PFF Ranks Ballard In 2nd Tier (MERGE)

[AwesomeAustin]

24 minutes ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Agreed. I'd switch him and Belichick's rankings. Caserio has built a good roster from nothing and we have enough info on Stroud where we can agree that he's a hit in some way. That team needs a bit of work on defense still, but it's a respectable enough team that can win the division as early as this year and try to make a playoff run. Caserio already got himself a franchise QB along with a good team in a few years, and in year 1, he had no pick in the first two rounds. That's a great GM.

He also navigated the Watson trade through the massage scandal. Absolutely fleeced the Browns and looks like he got a great QB to replace him.  That trade up to #3 last year surprised a lot of people.  I thought a team had jumped the Colts for a QB.
 

I think Caserio is still a couple years out before being in the top tier. The Texans future is looking great at 6-4. Their remaining schedule looks favorable and should tell a lot about this team.  They play the AFC East and NFC north next year. Will want to see if they can contend for the playoffs multiple years in a row. What has been done has exceeded expectations immensely but have to sustain it to be top tier. Of course….all of this is my opinion. I have a hard time judging our GM let alone another teams FO. 

[Yoshinator]

9 hours ago, superrep1967 said:

I think John Lynch should be in tier 1 in my opinion. Their team is loaded with talent and they are winning 7-3. I don’t think Jerry Jones should be up there yeah there winning this year but how long has he been in that position and what have they won? 

Agreed. Lynch is number 3 in my rankings. Despite missing on Lance, he still built a great team around him, and when Purdy hit as Mr. Irrelevant, the team became really good. He's made a SB, got to the NFC Championship before Purdy got injured, and has a great team built in the same amount of time as Ballard. 

[Yoshinator]

6 hours ago, twfish said:

This coming offseason will likely make me of break me on Ballard. If there was ever a year for him to go all in on free agency it’s going to be this coming year. We have a 2nd year QB and a team that should be able to get fixed enough in this free agency and draft to bring us back to serious contenders. If we sit back and solely rely on the draft I’ll be very disheartened. I’m not holding my breath and usually don’t look to free agency to build a team but I feel like this roster has the talent, just missing some pieces.

I agree here. He'll have Richardson, the Matt Ryan contract will be off the books. If he doesn't spend in FA to go for it in some way, then he never will. He'd have to be the best drafting GM in the NFL to be a tier 1 GM at this point IMO. He just doesn't do enough in FA, he's an average trading GM, and some of the players he's extended from the draft haven't worked out. A lot of his big hits aren't at premium positions either. So that puts us at a disadvantage. He's a middle-of-a-road GM that had a lot of hype and it isn't there anymore.

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

35 minutes ago, Jared Cisneros said:

I agree here. He'll have Richardson, the Matt Ryan contract will be off the books. If he doesn't spend in FA to go for it in some way, then he never will. He'd have to be the best drafting GM in the NFL to be a tier 1 GM at this point IMO. He just doesn't do enough in FA, he's an average trading GM, and some of the players he's extended from the draft haven't worked out. A lot of his big hits aren't at premium positions either. So that puts us at a disadvantage. He's a middle-of-a-road GM that had a lot of hype and it isn't there anymore.

 

I don’t see him doing squat in FA. If he does it won’t be an elite guy. Will be depth and positional rotation pieces. That’s it. 

[Yoshinator]

11 minutes ago, Indianapolis-Colts-Fan said:

 

I don’t see him doing squat in FA. If he does it won’t be an elite guy. Will be depth and positional rotation pieces. That’s it. 

I agree. I said this before, but Ballard is the quintessential Madden GM. It works perfectly on Madden to do what he does because you can hit on most of your draft picks at a higher rate. In real life, it's much harder. No room for error, and he's had too much error to get away with it in real life.

[2006Coltsbestever]

I was looking at these Tiers and no way is Belichick Tier 1 as a GM. Yes, he is a top 5 Head Coach of all-time as I have him in my top 5 anyway but as GM, he has been average at best. Since Brady has left, over the last 3 years what has he done as GM to warrant him as a Tier 1 GM? 

 

Regarding Ballard, that ranking is about right. I have him in top half of the league, around 15th is reasonable. He isn't great but there are many that are much worse. The Shane hire was good for the team. If AR pans out, Ballard will move way up. I thought the Downs pick was genius. Getting Mustache to be the backup QB was a good move too. It has kept us being competitive at least. He didn't panic either and didn't just try and trade JT and Moore. He stuck with them. Moore should make the Pro-Bowl. 

