Eagles sign Kevin Byard

[chad72]

 

 

OMG. The Eagles GM is always a step ahead. Edmunds was late on both coverage botches on the Tyreek Hill TD and Cedric Wilson long catch last night, he gets Kevin Byard in return right after that SNF game. Last year, the Commanders ran all over them on MNF, they sign Suh and Linval Joseph right after. I have not seen a team address a weakness pretty instantly like the Eagles do. Haven't the Titans learned that giving the Eagles A J Brown was enough?  

 

Maybe we should see if they can give us Denico Autry back for a 5th??  

 

[chad72]

Current veterans on the Eagles roster acquired via trade:

 

WR AJ Brown for a 1st and 3rd round pick

CB Darius Slay for a 3rd and 5th round pick

S Kevin Byard for a 5th and 6th round pick and S Terrell Edmunds

RB D’Andre Swift for a 4th and swap of 7th round picks

 

Gosh, wish we had a GM like the Eagles GM that is not afraid to part with draft picks.

[Solid84]

1 hour ago, chad72 said:

 

 

OMG. The Eagles GM is always a step ahead. Edmunds was late on both coverage botches on the Tyreek Hill TD and Cedric Wilson long catch last night, he gets Kevin Byard in return right after that SNF game. Last year, the Commanders ran all over them on MNF, they sign Suh and Linval Joseph right after. I have not seen a team address a weakness pretty instantly like the Eagles do. Haven't the Titans learned that giving the Eagles A J Brown was enough?  

 

Maybe we should see if they can give us Denico Autry back for a 5th??  

 

You have to give it to their GM - he addresses the problem immediately. 
 

That said, it’s not really comparable to our situation, if that’s the angle you are going for?

 

They are in win now mode, and an obvious weakness needs to be addressed immediately. 
 

We’re in evaluation mode and acquiring a guy like Byard probably wouldn’t align with our “window”.

[chad72]

10 minutes ago, Solid84 said:

You have to give it to their GM - he addresses the problem immediately. 
 

That said, it’s not really comparable to our situation, if that’s the angle you are going for?

 

They are in win now mode, and an obvious weakness needs to be addressed immediately. 
 

We’re in evaluation mode and acquiring a guy like Byard probably wouldn’t align with our “window”.

 

Acquiring Darius Slay and A J Brown is what got them to "win now" mode, you know what I mean. Then getting CJG from Saints for literally nothing last year plus Haason Reddick in FA. It was only Hurts' 3rd year and before having to worry about his contract in the 4th year, gets the extension done.

 

Ballard is yet to make those kinds of moves for the pass offense or pass defense, IMO. Building through draft picks is a slow methodical one that has to be accompanied with FA moves to maximize rookie QB. It can also make oneself blind to overpaying homegrown talent.

 

Plus, last year, Commanders ran all over them on MNF, he goes ahead and signs Suh and Linval Joseph the very next week. Howie does not waste time.  I am curious how the cap is managed with all these stud players.

[Solid84]

2 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

Acquiring Darius Slay and A J Brown is what got them to "win now" mode, you know what I mean. Then getting CJG from Saints for literally nothing last year. Ballard is yet to make those kinds of moves for the pass offense or pass defense, IMO. Building through draft picks is a slow methodical one that has to be accompanied with FA moves to maximize rookie QB

 

Plus, last year, Commanders ran all over them on MNF, he goes ahead and signs Suh and Linval Joseph the very next week. Howie does not waste time. 

The Eagles were still a lot closer to competing than us when they made those moves. 
 

Look, I’ll be the first one to admit I don’t like Ballard’s FA strategy. Especially when you combine it with his draft strategy - bet on traits above all else, which often means he drafts traitsy players who need time to develop. This team will never get to “win now” if we’re constantly waiting 2-3 years for players to develop. 
 

Didn’t mean to make this about Ballard. Howie Roseman has done trememdously for the Eagles. 

[chad72]

9 minutes ago, Solid84 said:

The Eagles were still a lot closer to competing than us when they made those moves. 
 

