POLL: How are we feeling about Chris Ballard now?

[throwing BBZ]

13 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

 

But without team success, why would we amplify the good things? Clearly, those things are either not as good as we think or they don't really impact the bottom line. 

 

Let me expand on this. (Not directed at you), but I have noticed this shift in recent years from this fanbase to value the process over results. It really all started with Ballard. And now, the process is what gets praised and the results are often met with a shrug.

 

You see it each offseason and across the many facets of this team:

 

Free Agency

While a (very vocal) minority want to Ballard be more aggressive in FA, the general consensus (from fans and the media) is that Ballard is being patient and shrewd when he won't overpay early in FA and give out "A money for B players." And by doing this, he is able to wait and get great value for cheap. Basically, he's doing FA the right way. And some results have been great (Houston, Rhodes and Gilmore), but it's not like this team couldn't have used FA talent the past few years.

 

Draft

Originally, the "Ballard Way" was targeting high-character players (often who had overcome challenges) because Ballard was building a strong culture with a great locker room.

 

Now, it's all about traits and RAS scores. The past two draft classes were both met with immediate praise, largely based on RAS scores and that overall approach. 

 

And then of course you have trading back. You would think Ballard invented this approach. That said, it can be very effective like 2018, but even that trade back was only a huge success because one of the gained picks happened to be either Leonard or Smith. The rest of that trade haul was Turay and RYS. And since then, what has trading back yielded from a results standpoint? I honestly don't know, but I also don't see people really talking about the great results. Yet, every offseason he is praised for trading back.

 

QB

Ballard was highly-praised after the Wentz trade because he supposedly made an offer and didn't budge, forcing PHI and Howie to cave. And everybody thought he took PHI to the cleaners with that negotiation. Now that we have the results of that move, and it was all Reich's fault apparently. 

 

Ballard took even more victory laps for the Ryan move. He was literally dubbed a genius for how he approached QB last offseason. The Wentz trade was great, no doubt. But it was Matt Ryan demanding a trade that resulted in Ryan falling into Ballard's lap for a R3 pick. But regardless of how it happened, Ballard had outsmarted everybody. The amount of awful takes from last offseason are too numerous to count. But the point is these bad takes were all based on overvaluing/overrating the process.

 

And now we have AR. Like 95% have wanted AR since the Combine, so I get that Ballard is praised for taking him. But the narrative is already here that Ballard had to swing for upside and a HR because the AFC is too strong with too many great QBs. Not only that, but AR just has too high of an upside to see it realized on another team.

 

Basically, Ballard HAD to draft AR if he was there. And based on the results, he's either going to be a genius or it just wasn't meant to be. But the process was sound, so I doubt he takes too much heat. And certainly not for years.

 

But in reality, drafting a college QB who only has 13 starts and accuracy issues at #4 isn't really a sound process. 

 

  You talk of awful takes. What a nice hit job rampant with ugly perspective. From probation to IGNORE.

[AKB]

glad to see a healthy discussion about this topic 

[Boondoggle]

Some notes on all this...

 

First I think Ballard is a good GM.  But he's dealing with an owner who might not be fully there upstairs.  At best it's an owner who meddles which is not ideal and which can lead to decisions that Ballard has to own that might not have been his decision otherwise.

 

Secondly QBs are judged after at least a few years.  None of these guys are going to be Big Ben in year one.  That's so rare that it's an extreme outlier.  Richardson could probably be a read-option QB year one and do well but that just risks his longevity and health by utilizing his biggest strength in a league where RBs have very short careers due to contact.  That makes no sense.  Doing that is equal to what Washington did with Griffin which is not good for the QB.

 

Third there's a good chance Richardson sits (I hope this is the case) so he can have full command of the offense by the time the fans see him out there.  This keeps people from turning on him because he's raw or thinking or making mistakes because he's not fully sure what's going on.  By extension of this it is more likely Levis starts early and shows some command of the Titans offense because he was exposed to pro style offense in college.  But long term is what matters here.

 

We have a head coach who is a developer of QBs so I'm gonna trust what he decides.  My only concern is that Irsay gets involved and pushes to see his new QB too early.  So I hope he doesn't bully the coach, let the kid do his thing and start the guy he wants to start as that will get you the best win total in year one.