[richard pallo]

1 hour ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Agreed. Lynch is number 3 in my rankings. Despite missing on Lance, he still built a great team around him, and when Purdy hit as Mr. Irrelevant, the team became really good. He's made a SB, got to the NFC Championship before Purdy got injured, and has a great team built in the same amount of time as Ballard. 

He failed on the Buckner trade.  Ballard won that one.

[runthepost]

30 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

He failed on the Buckner trade.  Ballard won that one.

And won a whopping 0 playoff games since that trade

[2006Coltsbestever]

A lot of these coaching and GM rankings are tough to grade because if a GM lands the right QB, he is going to look better than he is. Same as if a Coach has a Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Pat Mahomes they look like a genius. Belichick without Brady looks like a hot mess = coaching and being a GM. Duke Tobin to me has been good but not great. During the Palmer and Dalton years he kept them competitive, but they never won a Playoff game. Then hit the lottery ticket when being able to draft Burrow and make a SB. That was a no brain #1 pick that anyone in here would have made, like with Grigson picking Luck and looking like the best GM out there from 2012-2014. Tobin is top 10 but Tier 1, nah, I don't see it. Howie Roseman is the best and to me it isn't even close. He was Executive Vice President of OPS when they won the SB with Foles in 2017, then he rebuilt the team on the fly as a Vice President/GM and went to another SB with Hurts last year. His hiring of coaches and his drafting has been excellent. 

[RollerColt]

I think Chris being right in the middle is accurate. Not the worst, not the best. 

 

These next three years are going to be the decider. 

[Smonroe]

55 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

I think Chris being right in the middle is accurate. Not the worst, not the best. 

 

These next three years are going to be the decider. 

Exactly.  The correlation between great GM and great QB is obvious.  You really can’t be a great GM without one (isn’t that right Mr. Belichick?).   
 

Now that Ballard has the low cost franchise QB (and I think he does) there’s no excuses.

[RollerColt]

2 minutes ago, Smonroe said:

Exactly.  The correlation between great GM and great QB is obvious.  You really can’t be a great GM without one (isn’t that right Mr. Belichick?).   
 

Now that Ballard has the low cost franchise QB (and I think he does) there’s no excuses.

That's why I say this next offseason we don't play around and say our offense is "good enough". No. I want us to get dawgs as weapons for Richardson. Surround him with a talented cast of *proven* playmakers and help that kid develop. 

[GoColts8818]

1 hour ago, runthepost said:

And won a whopping 0 playoff games since that trade

Yeah but that’s not Buckner’s fault though.  He’s done everything you could have hoped for since the Colts got him. The Colts problem is that they have not had a QB.  Think about what happened to Polian’s teams and Grigson’a team when they lost Peyton or Luck for an extended period of time.  They were awful, like one of the three worst teams in the league awful.  Outside of last year you can’t really say that about Ballard’s teams.  That tells me he’s done a pretty good job putting the rest of the roster together he just hasn’t had a franchise QB. It all comes down to Richardson if he works out Ballard is going to be here for a while.  If he has fails Ballard is going to be gone.

[2006Coltsbestever]

I honestly only have 2 GM's in Tier 1:

Howie Roseman -explained above.

Brett Veach - was a huge reason the Chiefs traded up to get Mahomes.

-That's it.

 

My Tier 2: I have a bunch:

John Schneider, Eric Decosta, Les Snead, Jason Licht, Duke Tobin, Brandon Bean, Brad Holmes, John Lynch, I will put BB and Jerry Jones here just based on long past history. Then Ballard falls in this tier as well but barely. 

[chad72]

6 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

What were you expecting this year?   
 

 

It has been 6 years and not 1 division title. I am willing to give Ballard 1 or 2 more years tops, if our roster isn't competing for/winning the division title down to the wire, the roster is not there yet. It is not just about this year. 

[Hoose]

1 hour ago, GoColts8818 said:

Yeah but that’s not Buckner’s fault though.  He’s done everything you could have hoped for since the Colts got him. The Colts problem is that they have not had a QB.  Think about what happened to Polian’s teams and Grigson’a team when they lost Peyton or Luck for an extended period of time.  They were awful, like one of the three worst teams in the league awful.  Outside of last year you can’t really say that about Ballard’s teams.  That tells me he’s done a pretty good job putting the rest of the roster together he just hasn’t had a franchise QB. It all comes down to Richardson if he works out Ballard is going to be here for a while.  If he has fails Ballard is going to be gone.

