierce has put together two good games. Kwity paye is developing. The tes are getting better. Where ballard messed up was not resigning our guards

and not firing the HC and OL and keeping Nick etc

[CR91]

Id rather just keep losing. It's not like we're a super bowl team so might as well especially with a great QB class looming

[EastStreet]

We are not a SB team.

We are however a AFCS champ with a good coach.

 

Currently though....

[chad72]

Clearly the Chiefs didn’t take the Colts seriously. If they’d played the first half like they’re playing vs the Bucs, we probably don’t get the W. That’s how it’s in the NFL. No gimme games.

[SR711]

59 minutes ago, chad72 said:

Clearly the Chiefs didn’t take the Colts seriously. If they’d played the first half like they’re playing vs the Bucs, we probably don’t get the W. That’s how it’s in the NFL. No gimme games.

 

That and there were number of breaks that went our way especially in the 2nd half that could have changed the complexion of the game....one thing is for certain though, the Chiefs lost that one more on their mistakes and discipline than anything we did.  

[chad72]

9 minutes ago, SR711 said:

 

That and there were number of breaks that went our way especially in the 2nd half that could have changed the complexion of the game....one thing is for certain though, the Chiefs lost that one more on their mistakes and discipline than anything we did.  

Their current kicker has done better so far. Matt Amendola cost them a PAT, a FG and forced them to go for a fake FG. Not to mention a muffed punt and a dropped TD plus Chris Jones critical penalty.

 

We did take advantage of their mistakes though with a clutch drive. Our D is good enough to keep scores at 20-25 points, so our offense needs to put up 27 consistently to win, IMO.

[ColtV]

1 hour ago, CR91 said:

Id rather just keep losing. It's not like we're a super bowl team so might as well especially with a great QB class looming

I am glad someone finally had the balls to say the hard truth

[Thunderbolt]

Yeah, let’s work on getting the top 5 picks.  Fire those two in Jan 2023.

[bluephantom87]

2 hours ago, CR91 said:

Id rather just keep losing. It's not like we're a super bowl team so might as well especially with a great QB class looming

Even with that strategy I don’t want this regime nowhere NEAR that scenario. I've seen MORE than enough!!! Ballard is not inventing the wheel when it comes to building a team (his record also reflects that) nor is Frank special as hc in player development, game planning or play calling.

 

Time to go get a proven gm. Irsay did that with Polian and then go hire a young offensive minded hc or go get Sean Payton. Time to shake things up after the season. This current experiment has run its course.

[Moosejawcolt]

3 hours ago, SR711 said:

 

A lot of the "accolades" thrown at Ballard was from the local media putting the cart before the horse because he was affable in press conferences, polished and had a homely disposition which was a stark contrast to his predecessor.  

 

You are 100% correct, that as a 1st time GM he had accomplished nothing to warrant that level of blind trust and there were red flags in his comments and roster/franchise building approach, moves from the early stages. 

 

Heck, a lot of folks around here love to rip Reich and absolve Ballard of any blame seem to forget that Reich was only hired as HC because Chris Ballard's 1st choice in Josh McDaniels which was also his 1st major decision as GM of this franchise, which came after years of preparation (remember the highly publicized "binder" Ballard had put together through his time in different stops), weeks of interviews, discussion was a spineless tool who backed out at the last minute leaving the franchise in a bad spot requiring the owner to get involved in order to salvage something  

Yeah and like I said in a different post. We can all call McDaniels a scum bag. However maybe  he backed out because of his ongoing conversations with Ballard? I truly believe he sat down with Bellichek and he said stay away.  What ever u think of Bill, he knows football and he knows the NFL.

[bluephantom87]

6 hours ago, HitmenSports said:

We have a coach that can not win within his own division. Offensive line that is horrible and an unmotivated team that starts very slow. Under Reich we start every season 1-4. We can’t beat our division foes. And get basic quarterback play. I’m ready for a change and stop running the ball up the middle

 

It's like watching Groundhog Day! lol We're doing the same thing over and over but HOPING for different results.

[indykmj]

Philosophically adrift....

[coming on strong]

the biggest problem so far is guys who got paid not playing well .   when you have 3 offensive linemen making around 20 million a piece playing so bad it kills the team .      then add moore hines and buckner not playing up to the level of money they are making .  plus leonard hasnt played at all and the left the field early against the titans .

[lollygagger8]

This team is trying to compete in 2022, but built like it's 1992

 

[bluephantom87]

11 hours ago, coming on strong said:

the biggest problem so far is guys who got paid not playing well .   when you have 3 offensive linemen making around 20 million a piece playing so bad it kills the team .      then add moore hines and buckner not playing up to the level of money they are making .  plus leonard hasnt played at all and the left the field early against the titans .

 

You are correct. Usually the highest paid on the o-line is the LT which is considered a premium position because not only does he usually take on the opposing team's BEST pass rusher but he also protects the qb's blindside. Big Q is one of the best in the league BUT he is a guard and it's only so much he can do at THAT position. (and highest paid) Most teams are NOT run heavy anyway in today's nfl. Leonard is also one of the best (and highest paid) but he is oft injured and I have a gut feeling that he will walk away from the game much sooner than later.