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The Athletic: Colts disarray, Irsay "a one man crew"

Superman

By Superman
in Colts Football

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AwesomeAustin Ring of Honor

AwesomeAustin

Posted
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49 minutes ago, John Hammonds said:

I agree with you, Austin.  I don't think that you can parse all decisions down to "this was Irsay" and "this was Ballard" and "this was Reich".  They all mix and blend, and are discussed by amongst all three of them.

 

I've been in corporate business long enough to understand that behind closed doors, you can disagree, debate, and even shout angrily.  But when you emerge from those doors, you speak with one voice.  And everyone in the organization knows that the direction we're going is the direction we're going.  And nobody knows who was where, and how hard they fought for it, behind closed doors.

 

I believe they entered the room in 2020 with three different mindsets.  Irsay wanted to go ahead and get a young QB and train him up.  Reich wanted to work with those he'd previously worked with.  And Ballard wanted to spend his draft picks wisely.

 

Behind door #1 was trading up in the draft to get the young QB.  But in order to get a quality QB, they would have needed to trade all the way from 13 up to 4, in front of the Dolphins and the Chargers, who were both guaranteed to take QB's.  The draft capital cost to do that would have been enormous.  Something that Ballard would have been hugely against.

Behind door #2 was Jordan Love.  He was the flavor of the month.  Enormous hype.  Hugely.  So much so that Chris Ballard himself went to scout his games.  More than once, I think.  And I think they decided that Love wasn't what the hype was saying.  And that it wasn't worth picking him at 13, or even picking him in the first round.

And behind door #3 was Phillip Rivers.  Both Reich and Sirianni were his coaches with the Chargers.  They would be like the Blues Brothers "getting the band back together again".  Signing Rivers for 2 years gave them a quality QB to play, someone who had worked with Reich before, and freed up Ballard to do other things in the draft.

 

AND IT WORKED.  They went 11-5, barely lost 24-27 in the playoffs to the Bills, traded their #13 draft for a proven Pro Bowl DT, and added both Pittman and Taylor.  The decision worked.

 

At least, it worked for a year.  And then they get blindsided for the second time by a QB deciding to retire before they wanted him to.  Who knows what pitch Reich made to Irsay and Ballard?  "Hey guys, we did it with Rivers, I bet we could do it with another QB that I previously coached too!"  We do know that Reich said in the aftermath that he'd "stuck his neck out" for Wentz.

And lest we forget, the Wentz debacle didn't happen in a vacuum.  Ballard had his own troubles.  His solutions at LT and DE didn't work out.  The team got washed over by the aftermath of the 2019 draft.  No, this was a coalescing of storms.  Storms that had multiple authors, not just a single one.  Nobody's hands are clean in this.

If I was a betting man I would put money on that being pretty darn close to how it played out. Nice post!!

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Boondoggle Team Captain

Boondoggle

Posted
Posted

Frazier isn't head coaching material.  He's a DC only I'm afraid.  So if that happens it's going to mean a two to three year extension here in Mediocreville.

 

Harbaugh would give us a real chance to win something.  At this point I figure Sean Payton is out, though I do have a very faint hope.

 

Zero faith in Irsay at this point, sadly.  So hopefully he surprises with a strong hire.

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bluebombers87 Ring of Honor

bluebombers87

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5 minutes ago, throwing BBZ said:

 

 There is no getting through to you. Frank stank. Saturday will give a great insight on player personnel evaluation. 

I’ve explained multiple times. I’ve no issue with getting rid of frank. It’s the timing that always bothered me. Saturday didn’t need to be a head coach to evaluate. There is no special access that only head coaches get to players not available to anyone else. Saturday was already affiliated with our FO team so all he would have to do is show up and say Irsay wants him to hang around in the locker room. The players that care would take notice and straighten up and the others wouldn’t. 


Frank would undoubtedly know but with everything happening in the season, he would already know from that stand point. Same with Ballard.

 

So I’m sorry but there was no value I can see in getting rid of him mid season as opposed to the end of the year on Black Monday. The Saturday move appears to be a PR stunt to keep fans interested this season in the absence of any real football not being played.

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throwing BBZ Ring of Honor

throwing BBZ

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13 hours ago, bluebombers87 said:

Eyes and ears for what purpose?
 

And your saying that there was no assistant, no other coach or player that could’ve done that? Ballard couldn’t have evaluated the players since he trusts him?

 

How can you not comprehend that having a highly Trustworthy, highly intelligent, highly experienced, former football player, in the locker-room, in the meetings, in the weight room, following the training and rehab, and looking these guys in the eye and communicating with them at the HC level, IS IRREPLACEABLE?  What is wrong with you people? Good grief!
 Ballard has probably a Dozen people working under him helping to evaluate players and their performance.
I laugh at your "trusts him".  Bub, EVERYONE is being evaluated during these trying times. And Trusted Saturday will be providing the Billionare Business Owner with his no holds barred opinion on all-things Colts. Get a grip on reality! 

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bluebombers87 Ring of Honor

bluebombers87

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, throwing BBZ said:

 

How can you not comprehend that having a highly Trustworthy, highly intelligent, highly experienced, former football player, in the locker-room, in the meetings, in the weight room, following the training and rehab, and looking these guys in the eye and communicating with them at the HC level, IS IRREPLACEABLE?  What is wrong with you people? Good grief!
 Ballard has probably a Dozen people working under him helping to evaluate players and their performance.
I laugh at your "trusts him".  Bub, EVERYONE is being evaluated during these trying times. And Trusted Saturday will be providing the Billionare Business Owner with his no holds barred opinion on all-things Colts. Get a grip on reality! 

See my previous post. I’ve explained my viewpoint. If you disagree, that’s ok. But you still should be respectful in your comments.
 

But just to clarify, that “highly Trustworthy, highly intelligent, highly experienced…” evaluator has been responsible for some of the worst football I’ve been privy to in quite a few years from this team. Saturday himself said he wants to win. So is your highly trustworthy individual lying or just incompetent?

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bluebombers87 Ring of Honor

bluebombers87

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3 minutes ago, Indyfan4life said:

At this point you're just refusing to accept any explanation, reasoning or process other than what you just want to believe that fits your narrative. That's fine.

 

35 minutes ago, bluebombers87 said:

I’ve explained multiple times. I’ve no issue with getting rid of frank. It’s the timing that always bothered me. Saturday didn’t need to be a head coach to evaluate. There is no special access that only head coaches get to players not available to anyone else. Saturday was already affiliated with our FO team so all he would have to do is show up and say Irsay wants him to hang around in the locker room. The players that care would take notice and straighten up and the others wouldn’t. 


Frank would undoubtedly know but with everything happening in the season, he would already know from that stand point. Same with Ballard.

 

So I’m sorry but there was no value I can see in getting rid of him mid season as opposed to the end of the year on Black Monday. The Saturday move appears to be a PR stunt to keep fans interested this season in the absence of any real football not being played.

Thanks

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