This says it all. No QB, no chance. Richardson will decide Ballard’s future. Next year is absolutely critical for this team. If AR turns out to be a stud, the Colts are off and running. If he’s seriously hurt again or just doesn’t make the leap to the next level, the Colts will have to go back to the drawing board. And I expect it would be with a new GM. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

17 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

It has been 6 years and not 1 division title. I am willing to give Ballard 1 or 2 more years tops, if our roster isn't competing for/winning the division title down to the wire, the roster is not there yet. It is not just about this year. 

The 1 thing that has stuck out to me is, when Ballard has had good-great QB play his record is 21-11 with a playoff win. Luck in 2018 = 10-6 and a playoff win, Rivers 11-5 in 2020. I can't harp enough how much having that good QB means to winning games. Let's hope AR pans out because that is his pick. So if AR doesn't pan out then his criticism is right to do. I think trading for Wentz was more of a Reich thing wanting that to happen so Ballard went the flow because really there were no other good options there. Matt Ryan was an Irsay thing IMO. AR is on Ballard.

[chad72]

1 minute ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

The 1 thing that has stuck out to me is, when Ballard has had good-great QB play his record is 21-11 with a playoff win. Luck in 2018 = 10-6 and a playoff win, Rivers 11-5 in 2020. I can't harp enough how much having that good QB means to winning games. Let's hope AR pans out because that is his pick. So if AR doesn't pan out then his criticism is right to do. I think trading for Wentz was more of a Reich thing wanting that to happen so Ballard went the flow because really there were no other good options there. Matt Ryan was an Irsay thing IMO. AR is on Ballard.

 

Even with those QBs, we didn't have the playmakers to win the division for us. When teams went to another gear, even with Rivers, we couldn't typically match. So the difference makers with pass defense or offense were lacking, and they still are, IMO.

[Superman]

12 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

You make a fair argument.   
 

But here’s the thing for me.   Would it have been an insult if Jones were 6th or 7th?  Would you have shocked if he wasn’t top-5?

 

I know all teams play with the same salary cap,  but I believe there are advantages to being a big market team vs a small market team.   And Dallas is the biggest of the big market teams.   Isn’t Jones the richest owner?   Aren’t there considerable advantages for him? 
 

Im not trying to conflate two issues….   Salary cap and franchise value, but I think there’s some connectedness there.  Jones can make a mistake in any area of his football business more easily than Irsay can.   Joneses pockets are considerably deeper.   I think it makes his GM job much easier.  

 

Again, I think he does a good job.  I think he makes for an easy target.  I just didn’t expect to see him as top-5,  so I don’t think it’s an insult.   At least it’s not intended as one.   

 

Their ranking is pretty much data driven -- heavily influenced by their own grading, of course. It seems like the pushback on Jones as GM is kind of intangible. I personally think John Lynch has done a better job, so I wouldn't think it's an insult to have Jones in the next tier. I'm just not surprised that a data driven analysis that focuses on roster building gives a lot of credit to the Cowboys.

 

And yeah there are ways that big market teams have advantages over small market teams, but is there a direct impact on roster building? The popular thinking says players want to play in big markets, but the Cowboys aren't big time free agent spenders. (By the way, it seems that PFF's analysis has some bias AGAINST big time free agent spenders.) Maybe ironically, the Cowboys are an example of how to execute the Colts' preferred strategy of roster building -- draft well, keep your own guys, supplement judiciously in free agency.

 

They don't hire and fire a bunch of coaches, so they aren't paying multiple coaching salaries (like the Raiders, or the Browns a few years ago, or maybe the Panthers after this year). 

 

They might be able to spend more on facilities, nutrition, more comfortable travel, technology, etc. And maybe some of these things help with player development. But is there a financial benefit, or are some teams just smarter and better run than others? I don't know how to really research that, and it seems like a tough comparison to make across the league. Maybe a good place to start is the NFLPA rankings from last year, and the Cowboys graded out pretty strongly there. But the Rams -- big market, super rich owner, multi-billion dollar facilities -- graded out poorly. Vikings, Bills, Packers, all small market teams that graded out much better than the Jets or the Falcons. So I don't know that there's a direct connection between big market/rich owner, and team facilities, equipment, support, etc. 

