Grover Stewart suspended six games for PED violation (merge)

[shasta519]

2 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Why is Ballard being questioned when we are 3-3. 

 

Why not? A 3-3 record doesn't prevent a GM from being questioned.

 

Ballard's Colts were 3-2-1 in 2022...finished 1-10-1 to go 4-12-1.

 

Ballard's Colts were 9-6 in 2021...finished 0-2 to choke and miss the playoffs.

 

Ballard's Colts were 5-2 in 2019...finished 2-7 to go 7-9.

 

2020 is seeming to be an outlier.

 

And while Ballard's Colts are 3-3 right now, I wouldn't be surprised if this year goes south in a similar way to those previous seasons, which would make it 4/5 seasons marked by some type of collapse. 

 

Many would say poor QB play is the constant. And while that it is true, the real common denominator is Ballard.

 

That said, I don't think anything is happening to Ballard for at least two more years.

[BlackTiger]

6 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

Why not? A 3-3 record doesn't prevent a GM from being questioned.

 

Ballard's Colts were 3-2-1 in 2022...finished 1-10-1 to go 4-12-1.

 

Ballard's Colts were 9-6 in 2021...finished 0-2 to choke and miss the playoffs.

 

Ballard's Colts were 5-2 in 2019...finished 2-7 to go 7-9.

 

 

Its more than fair to question him at this point imo.  Any GMs record would take a hit if Andrew Luck retired on them the way he did here.  Its also Cbs job to replace him and its been a long time now too

 

We cant make excuses forever for never finding a franchise QB.  

[Solid84]

12 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

 

Why not? A 3-3 record doesn't prevent a GM from being questioned.

 

Ballard's Colts were 3-2-1 in 2022...finished 1-10-1 to go 4-12-1.

 

Ballard's Colts were 9-6 in 2021...finished 0-2 to choke and miss the playoffs.

 

Ballard's Colts were 5-2 in 2019...finished 2-7 to go 7-9.

 

2020 is seeming to be an outlier.

 

And while Ballard's Colts are 3-3 right now, I wouldn't be surprised if this year goes south in a similar way to those previous seasons, which would make it 4/5 seasons marked by some type of collapse. 

 

Many would say poor QB play is the constant. And while that it is true, the real common denominator is Ballard.

 

That said, I don't think anything is happening to Ballard for at least two more years.

Completely agree, but most will point at Ballard getting continued chances because Luck retired. My counter to that would be not having THE QB should not prevent a GM from building a good roster. Look at the 49’ers. Taking the QB out of it the Colts roster is nowhere near as good as the 49’ers. 
 

I was certain Ballard was gone last season. He’s still here and he bought himself at least a few more years with AR, but he absolutely NEEDS to get this roster in shape within the next couple of years in my opinion. 

[shasta519]

16 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

Doug…..     a question for you.   I was here as a member back in the Grigson years.   What were the constraints from the salary cap back then?   I don’t recall them.   I remember Grigson tried to blame Luck’s upcoming second contract as a reason he couldn’t afford to sign better free agents.  But aside from that I don’t recall any salary cap constraints.   Can you refresh my memory please?    
 

Thanks.   
 

 

Grigson had $38M in dead cap space from releasing Manning and having to purge the Polian-era bad contracts of Hayden, Addai, Clark, Bullitt and Brackett. The salary cap at the time was only $120M, so that was nearly 1/3. 

 

On top of that, Grigson also inherited the final year of Freeney's contract. And at the time, his $19M cap hit was the largest in the NFL (across all positions). And Freeney was a poor fit for Pagano's scheme, so might as well add that to the dead cap...and nearly half of the cap was gone.

 

Regarding the comments about Luck's contract, all Grigson said was:

 

Quote

When you pay Andrew (Luck) what we did, it's going to take some time to build on the other side of the ball."

 

It was little more than expectation-setting because we had seen a lot of FA spending from 2013-15, especially on defense. But now there weren't going to be quick fixes anymore via FA...it was going to be about the draft and player development.

 

But naturally, the local media painted it as Grigson blaming Luck's contract for the performance of the defense. And while Grigson deserved (some) criticism for the defense, that's not what he was doing. He was just being honest and setting expectations.

 

It's especially silly...because when Ballard talks about delayed gratification or says there are no quick fixes (like he did this frickin' offseason), he is praised. But when Grigson does it, he is misconstrued and vilified.

 

Just Exhibit 140A on the double standard that exists between the two GMs. 

[Superman]

31 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

 

Keeping this specific to Ballard, I sort of disagree with the bolded. I do agree that Ballard had some unfavorable conditions, including a bad roster. But most new GMs do as well. But beyond that, I actually think the conditions have been pretty favorable:

• Luck was injured, but he was here. And few GMs ever get to inherit a franchise QB, even an injured one.
  • Luck did come back in 2018, which is still Ballard's most successful season. 
  • Luck retiring was clearly unfavorable, but it really just created a normal scenario for most GMs who have to address QB, instead of some extraordinarily unfavorable condition. And it bought Ballard a very long leash.
• Luck being hurt and missing 2017 was actually favorable, as it not only gave Ballard a rebuilding year, instead of immediate pressure to succeed...and it led to a top 3 pick in a QB-heavy 2018 draft. To his credit, Ballard was able to take advantage of that situation and turn it into the #6 pick and (3) R2 picks. But that was a massive advantage to accelerate the rebuild.
  • If Ballard didn't have Luck on the roster, QBs like Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen could be punchlines around here...and Ballard could be Director of Football Operations for another team. Instead, he was able to build his reputation on that draft and has been able to hold onto it for several years, despite the mediocre results of this team (and more recent drafts).
• Ballard inherited a good cap situation. It was his decision to not spend it for the first few years, but cap space was not an issue when he took over.
• Ballard has a very patient boss, as we have seen.