Look, I’ll be the first one to admit I don’t like Ballard’s FA strategy. Especially when you combine it with his draft strategy - bet on traits above all else, which often means he drafts traitsy players who need time to develop. This team will never get to “win now” if we’re constantly waiting 2-3 years for players to develop. 
 

Didn’t mean to make this about Ballard. Howie Roseman has done trememdously for the Eagles. 

 

Hurts came off a playoff loss to the Bucs in 2021 season where they were the No.7 seed in a weaker NFC with Smith and Goedert to throw to and he would not throw between the numbers much at all since there was no one on the other side of Smith. Plus Hurts was not a polished passer.

 

Wentz, choked a win and in scenario, for 2 games in a row, and we were this close to a No.6 or No.7 seed in the 2021 season. Were we truly that far? Not as much, if you looked at it from how close we were in a strong AFC. Just that we gave up our 1st rounder for Wentz.

 

Just my take on it.

[Solid84]

1 minute ago, chad72 said:

 

Hurts came off a playoff loss to the Bucs in 2021 season where they were the No.7 seed in a weaker NFC.

 

Wentz, choked a win and in scenario, for 2 games in a row, and we were this close to a No.6 or No.7 seed in the 2021 season. Were we truly that far? Not as much, if you looked at it from how close we were in a strong AFC.

 

Just my take on it.

Well, they booted Wentz the following off season which left us looking for a QB AGAIN. They had Hurts in place and were ready to build around him. I’d say we were AT LEAST a good QB away. 

[teganslaw]

The Titans trading their best players: I like it. As long as the players aren't traded to a division rival. 

[VikingsFanInChennai]

1 hour ago, chad72 said:

Current veterans on the Eagles roster acquired via trade:

 

WR AJ Brown for a 1st and 3rd round pick

CB Darius Slay for a 3rd and 5th round pick

S Kevin Byard for a 5th and 6th round pick and S Terrell Edmunds

RB D’Andre Swift for a 4th and swap of 7th round picks

 

Gosh, wish we had a GM like the Eagles GM that is not afraid to part with draft picks.

To be fair, most GMs can't do that better too.

 

Look at how active Howie is during this time every year. Not just trading for players, but getting weapons like Julio Jones that any other team could've done. 

 

He always packs the roster extra strong filling in the remaining cap space with more quality players, if the season has started reasonably well so that they've even better team, going towards the playoffs.

 

It would take some injuries to major positions to ruin the year after that, but in most seasons it ends up in their favor. 

[chad72]

1 hour ago, VikingsFanInChennai said:

To be fair, most GMs can't do that better too.

 

Look at how active Howie is during this time every year. Not just trading for players, but getting weapons like Julio Jones that any other team could've done. 

 

He always packs the roster extra strong filling in the remaining cap space with more quality players, if the season has started reasonably well so that they've even better team, going towards the playoffs.

 

It would take some injuries to major positions to ruin the year after that, but in most seasons it ends up in their favor. 

Well, good thing they don’t play the Top 15 versus Top 15 in the NFL, Eagles would win every time  

[VikingsFanInChennai]

20 minutes ago, chad72 said:

Well, good thing they don’t play the Top 15 versus Top 15 in the NFL, Eagles would win every time  

Aha.. 

[sb41champs]

The Titans may be reaching the point of "cleaning house" - releasing and/or trading veteran players and their $$$ contracts - AND - obtaining draft capital in the process.

 

Let's be honest - they have definitely underachieved this season!!

[csmopar]

On 10/23/2023 at 5:57 PM, chad72 said:

 

Acquiring Darius Slay and A J Brown is what got them to "win now" mode, you know what I mean. Then getting CJG from Saints for literally nothing last year plus Haason Reddick in FA. It was only Hurts' 3rd year and before having to worry about his contract in the 4th year, gets the extension done.

 

Ballard is yet to make those kinds of moves for the pass offense or pass defense, IMO. Building through draft picks is a slow methodical one that has to be accompanied with FA moves to maximize rookie QB. It can also make oneself blind to overpaying homegrown talent.