 

I do think that a team like the Cowboys has more room for error in some of these areas of potential investment. They could afford to hire and fire coaches recklessly; but they don't. Maybe Jones' deeper pockets help explain some of the advantages of the Cowboys' stadium over the Colts, but they have artificial turf just like at LOS. And I don't think there's a significant advantage in roster building, because of the salary cap. Even if there was, the Cowboys don't use it; their cash spending is less than the Colts.

 

So I don't know. I don't like giving all this credit to Jerry Jones, because there are several things about him that I dislike. But I think he runs a really good football operation. And I think that's more about smart decisions and good business dealings than it is about financial standing.

[husker61]

14 hours ago, AwesomeAustin said:

I agree with everything you just said. I will admit that my only hesitation with him is he was Mr Irrelevant. That is completely unfair but for some reason I keep waiting for him to come back down to earth. I hope he doesn’t bc what he is doing is incredible. One of the best stories in the NFL in my eyes

tom Brady was a 7th round pick. Anyone remember a person named Johnny Unitas, 9th round then cut! Don’t get hung up on where a player was drafted.

[husker61]

3 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

A lot of these coaching and GM rankings are tough to grade because if a GM lands the right QB, he is going to look better than he is. Same as if a Coach has a Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Pat Mahomes they look like a genius. Belichick without Brady looks like a hot mess = coaching and being a GM. Duke Tobin to me has been good but not great. During the Palmer and Dalton years he kept them competitive, but they never won a Playoff game. Then hit the lottery ticket when being able to draft Burrow and make a SB. That was a no brain #1 pick that anyone in here would have made, like with Grigson picking Luck and looking like the best GM out there from 2012-2014. Tobin is top 10 but Tier 1, nah, I don't see it. 

.yes! Saved me from typing all this.

[2006Coltsbestever]

3 minutes ago, husker61 said:

tom Brady was a 7th round pick. Anyone remember a person named Johnny Unitas, 9th round then cut! Don’t get hung up on where a player was drafted.

That is why I can't bash on BB that much. He took Brady, call it lucky but he got it right  

[Superman]

2 hours ago, RollerColt said:

That's why I say this next offseason we don't play around and say our offense is "good enough". No. I want us to get dawgs as weapons for Richardson. Surround him with a talented cast of *proven* playmakers and help that kid develop. 

 

I won't mind if we draft a "dawg" receiver, but that's kind of all anyone wants to talk about. There's a school of thought that says going big at WR is the last thing you want to do in your building process, basically because WRs are the biggest divas in the game, and if you aren't ready to feed them regularly, they'll mess up your locker room. There might be something to that; there's no diva to Michael Pittman, and he got testy this year. I'm on the fence about what to do at WR.

 

But on defense -- edge and CB, and always looking for playmakers at every position. 

[runthepost]

1 hour ago, GoColts8818 said:

Yeah but that’s not Buckner’s fault though.  He’s done everything you could have hoped for since the Colts got him. The Colts problem is that they have not had a QB.  Think about what happened to Polian’s teams and Grigson’a team when they lost Peyton or Luck for an extended period of time.  They were awful, like one of the three worst teams in the league awful.  Outside of last year you can’t really say that about Ballard’s teams.  That tells me he’s done a pretty good job putting the rest of the roster together he just hasn’t had a franchise QB. It all comes down to Richardson if he works out Ballard is going to be here for a while.  If he has fails Ballard is going to be gone.

He traded a first round pick for a DT when the team did not have a QB on the roster. Not blaming Buckner but the trade was a risk

[RollerColt]

13 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

I won't mind if we draft a "dawg" receiver, but that's kind of all anyone wants to talk about. There's a school of thought that says going big at WR is the last thing you want to do in your building process, basically because WRs are the biggest divas in the game, and if you aren't ready to feed them regularly, they'll mess up your locker room. There might be something to that; there's no diva to Michael Pittman, and he got testy this year. I'm on the fence about what to do at WR.

 

But on defense -- edge and CB, and always looking for playmakers at every position. 

That's kind of why I left WR off the list. We could also go after a TE and give Anthony his Travis Kelce / Gronkowski / Gonzalez / Kittle

[RollerColt]

21 minutes ago, husker61 said:

tom Brady was a 7th round pick. Anyone remember a person named Johnny Unitas, 9th round then cut! Don’t get hung up on where a player was drafted.

Brady was a 6th rounder. 