All in all, I think Ballard has had it pretty good. And it's allowed him to likely be in this job for a decade without much success. Some of the stuff is out of his control, but a lot of the issues with this team and roster are self-inflicted by the braintrust. JMO. 

 

I don't think any of this is favorable. You're basically arguing that Luck being injured in 2017 and then abruptly retiring two years later led to lowered expectations for the Colts. I agree with that, but the reason the expectations were lowered is because those conditions were especially unfavorable. Especially the retirement, because it changed the trajectory and timeline of the team, despite the braintrust being hesitant to accept that fact.

 

Also want to take issue with the cap situation point. The Colts had a lot of cap space because the roster was bad, and that was a byproduct of multiple years of poor drafting by Grigson.

 

But I don't want my point to be missed here, because it seems like you think I'm arguing that Ballard should not be held accountable for the state of the roster, and I'm not. What I'm saying is I think there are obvious reasons why Grigson was/is viewed so unfavorably, especially in comparison with Ballard.

[ShuteAt168]

3 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

Why is Ballard being questioned when we are 3-3. 

He’s 48-55-1. And it’s not like we can honestly say we are close to competing for an AFC title. Actually, 3-3 sums up CB pretty well. Perfectly mediocre. I’d like better. There’s zero evidence CB is the guy to make the Colts true contenders. But if guys support him and his record it’s cool with me. 

[ShuteAt168]

17 hours ago, Moosejawcolt said:

It just blows me away how people can support him almost 8 years ias the GM of the Colts. He will be well under 500 as a GM but for some odd reason, he gets a pass. I just don't get it. Now that Mishew is the starter, I honestly think we will win about 2 of our remaining games. It will expose this roster snd hopefully the nail in the coffin. I stick my prediction that Ballard will be gone and Steichen brings in a guy from Philly.

If the past is any indication, CB will get additional years because AR got hurt. Just like fans still bring up Luck’s retirement. 

[Superman]

12 minutes ago, shasta519 said:

But naturally, the local media painted it as Grigson blaming Luck's contract for the performance of the defense. And while Grigson deserved (some) criticism for the defense, that's not what he was doing. He was just being honest and setting expectations.

 

It's especially silly...because when Ballard talks about delayed gratification or says there are no quick fixes (like he did this frickin' offseason), he is praised. But when Grigson does it, he is misconstrued and vilified.

 

Just Exhibit 140A on the double standard that exists between the two GMs. 

 

So how would you characterize the fan and media response to Ballard's comments about the JT contract situation? How did people respond to the 'we won four games last year' ending to that presser? And was that response fair?

[Peter Nova]

34 minutes ago, BlackTiger said:

 

Its more than fair to question him at this point imo.  Any GMs record would take a hit if Andrew Luck retired on them the way he did here.  Its also Cbs job to replace him and its been a long time now too

 

We cant make excuses forever for never finding a franchise QB.  

 

Solid rosters can have success (division title, playoff runs) without the superstar QB, like a A. Luck was. It's been proven over and over. 

 

Many have a hard excepting that Ballard's rosters simply over 7 years haven't been very good. A well respected member on the forum has repeated that numerous times. 

[BlackTiger]

1 hour ago, Peter Nova said:

 

Solid rosters can have success (division title, playoff runs) without the superstar QB, like a A. Luck was. It's been proven over and over. 

 

Many have a hard excepting that Ballard's rosters simply over 7 years haven't been very good. A well respected member on the forum has repeated that numerous times. 

I could take him or leave him at this point.  There are also examples of solid rosters lacking a qb that didnt do much 

[bestQBever]

Just never lucky. The thing is, this team is just good enough to get the dreaded 6-9 wins and have a middling pick where we miss out on MHJR and have to draft some D lineman.

[Dunk]

 Tyquan Lewis was just on the local countdown pre game show.

He assured that Grover wasn't trying to "cheat the game" but took something that he didn't realize had a banned substance in it.

Maybe something to help him recover from his recent injury?

[1959Colts]

 

https://1075thefan.com/152093/colts-notebook-bernhard-raimann-heading-back-to-europe-this-week/

 

...Grover Stewart was back in the Colts building on Wednesday, despite being suspended for 3 more games. NFL rules allow for suspended players to return to the team complex halfway through their suspension, which was 6 games for Stewart...

[EasyE]

Colts need the Grove!! enough said.. 

[1959Colts]

 

[Horse Shoe Heaven]

So hes out for 2 more games?

[RollerColt]

20 minutes ago, Horse Shoe Heaven said:

So hes out for 2 more games?

Correct.