 

Plus, last year, Commanders ran all over them on MNF, he goes ahead and signs Suh and Linval Joseph the very next week. Howie does not waste time.  I am curious how the cap is managed with all these stud players.

A lot of back loaded contracts. 

[NewColtsFan]

On 10/23/2023 at 2:46 PM, chad72 said:

Current veterans on the Eagles roster acquired via trade:

 

WR AJ Brown for a 1st and 3rd round pick

CB Darius Slay for a 3rd and 5th round pick

S Kevin Byard for a 5th and 6th round pick and S Terrell Edmunds

RB D’Andre Swift for a 4th and swap of 7th round picks

 

Gosh, wish we had a GM like the Eagles GM that is not afraid to part with draft picks.

Our GM is the GM of a small market team.  For the Colts, draft picks are their life’s blood.   
 

The Eagles are one of the biggest market teams.    With their resources, they can easily take a different approach to doing business.   
 

And if Ballard were fired at the end of this season — which he won’t be — Irsay is hiring someone like Dodds or Morocco Brown.   Irsay will keep it in house, with someone who understands our small market limitations.    A small market team has to take a different approach to compete. 

[Yoshinator]

1 hour ago, NewColtsFan said:

Our GM is the GM of a small market team.  For the Colts, draft picks are their life’s blood.   
 

The Eagles are one of the biggest market teams.    With their resources, they can easily take a different approach to doing business.   
 

And if Ballard were fired at the end of this season — which he won’t be — Irsay is hiring someone like Dodds or Morocco Brown.   Irsay will keep it in house, with someone who understands our small market limitations.    A small market team has to take a different approach to compete. 

Might as well call him Chris "Billy Beane" Ballard. You'll get the joke if you are a baseball fan or have watched Moneyball before. He acts like Beane and is about as successful as him as well. 

[NewColtsFan]

13 minutes ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Might as well call him Chris "Billy Beane" Ballard. You'll get the joke if you are a baseball fan or have watched Moneyball before. He acts like Beane and is about as successful as him as well. 

I follow baseball and I know the Moneyball story very well.  
 

After last season, I very publicly said I was off the Ballard bandwagon.   I don’t mind people criticizing Ballard, but at least people here should make good arguments (not directed at you).    And when some here just choose to be negative, fine, but I don’t think it’s hard to defend Ballard,  even with his sub-500 record. 

[chad72]

10 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

Our GM is the GM of a small market team.  For the Colts, draft picks are their life’s blood.   
 

The Eagles are one of the biggest market teams.    With their resources, they can easily take a different approach to doing business.   
 

And if Ballard were fired at the end of this season — which he won’t be — Irsay is hiring someone like Dodds or Morocco Brown.   Irsay will keep it in house, with someone who understands our small market limitations.    A small market team has to take a different approach to compete. 

 

Money ultimately talks. I can understand if it is a team in Florida with no state taxes that adds incentive to the contract, when it is the same as another mid market team. Peyton Manning, when winning, had no shortage of advertisement revenue. You take the chance with the draft picks, pay the contract and when winning happens, revenue happens, advertisement dollars happen. That is the way to level the playing field. Everyone has the same cap to deal with, ultimately. 

[NewColtsFan]

7 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

Money ultimately talks. I can understand if it is a team in Florida with no state taxes that adds incentive to the contract, when it is the same as another mid market team. Peyton Manning, when winning, had no shortage of advertisement revenue. You take the chance with the draft picks, pay the contract and when winning happens, revenue happens, advertisement dollars happen. That is the way to level the playing field. Everyone has the same cap to deal with, ultimately. 

Im not talking about spending to the cap.  Most everyone does that.  I’m talking about total dollars spent.  That’s different.  @Superman has done the research and to Irsay’s credit the Colts are one of the top spending teams.   But it’s where the team spends.  
 

Irsay and Ballard have ZERO interest in signing expensive free agents.  They did it under Grigson and didn’t work.  Philly can do that because they are one of the higher revenue producing teams.   That gives them a larger margin of error that small market teams just don't have.   The Colts have to spend their money more wisely.  
 