[Superman]

1 minute ago, RollerColt said:

That's kind of why I left WR off the list. We could also go after a TE and give Anthony his Travis Kelce / Gronkowski / Gonzalez / Kittle

 

I think TE is maybe our deepest position on the roster. And that's before Jelani Woods comes back, if he even does. (Huge mystery there, IMO.) 

[RollerColt]

5 minutes ago, Superman said:

 

I think TE is maybe our deepest position on the roster. And that's before Jelani Woods comes back, if he even does. (Huge mystery there, IMO.) 

It indeed is very deep. I'm just not 100% sure on it at the moment. 

 

It's interesting how things can quickly change in terms of roster need. At one point linebackers were a group considered to be set. Now it might be a need going into 2024. 

 

Corners and safeties for that matter as well. 

 

And of course we've been trying for years to get an edge to stick... 

 

There's a lot of decisions to be made on this roster. 

[Superman]

19 minutes ago, runthepost said:

He traded a first round pick for a DT when the team did not have a QB on the roster. Not blaming Buckner but the trade was a risk

 

Their solution at QB was Philip Rivers.

[Superman]

4 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

It's interesting how things can quickly change in terms of roster need. At one point linebackers were a group considered to be set. Now it might be a need going into 2024. 

 

At TE, they're all young and under contract. Even MAC has another year, and I think he's expendable. At LB, our best playmaker was hurt, and his backup left in FA. I think we're a little more settled at TE.

 

But now that you bring it up, we probably need to address the LB spot also. I don't know what's going to happen with Leonard. And a lot depends on what happens with Gus Bradley.

 

This is a BIG offseason, IMO. It's like 2019 all over again. I think Ballard needs to do more this time around.

[Superman]

@RollerColt

 

 

He probably doesn't play this year. Because of a hamstring injury... 

[RollerColt]

1 hour ago, Superman said:

@RollerColt

 

 

He probably doesn't play this year. Because of a hamstring injury... 

We need our guys to get healthy and stay healthy next season. 

[BeanDiasucci]

4 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

The 1 thing that has stuck out to me is, when Ballard has had good-great QB play his record is 21-11 with a playoff win. Luck in 2018 = 10-6 and a playoff win, Rivers 11-5 in 2020. I can't harp enough how much having that good QB means to winning games. Let's hope AR pans out because that is his pick. So if AR doesn't pan out then his criticism is right to do. I think trading for Wentz was more of a Reich thing wanting that to happen so Ballard went the flow because really there were no other good options there. Matt Ryan was an Irsay thing IMO. AR is on Ballard.

OK, but if you're the GM and you let other people dictate what starting QB will be acquired, that's a pretty big fail right? When his #1 job function is personnel decisions, how is going along with others making the wrong QB decision any better than making the wrong decision himself? 

[Boondoggle]

That list is not very good.  But I do think they are correct that Ballard is a second tier GM.

[smittywerb]

20 hours ago, OLD FAN MAN said:

tier one gms dont limit roster building to just the draft, they use all avenues to build a winning roster

Bingo.  That’s really what is holding Ballard back.  It’s like he’s waiting for the perfect time to use free agency.  And when he finally does attempt to use free agency, he gets outbidded.

 

The Colts have had a solid foundation for years.  But you quickly understand why this team has been stuck in the middle when you look at the free agent acquisitions and their production.  

[RollerColt]

31 minutes ago, smittywerb said:

Bingo.  That’s really what is holding Ballard back.  It’s like he’s waiting for the perfect time to use free agency.  And when he finally does attempt to use free agency, he gets outbidded.

 

The Colts have had a solid foundation for years.  But you quickly understand why this team has been stuck in the middle when you look at the free agent acquisitions and their production.  

I think his biggest issue is and has been the QB position. Until that get solved nothing else really matters. 

[smittywerb]

29 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

I think his biggest issue is and has been the QB position. Until that get solved nothing else really matters. 

honestly, that’s majority of the nfl right now lol.  9 backups are starting and have played multiple games, a good amount of teams were/are starting rookies (including us), and some teams haven’t found their answer at QB yet.  
 

Regarding us, I think it was we thought we were one qb away.  At one point I did think we were, but that was only for maybe a year or two and we kept that “one qb away” ideal going since luck retired.  
 

