Colts offseason discussion / Ballard Grievances (merge)

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

Maybe. I am just tired of us never taking a big chance. Sneed could also play like an all-pro next season.

Im not saying he won’t.  Im saying his contract would be WAY too much for the Colts.   I think the NT Wilkins is a good player, but to me he wasn’t worth the contract he was given.   
 

Ballard has always said he is fine with a Colts player being worth more to another team than to the Colts.   It’s also possible at some point, some level Ballard had interest in Sneed.   But at the final price it may have been too rich for CB.  
 

Im still very curious at what Ballard may do next week and the rest of the way.   I still believe there are players of interest to the Colts.   Nobody had heard of Ebukam and Autry and Ballard signed them.  
 

Have I been happy with every decision?  Not really,  but I want to see what happens the rest of the way before I pass judgement.  
 

 

[DougDew]

2 hours ago, 2006Coltsbestever said:

This Sneed thing has me steamed and he goes to the Titans, SMH.

TEN also signed Chuke Awuzi (sp?), CB.  They had cornerback issues last year on both sides, but appeared to have "fixed" the issue in about 13 days.

 

I was meh on the potential Sneed to the Colts issue with the terms being rumored here, and thought Ballard made a good move to walk away.  But those terms seem very reasonable and I can see how folks are disappointed.

 

Maybe it was the 4 year term and Ballard or Irsay is stuck on only having 3 year deals this year?  Bigger plan in the works?

[DougDew]

3 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

How did baker get another year contract after last season is crazy.

 

i agree with this too

 

 

Hey I forgot about Kicker and Long Snapper.  Their positions play only between the hash-marks too.  LOL.

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, indykmj said:

 

 This may well be a stellar, well thought out post. But I stopped reading when I saw 

 Okereke and Hall of Fame used in the same sentence,

Props to you KMJ….   I had the exact same thought.    
 

And I’m a Stanford guy and I was very happy when the Colts drafted Oke.   But I never once thought of him as a HoF level player.   Oke is a very good player that every team would love to have.  But HoF?!?    Not for my money.   Otherwise, there were some good observations in the post. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

27 minutes ago, DougDew said:

TEN also signed Chuke Awuzi (sp?), CB.  They had cornerback issues last year on both sides, but appeared to have "fixed" the issue in about 13 days.

 

I was meh on the potential Sneed to the Colts issue with the terms being rumored here, and thought Ballard made a good move to walk away.  But those terms seem very reasonable and I can see how folks are disappointed.

 

Maybe it was the 4 year term and Ballard or Irsay is stuck on only having 3 year deals this year?  Bigger plan in the works?

Titans did well in Free Agency, I can't sugarcoat it. I agree with you for once when you say the terms were reasonable. 

[2006Coltsbestever]

1 hour ago, NewColtsFan said:

Im not saying he won’t.  Im saying his contract would be WAY too much for the Colts.   I think the NT Wilkins is a good player, but to me he wasn’t worth the contract he was given.   
 

Ballard has always said he is fine with a Colts player being worth more to another team than to the Colts.   It’s also possible at some point, some level Ballard had interest in Sneed.   But at the final price it may have been too rich for CB.  
 

Im still very curious at what Ballard may do next week and the rest of the way.   I still believe there are players of interest to the Colts.   Nobody had heard of Ebukam and Autry and Ballard signed them.  
 

Have I been happy with every decision?  Not really,  but I want to see what happens the rest of the way before I pass judgement.  
 

 

Not really passing judgement and I even defend Ballard a lot on here but the facts are, he has done nothing to improve the Secondary. Maybe he will within the next week but I can only go by what he has done so far. I am glad Kenny is back, had we lost him this would be brutal.

[Breeze]

3 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

You know, it’s possible that the Titans made the wrong move tonight and the Colts made the right one.  
 

It’s possible.   

One things for certain.  We’ll get to learn whether Sneed is as good as this sub thinks, or whether he was a product of the Chiefs defense and matches his draft profile and pff scores as an average CB.

[jvan1973]

4 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

We don’t have enough money to sign Simmons. Ballard thinks having 50 million wrapped up in DT is good. Or overpaying a linebacker. He doesn’t jundrrstand premium positions.

Yes,  I'm sure he doesn't understand.   

[chad72]

6 hours ago, NorthernBlue said:

if he got sneed and the colts were still bad, he’d get fired anyways. So he’s sticking to his guns on his roster approach/philosophy. 

Like the (in)famous Matt Millen, former Detroit Lions GM said, “if you’re going to make mistakes, let them be your own”.  

[DoubleE Colt]

4 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

We don’t have enough money to sign Simmons. Ballard thinks having 50 million wrapped up in DT is good. Or overpaying a linebacker. He doesn’t jundrrstand premium positions.