[Superman]

On 10/23/2023 at 2:46 PM, chad72 said:

Gosh, wish we had a GM like the Eagles GM that is not afraid to part with draft picks.

 

Howie Roseman might be the best GM in the NFL. I think everyone wants a GM like him.

 

But there are a lot of other GMs who aren't afraid to part with draft picks, but still don't have good teams. I don't think that's the distinguishing factor.

[chad72]

43 minutes ago, NewColtsFan said:

Im not talking about spending to the cap.  Most everyone does that.  I’m talking about total dollars spent.  That’s different.  @Superman has done the research and to Irsay’s credit the Colts are one of the top spending teams.   But it’s where the team spends.  
 

Irsay and Ballard have ZERO interest in signing expensive free agents.  They did it under Grigson and didn’t work.  Philly can do that because they are one of the higher revenue producing teams.   That gives them a larger margin of error that small market teams just don't have.   The Colts have to spend their money more wisely.  

 

Yes, if the same dollars are put towards signing a marquee WR over paying Shaq Leonard with a few question marks at the time of signing, it might have helped. But just because you swung and missed before with Grigson, it doesn't mean you don't swing again. 

 

I mean, Ballard did pony up a first rounder for Buckner, which overall has been worth it. More moves like those could have been undertaken to get an instant roster talent boost, IMO. Besides, they have to be planning for cash reserves to account for revenue shortfalls as a mid market team, right? How is it that the Bengals, who aren't that much bigger of a market than ours, able to pony up money in 2 consecutive off seasons before this Burrow contract, to sign OL and DL help for their team?

[NewColtsFan]

2 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

Yes, if the same dollars are put towards signing a marquee WR over paying Shaq Leonard with a few question marks at the time of signing, it might have helped. But just because you swung and missed before with Grigson, it doesn't mean you don't swing again. 

 

I mean, Ballard did pony up a first rounder for Buckner, which overall has been worth it. More moves like those could have been undertaken to get an instant roster talent boost, IMO. Besides, they have to be planning for cash reserves to account for revenue shortfalls as a mid market team, right? How is it that the Bengals, who aren't that much bigger of a market than ours, able to pony up money in 2 consecutive off seasons before this Burrow contract, to sign OL and DL help for their team?

As I wrote elsewhere….  If Ballard were to get fired, I don’t see Irsay changing his approach.   I think he’d stay in house and hire Dodds or Brown.   Because I think Irsay doesn’t have big money to throw around signing expensive free agents every year.   I think Buckner was an exception to the rule.   I think there’s a reason Ballard hasn’t made a similar deal since then.   That deal fit CB’s exact need (3T) at a price Ballard was willing to spend. 
 

As to how Cincy has been able to handle their financial business….   Burrow was still on his rookie deal, the Bengals had money to spend as the Colts did when Luck was on his rookie deal.   It remains to be seen how the will do business going forward.  But while Indy and Cincy may be relatively similar in size,  Ohio is is much, much more fanatical football state so the Bengals may remain more aggressive than anyone might expect. 

 

 

 

[Superman]

5 hours ago, chad72 said:

 

Yes, if the same dollars are put towards signing a marquee WR over paying Shaq Leonard with a few question marks at the time of signing, it might have helped. But just because you swung and missed before with Grigson, it doesn't mean you don't swing again. 

 

I mean, Ballard did pony up a first rounder for Buckner, which overall has been worth it. More moves like those could have been undertaken to get an instant roster talent boost, IMO. Besides, they have to be planning for cash reserves to account for revenue shortfalls as a mid market team, right? How is it that the Bengals, who aren't that much bigger of a market than ours, able to pony up money in 2 consecutive off seasons before this Burrow contract, to sign OL and DL help for their team?

 

I don't think the Colts have any significant cash limitation. I think they have roster problems. 

 

You mentioned the Bengals. Per Spotrac, they spent $196.6m in 2021, $191m in 2022, and are on track for $253.5m in 2023 (and more than $40m of that is Burrow's new money). That's a three year total of $641.1m.

