I hope the magic starts next season

[indyagent17]

Looking at Houston they just destroyed the Browns. Stroud is having a magical season and his teammates rally around him. They look like they could beat anybody. I miss that feeling we had here years ago decade of magic with hopes of winning it all so many times. Really hope Richardson can be that spark that leads us to a bright future. I sure hope Ballard  does not mess up free agency or the draft. Huge offseason 

[coltsblue1844]

Agreed...the 2000s were such an amazing decade here. We NEED to have some success again, before fans start to jump ship (we were close to leaving town before Peyton turned things around).

 

Ballard finally made the decision to draft our QB...so we need to actually be players (smartly) in free agency to maximize our chances while AR is on his rookie deal...otherwise we've wasted a 5 year opportunity before we possibly have 25% + of the cap invested in the QB position.

 

We need some real talent at WR and TE....we also need to invest in players to make Gus's D work, if we are sticking with him. We need a real pass rush from both DEs and we need better play in the secondary.

[Two_pound]

We have had "success" these past 7 years. If you want to see unsuccessful look at the Colts from 1978-1998. Twenty years of brutally uncompetitive football. Ballard finally did make the decision to draft the quarterback, because he was finally in position to do so! In his first 7 years of gm, who would you have wanted him to draft? The only qb's reseaonably available to him were that trio of bust in 2018(but we still had Luck), so he made the trade with the jest, and took Nelson at 6. Maybe could have moved up for Hebert in 2020, but traded that first round pick for Buckner. So this past year, being positioned at 4, and without having to give up any draft capital to move up, he grabbed Richardson(I'm happy with Richardson, though I've been on record here the past year and a half saying how badly I wanted to move up to 1 and take Stroud). The only real problem with this Colt team is the same as when Manning and Luck were the qb's, we play triple vanilla, super soft and cushy zone defense and don't mix  in nearly enough variety of blitz packages and different coverages. 

[Moe]

51 minutes ago, Two_pound said:

We have had "success" these past 7 years. If you want to see unsuccessful look at the Colts from 1978-1998. Twenty years of brutally uncompetitive football. Ballard finally did make the decision to draft the quarterback, because he was finally in position to do so! In his first 7 years of gm, who would you have wanted him to draft? The only qb's reseaonably available to him were that trio of bust in 2018(but we still had Luck), so he made the trade with the jest, and took Nelson at 6. Maybe could have moved up for Hebert in 2020, but traded that first round pick for Buckner. So this past year, being positioned at 4, and without having to give up any draft capital to move up, he grabbed Richardson(I'm happy with Richardson, though I've been on record here the past year and a half saying how badly I wanted to move up to 1 and take Stroud). The only real problem with this Colt team is the same as when Manning and Luck were the qb's, we play triple vanilla, super soft and cushy zone defense and don't mix  in nearly enough variety of blitz packages and different coverages. 

We could have moved up and drafted Jordan love. We had the extra second round pick that year.

[Two_pound]

I will still say I want no part of Jordan Love, he sat for 3 years and the packers finished 9-8 this year and were 3-3 in games played against teams that made the playoffs. Conversely we were 9-8 this year and were 4-3 against teams that made the playoffs with a 2nd string qb playing the majority of the season.(so much for people saying how easy our schedule was this year, looks like the packers had an easier one!) Just because the packers got to feast on a very, very overrated cowplop team is meaningless.

[King Colt]

2 hours ago, Two_pound said:

I will still say I want no part of Jordan Love, he sat for 3 years and the packers finished 9-8 this year and were 3-3 in games played against teams that made the playoffs. Conversely we were 9-8 this year and were 4-3 against teams that made the playoffs with a 2nd string qb playing the majority of the season.(so much for people saying how easy our schedule was this year, looks like the packers had an easier one!) Just because the packers got to feast on a very, very overrated cowplop team is meaningless.

Sitting for years worked well for Rodgers and Love and I hope it helps AR. I always thought it was dumb to throw a rookie with minimal QB reps to the dogs.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

23 hours ago, indyagent17 said:

Looking at Houston they just destroyed the Browns. Stroud is having a magical season and his teammates rally around him. They look like they could beat anybody. I miss that feeling we had here years ago decade of magic with hopes of winning it all so many times. Really hope Richardson can be that spark that leads us to a bright future. I sure hope Ballard  does not mess up free agency or the draft. Huge offseason 

 

That magic your talking about may not ignite under ballard. I think AR5 may need a GM more like Polian to better support his talent. 

[chad72]

1 hour ago, King Colt said:

Sitting for years worked well for Rodgers and Love and I hope it helps AR. I always thought it was dumb to throw a rookie with minimal QB reps to the dogs.

 

Mahomes, Burrow and Stroud disagree. 

[King Colt]

One thing is certain the Texans will draft any human body that will make CJ even better. Ballard if he is conscious will heed that fact.

[King Colt]

On 1/15/2024 at 12:22 PM, chad72 said:

 

Mahomes, Burrow and Stroud disagree. 

That's three out of hundreds. 

[jvan1973]

On 1/15/2024 at 1:22 PM, chad72 said:

 

Mahomes, Burrow and Stroud disagree. 

Mahomes didn't start right away

[chad72]

50 minutes ago, King Colt said:

That's three out of hundreds. 

 

Those were only 3 examples.

 

I can go on and on - Peyton, Eli, and a few dozen more that gained a lot by being thrown into the fire in Year 1. It is not as lop sided as you think in terms of what they gained from starting Year 1 that they carried into Year 2. So, you can shield them in Year 1 and Year 2 and they come out firing in Year 3 or you let them take the lumps and it makes no difference w.r.t where they are w.r.t the contract year. The issue is the coaches not recognizing when a rookie doesn't get it and try to force a square peg into a round hole, and not sitting him down. If that happened enough, the learning curve will be managed better.

[chad72]

1 hour ago, jvan1973 said:

Mahomes didn't start right away

 

True. He did sit the first year except for the last regular season game that helped Andy decide he was going to replace Alex Smith, you are correct. It was his first year of starting that he got MVP, so it is easy to forget he sat behind Alex Smith. But the point still remains, if the willingness to learn is there, and the rookie GETS IT, there is plenty to be gained from starting the rookie in year 1 that will be carried over to Year 2 and so on.

[#12.]

Who knows about Love and the Packers.  It's Dallas is in the playoffs.  The 49ers might destroy the Packers.

[sb41champs]

The Texans were "the cream of the crop" in the AFC South this season.

 

Next season - it's OUR turn to be the "cinderella team"!!