There's no issue with the money if he wanted to sign Simmons......whether he wants to or not is a different matter but cap space isn't an issue if he really wants to.

[Indeee]

9 minutes ago, jvan1973 said:

Yes,  I'm sure he doesn't understand.   

I'm sure you are just fixating on the "understand" part of the response, however you kind of do this often towards those you disagree with or suggest things that you don't agree with either.

 

I think it might be time for you to read the room, as the room has now gotten larger with those who are finally waking up to what some of us have been saying about Ballard for years. 

 

He may understand, however there truly is a miss somewhere in his thinking/philosophy/approach. Whatever that may be, (fill in the blank)...it is hurting this team. 

 

I for one am pleased to see that a lot of the forum members really are starting to wake up. I'm just sad that it has taken 4-5 years for those fans to do so. 

 

 

 

 

[richard pallo]

6 hours ago, Restinpeacesweetchloe said:

I will laugh a little because we do forget we still have Kenny. He does play on the outside sometimes. Imagine if they hadn’t cut Rodger’s 

The thing is now the Chiefs have more cap space.  They lost their safety Edwards, who we brought in, to the Bills.  Now they can go out and sign Simmons, Diggs or even Blackmon.  You can’t make this % up. 

[HoosierHero]

I get not wanting to pay an aging pass rusher a big contract 

I get not wanting to pay lot of guarantee money to a cornerback with injury history 

What I don’t get is year in and year out putting so much pressure on the draft and these young 21-23 year olds to succeed. 

 

[RollerColt]

28 minutes ago, Indeee said:

I'm sure you are just fixating on the "understand" part of the response, however you kind of do this often towards those you disagree with or suggest things that you don't agree with either.

 

I think it might be time for you to read the room, as the room has now gotten larger with those who are finally waking up to what some of us have been saying about Ballard for years. 

 

He may understand, however there truly is a miss somewhere in his thinking/philosophy/approach. Whatever that may be, (fill in the blank)...it is hurting this team. 

 

I for one am pleased to see that a lot of the forum members really are starting to wake up. I'm just sad that it has taken 4-5 years for those fans to do so. 

 

 

 

 

4-5 years? So after just a few years as GM you were already done with him? 

[DoubleE Colt]

So help me out a bit here.......why didn't Chiefs want to keep hold of Sneed long term considering initially, his contract with the Titans looks not much different from what he would have got for the year on tag with them.....they said they were happy to keep him for the year on tag then basically traded him for not a lot.....I get they are tight against the cap but if they hadn't made a trade they would have had to have dealt with that anyway.

[RollerColt]

3 minutes ago, DoubleE Colt said:

So help me out a bit here.......why didn't Chiefs want to keep hold of Sneed long term considering initially, his contract with the Titans looks not much different from what he would have got for the year on tag with them.....they said they were happy to keep him for the year on tag then basically traded him for not a lot.....I get they are tight against the cap but if they hadn't made a trade they would have had to have dealt with that anyway.

Because maybe, just maybe, they viewed that he wasn’t as good as people are making him out to be. 

[GoColts8818]

Some Colts fans:  oh my god the Colts didnt give Sneed $19 million a year and $55 million guaranteed the Colts are doomed because Ballard won’t sign anyone.

 

Other Colts fans:  he could still sign someone like Simmons to a more reasonable contact.

 

previous Colts fans:  are you crazy the Colts don’t have salary cap room for that…

[ColtStrong2013]

6 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

4-5 years? So after just a few years as GM you were already done with him? 

I know people who switch spouses after a few years and cars every 6-9 months… Patience is a virtue and not common in the 21st century. 

[DoubleE Colt]

3 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

Because maybe, just maybe, they viewed that he wasn’t as good as people are making him out to be. 

Well there is that yes.......

[Indeee]

7 minutes ago, RollerColt said:

4-5 years? So after just a few years as GM you were already done with him? 

Yes. I saw it coming. Did not like his approach as it seemed like he was attempting to build a team from the late 80's early 90's. I have been on record many times and took a lot of beef over my take on his approach.

 

 

[ColtStrong2013]

12 minutes ago, HoosierHero said:

I get not wanting to pay an aging pass rusher a big contract 

I get not wanting to pay lot of guarantee money to a cornerback with injury history 

What I don’t get is year in and year out putting so much pressure on the draft and these young 21-23 year olds to succeed. 

 

I’m not sure that’s where the pressure is this year… It’s now on vets that were retained on big contracts and guys that have a year or two under their belts. I think this is a big year for the system. Hope it pays off. Draft should be a supplemental, picking up the most talent we can that can impact and filling some needs. Of course there are holes, everyone has them. They are putting pressure on AR, JT, Pitt and co to cover those up… We’ll see what they do in the next month to shore up the secondary…

1 minute ago, Indeee said:

Yes. I saw it coming. Did not like his approach as it seemed like he was attempting to build a team from the late 80's early 90's. I have been on record many times and took a lot of beef over my take on his approach.