 

The Colts spent $222.6m in 2021, $218m in 2022, and are on track to spend $233.7m in 2023. That's a three year total of $674.3m, $33.2m MORE than the Bengals.

 

(In the same three year period, the big spending Rams have spent $657.7m, $16.6m less than the Colts. The cap is the great equalizer.)

 

So what's the difference? The Bengals have a franchise QB, a stud #1 WR, a solid #2 WR (who's comparable to our best guy), a couple of nice OL (I'm not over the moon about their OL, and they've spent some money there), and some edge rushers. Roster composition and cap allocation are very different, but it starts with the QB. And if you look at what the Colts have spent at QB since 2020, it's a shame how little return we have to show for it. (Hopefully we have our guy now, but we drafted him #4 and are only getting 3.5 games out of him in his rookie year, which sucks.)

 

The question is how aggressive Ballard is willing to be at other positions. So far, Buckner has been an outlier. I know we've been trying to tread water at QB, but I don't think Ballard is ever going to be the guy who's wheeling and dealing in March, and at the trade deadline. He wants to draft his own, re-sign them, and be measured in other areas. And I don't necessarily mind that, but you absolutely have to nail the draft to do this successfully, and our draft results have been lacking, especially at high value positions.

 

Nothing new here from me. Just saying I don't think big market / small market money considerations are what holds the Colts back from making splashy moves like this.

[DougDew]

On 10/25/2023 at 1:26 AM, NewColtsFan said:

Our GM is the GM of a small market team.  For the Colts, draft picks are their life’s blood.   
 

The Eagles are one of the biggest market teams.    With their resources, they can easily take a different approach to doing business.   
 

And if Ballard were fired at the end of this season — which he won’t be — Irsay is hiring someone like Dodds or Morocco Brown.   Irsay will keep it in house, with someone who understands our small market limitations.    A small market team has to take a different approach to compete. 

Trades don’t have to do with markets though.   It’s the contract extension that might play into that.  

[jvan1973]

11 minutes ago, DougDew said:

Trades don’t have to do with markets though.   It’s the contract extension that might play into that.  

Pretty much all trades of star players have the contract extension in mind beforehand obviously 

[DougDew]

5 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

Pretty much all trades of star players have the contract extension in mind beforehand obviously 

Maybe.  Chad listed trades.  The tweet spoke of trade. But the title of the thread says sign and so does the discussion.  Brown signed but his extension was the basis of the trade.  Not sure I would say that was about the Tennessee market.   

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, DougDew said:

Trades don’t have to do with markets though.   It’s the contract extension that might play into that.  

 

NOTE:   Long post ahead to explain. 

Depends on the trade….  It’s one thing to trade a pick(s) to acquire a quality player, but it’s another thing when you have to sign them to a large contract extension.  Otherwise, all you’re doing is renting the player for a short stay.  
 

For example, in the last week or so we had a window where a popular trade idea here was to trade a high pick to Denver to CB Patrick Surtain.   That was a very popular view.  
 

I tried to explain if the Colts acquired Surtain odds are the Colts would have to sign him to a contract of roughly 5/95 with roughly a $25-35m signing bonus and maybe $50m guaranteed.    That’s roughly the deal recently signed by Dallas CB, Diggs.  (Sorry, can’t remember his first name)  And I don’t think Ballard would ever want to sign a corner— ANY corner — to such a contract.   That’s man-corner type of money, not zone-corner,  and I don’t see Ballard painting himself into a corner by having to sign a corner to that type of contract.  
 

I see JuJu as the Colts future CB1.   I don’t see a future CB2 commanding big money. 
 

Hope this explains my view.  Sorry it went so long.  

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

Colts won’t get closer if they don’t make moves to do so. Whether that’s to move up in the draft for a “sure thing”, or make a move in FA… it would be nice to see Ballard make a move that shows he’s actually interested in getting into the playoffs and compete for a SB. Good luck with that, though.