Anthony is our qb now and I think he will be our qb.  I thought his injuries were a concern but after seeing so many QBs get injured I think it’s just what’s happening.  My worry is that Ballard won’t do what it takes to build a winner around AR and we’ll waste his rookie contract being conservative.  If you don’t have Mahomes or hurts, you have to build the team in probably 2 years.  After that, it’s very hard to get to the SB.

 

oh, and Ballard biggest issue is not being able to draft or sign players at premium positions (WR, LT, QB, CB, DE).  So far, it seems he’s found the QB and LT, but we’re missing the stars/gamebreakers at the other 3.

[RollerColt]

10 minutes ago, smittywerb said:

honestly, that’s majority of the nfl right now lol.  9 backups are starting and have played multiple games, a good amount of teams were/are starting rookies (including us), and some teams haven’t found their answer at QB yet.  
 

Regarding us, I think it was we thought we were one qb away.  At one point I did think we were, but that was only for maybe a year or two and we kept that “one qb away” ideal going since luck retired.  
 

Anthony is our qb now and I think he will be our qb.  I thought his injuries were a concern but after seeing so many QBs get injured I think it’s just what’s happening.  My worry is that Ballard won’t do what it takes to build a winner around AR and we’ll waste his rookie contract being conservative.  If you don’t have Mahomes or hurts, you have to build the team in probably 2 years.  After that, it’s very hard to get to the SB.

 

oh, and Ballard biggest issue is not being able to draft or sign players at premium positions (WR, LT, QB, CB, DE).  So far, it seems he’s found the QB and LT, but we’re missing the stars/gamebreakers at the other 3.

Absolutely right. 

 

And missing on DE repeatedly is killing our defense.

[Superman]

28 minutes ago, smittywerb said:

honestly, that’s majority of the nfl right now lol.  9 backups are starting and have played multiple games, a good amount of teams were/are starting rookies (including us), and some teams haven’t found their answer at QB yet.  
 

Regarding us, I think it was we thought we were one qb away.  At one point I did think we were, but that was only for maybe a year or two and we kept that “one qb away” ideal going since luck retired.  
 

Anthony is our qb now and I think he will be our qb.  I thought his injuries were a concern but after seeing so many QBs get injured I think it’s just what’s happening.  My worry is that Ballard won’t do what it takes to build a winner around AR and we’ll waste his rookie contract being conservative.  If you don’t have Mahomes or hurts, you have to build the team in probably 2 years.  After that, it’s very hard to get to the SB.

 

oh, and Ballard biggest issue is not being able to draft or sign players at premium positions (WR, LT, QB, CB, DE).  So far, it seems he’s found the QB and LT, but we’re missing the stars/gamebreakers at the other 3.

 

I think if the Colts were going to have a window with Ballard and Reich, it was meant to be 2019-21. Some might question whether we had the right talent at the right spots, but it's not debatable that we had the most amount of talent on the roster in those years.

 

They had a coaching staff that was working well, we got the QB back and knew he could still play at a high level, and I think 2019 was the measuring stick year -- how do we measure up against the AFC elite? Then 2020 was the "go for it" year -- they had a ton of cap space and good draft capital, and still had the 2018 draft class on rookie contracts. There's no way to know what Ballard does with the $45m that they paid Rivers and Brissett. And in 2021, imagine JT and that OL, with Luck at QB... We didn't see the culmination of any of that because Luck retired, and the team was left scrambling to replace him, and trying to salvage the window.

 

They absolutely can be held accountable for what they did at QB following Luck's retirement, or for the misses in the draft along the way. Rather than trying to salvage the window, they should have hit reset in 2020. So this is not a perpetual pass for Ballard. The Niners had similar QB issues, but they still have one of the best rosters in the NFL; the Eagles switched QBs, and have one of the best rosters in the NFL. But I do think the build was sabotaged. Moving forward, if they operate as if they have the coach and the QB, then we should prioritize other premium positions, starting this offseason.

 

I agree with the bolded. I like a lot about Chris Ballard, but I think this is his main flaw, and I don't think it's about to change.

[OLD FAN MAN]

14 hours ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Agreed. I'd switch him and Belichick's rankings. Caserio has built a good roster from nothing and we have enough info on Stroud where we can agree that he's a hit in some way. That team needs a bit of work on defense still, but it's a respectable enough team that can win the division as early as this year and try to make a playoff run. Caserio already got himself a franchise QB along with a good team in a few years, and in year 1, he had no pick in the first two rounds. That's a great GM.

caserio may have created a dynasty with the texans, he may have been partly responsible for the pats talent during their winning years