 

 

what else did you see with your crystal ball? Dropping the ball on a division title in 2023? 

[GoColts8818]

2 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

I’m not sure that’s where the pressure is this year… It’s now on vets that were retained on big contracts and guys that have a year or two under their belts. I think this is a big year for the system. Hope it pays off. Draft should be a supplemental, picking up the most talent we can that can impact and filling some needs. Of course there are holes, everyone has them. They are putting pressure on AR, JT, Pitt and co to cover those up… We’ll see what they do in the next month to shore up the secondary…

Fans deciding the Colts have to win big this year or Ballard is fired.  Spoiler I don’t think Irsay sees it that way.

 

[Indeee]

16 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

I know people who switch spouses after a few years and cars every 6-9 months… Patience is a virtue and not common in the 21st century. 

Patience is fine when it pays off. Here it has not.

 

I would have gladly been wrong in my personal assessment of Ballard if his way would have succeeded. Why wouldn't I have been happy? It would have meant the Colts would be competing for championships practically every year, but they have not been. 

 

So, in this case, the coin flip landed on our side of thinking. 

[GoColts8818]

BTW the sun did come up this morning.   

[ColtStrong2013]

Just now, GoColts8818 said:

Fans deciding the Colts have to win big this year or Ballard is fired.  Spoiler I don’t think Irsay sees it that way.

I don’t think that’s the case either. But they all want to see things trending up. They set the bar higher than expected last year. 

[AwesomeAustin]

8 minutes ago, richard pallo said:

The thing is now the Chiefs have more cap space.  They lost their safety Edwards, who we brought in, to the Bills.  Now they can go out and sign Simmons, Diggs or even Blackmon.  You can’t make this % up. 

I think it says a lot the Chiefs were willing to part with a “top CB” for only a 3rd round pick and a pick swap.  Looking at his stats they are good and he is definitely a CB1 for a lot of teams. The chiefs are probably better served with current players and possibly using funds to shore up other positions like you have pointed out. For the amount of guaranteed money he just got, I think the Colts did well signing their own and moving on. I don’t think he was worth that contract when CB value seems high for where we are picking in the first round. My gut says the colts will be drafting a DB in the first two rounds. 

[Indeee]

8 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

I’m not sure that’s where the pressure is this year… It’s now on vets that were retained on big contracts and guys that have a year or two under their belts. I think this is a big year for the system. Hope it pays off. Draft should be a supplemental, picking up the most talent we can that can impact and filling some needs. Of course there are holes, everyone has them. They are putting pressure on AR, JT, Pitt and co to cover those up… We’ll see what they do in the next month to shore up the secondary…

what else did you see with your crystal ball? Dropping the ball on a division title in 2023? 

Whatever shot you are attempting to take, move along. Sometimes in life hunches turn out to be right, sometimes they don't. 

 

The sun will still shine regardless of how much shade you try to cast.

[ColtStrong2013]

3 minutes ago, Indeee said:

Whatever shot you are attempting to take, move along. Sometimes in life hunches turn out to be right, sometimes they don't. 

 

The sun will still shine regardless of how much shade you try to cast.

and the colts will continue to be patient regardless of the same shade you try to cast… 

[richard pallo]

As far as bringing in players from other teams Ballards biggest glowing achievement so far has been his trade for Buckner.  He acquired him and extended him with a new contract that no one can argue was a great move.  This lack of meaningful activity so far has me wondering if he has looking for a similar opportunity this year.  One player who would be available on the last year of his contract in a position of need is FS Budda Baker of the Cardinals.  He is in his prime at age 28 and would fall ideally into his MO for extending players three or four years.  He was unhappy last year and had requested a trade but the Cardinals gave him more guaranteed money to finish out his contract and that stopped the trade request.  They could extend him now but so far nothing.  I know it’s wishful thinking on my part but he’s made a move like this before so maybe it’s on the table again.  I just want a new quality starter to help the team.  I’m having a hard time being extremely patient.  Any meaningful move would make me feel better.  That is all.

[GoColts8818]

6 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

I don’t think that’s the case either. But they all want to see things trending up. They set the bar higher than expected last year. 

I want to see things trend up too.  I was just pointing out the flaw a lot of Colts fans have.  They decide on their own what’s going to happen regardless of history and when it doesn’t they get angry even though it was never going to happen in the first place.  Unless the Colts do something like go 0-17 with Richardson playing every snap Ballard probably isn’t getting fired at season’s end.  

[richard pallo]

6 minutes ago, AwesomeAustin said:

I think it says a lot the Chiefs were willing to part with a “top CB” for only a 3rd round pick and a pick swap.  Looking at his stats they are good and he is definitely a CB1 for a lot of teams. The chiefs are probably better served with current players and possibly using funds to shore up other positions like you have pointed out. For the amount of guaranteed money he just got, I think the Colts did well signing their own and moving on. I don’t think he was worth that contract when CB value seems high for where we are picking in the first round. My gut says the colts will be drafting a DB in the first two rounds. 

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that is going to happen.  Probably first round unless he brings in a new veteran starter before the draft.  And he still might depending on who is there when we pick.

[GoColts8818]

8 hours ago, Yoshinator said:

Thank you. I will sign it immediately.

You do whatever makes you feel better but Irsay isn’t going to fire Ballard because some fans are throwing a temper tantrum.  

[dw49]

18 minutes ago, GoColts8818 said:

Some Colts fans:  oh my god the Colts didnt give Sneed $19 million a year and $55 million guaranteed the Colts are doomed because Ballard won’t sign anyone.

 

Other Colts fans:  he could still sign someone like Simmons to a more reasonable contact.

 

previous Colts fans:  are you crazy the Colts don’t have salary cap room for that…

 

Ballard is not signing Simmons. take it to the bank. Look for a journeyman OL and maybe a DB that is not highly sought after. 

[GoColts8818]

1 minute ago, dw49 said:

 

Ballard is not signing Simmons. take it to the bank. Look for a journeyman OL and maybe a DB that is not highly sought after. 

You missed the point…

[RollerColt]

17 minutes ago, Indeee said:

Yes. I saw it coming. Did not like his approach as it seemed like he was attempting to build a team from the late 80's early 90's. I have been on record many times and took a lot of beef over my take on his approach.

 

 

Fair enough. Appreciate the honesty man. I haven’t agreed with his approach in terms of defense for years. 

[MikeCurtis]

15 minutes ago, DoubleE Colt said:

So help me out a bit here.......why didn't Chiefs want to keep hold of Sneed long term considering initially, his contract with the Titans looks not much different from what he would have got for the year on tag with them.....they said they were happy to keep him for the year on tag then basically traded him for not a lot.....I get they are tight against the cap but if they hadn't made a trade they would have had to have dealt with that anyway.

They have some huge contracts coming together over the next 2 years

 

It appears that they are keeping enough talent to win the Super bowl..... again....... This year

 

But they WILL have to pay the piper at some point

 

The Rams made a run, adding FAs to get the SB win, then they had to reload again

 

Its about timing

 

Going into this year,  and in the offseason, its clear that the Colts DONT see this year as the year to make 

that sort of run. And maybe that's ok.  I'm an impatient person. (One of my many flaws)

 

At some point, if you don't have the players at the key positions, your chances to win the SB are less

 

The Chiefs have drafted well. They have the stars without FA to win it all (And have done it)

 

My hope is that we get the needed players in the draft, so next year, we take the swing at any holes that we may have to make the SB run.

 

This team today, is missing

- Playmaking FS

- DE that gets pressures as well as sacks

     If I remember the article, D Hunter had 80 pressures last year, along with the great number of sacks

     which is well over 2X what Kwitty Paye had (I think we need "that guy" to make THIS defense work)

     Kwitty is improving, but he doesnt really keep the OC up at night

-  WR that can take the top off the defense, at any time.

-  Lastly a second, high impact zone CB

 

If we are lucky, we can get 2 of these 4 in the draft

 

If AR can stay healthy and grow as a QB, I think he is that guy at QB

 

Its a good team......  I hope we can turn the corner this year, get in the playoffs

 

Maybe the following year, we can take the big step after that

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dw49]

19 minutes ago, GoColts8818 said:

You missed the point…

 Didn't "miss the point " as your post is hardly above anyones comprehension level. I was just commenting to the your thought  that some Colt fans think Ballard might still sign Simmons. Comprende ?

[GoColts8818]

4 minutes ago, dw49 said:

 Didn't "miss the point " as your post is hardly above anyones comprehension level. I was just commenting to the your thought  that some Colt fans think Ballard might still sign Simmons. Comprende ?

You did miss the point.  The point was if fans feel they can’t afford Simmons or any other more reasonable priced free agent how on earth did they expect them to afford Sneed?  Simmons was just a name that had been used in the conversation where I drew it from.  It was not a post saying hey the Colts are going to sign Simmons so yes you missed the point.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

You have 3 to 4 years on a rookie QB contract to really go for a SB. Richardson already lost one to injury. The second is about to be lost because Ballard has failed the secondary. That takes us very close to year 3 already. Just wasting time.

[Restinpeacesweetchloe]

Truth hurts